 We've been sold a lie, you've been sold a lie, I've been sold a lie, we've all been sold a lie. No wonder why people are so stressed is because they're stuck in a reality that they do not want. Today we're going to be talking about how to escape the rat race. I feel that one of my duties on this earth is to wake people up from the sleep they tend to find themselves in by just doing what society tells them they're supposed to do. And I have been in the rat race for many years and I woke up one day and was in a, I would say a mild depression, hated where I was in life. Even though I was making a bunch of money and would be deemed as successful for my age, I wasn't stoked about it. I didn't want to be there anymore. And so I made a plan to get myself free of it. So if you're out there and you feel like you no longer want to be part of the rat race, this episode is for you. Let's dive in and talk about how to actually free yourself. The first thing I want you to realize is this. If you look at somebody that's fully present, right? Let's say like a one year old, a two year old, a three year old, they are the most present people in the world. They don't worry about the future. They don't think about what might be coming up down the road. Obviously they don't have bills to pay and all that stuff. But a one, two, three, maybe four year old, they are the most present people on this planet. But at one time, something has to happen in order for them to be thrown into being, I guess you could call it, I don't want to say even awoken. They're actually put to sleep in the fact that they are thrown into this dream of what we're supposed to do in society. And at some point in time, a carrot is introduced as you could say. A hypothetical carrot of, okay, you get into kindergarten and now you've got to be a good boy, be a good girl, make sure you get some grades so you can get into first grade. And so you have this carrot that's now presented. So if you know the story of the carrot between the donkey, either they're motivated by the stick, which is hitting them with the stick, or they're motivated by the carrot that's right in front of their face. So we're presented a carrot to kind of get us out of being present. And now we've got to stop thinking about this very moment that we're in. And we've got to start thinking about, oh, first grade, I've got to get good grades now so that I can get this thing later on down the road. And then in first grade, you've got to be a good boy and a good girl, and you've got to start taking some tests. And you've got to get better than everybody else so that you can get into second grade. And you want to be first in your class in third grade, so you've got to do better than everybody. And it's this constant, there's something else in front of me. Then after you get out of elementary school, then you got to get into middle school. When you're in middle school, that's when it starts ramping up, right? But you got to do good in sixth grade and to get into seventh grade and seventh grade to get into eighth grade. And it's a constant carrot that's put in front of us. And then when you're in middle school, you better do really well so you can get into high school. And you want to make sure you get into high school. And then when you're in high school, every single ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, you better do really good so you can get into college. Then you got to do really good so you can get into a good college, right? Are you seeing this carrot that's constantly dangled in front of us at one point in time? We have these fully present humans that are taken out of the present moment and told to focus on something in the future, right? So then you get into college and you get into a good college because you did really well because you were a good boy or good girl. Then you better do really well in college. Why? Because you want to get that dream job. And then when you get out of school and you get that quote unquote dream job, then you better do really well so you can climb the corporate ladder so you can finally have that income that you want. And then what happens, you wake up at 45 and you're like, what the fuck have I been doing with my life? I don't want any of this. And I'm stressed and I don't like where I am and I feel stuck. That's why there's something called a midlife crisis. Many people have a midlife crisis because they wake up at some point in time and realize what the hell have I been doing? Like this carrot that I've been following I didn't even know was in front of me. I didn't even know that's what I needed to do. I didn't even know that's what I was falling. I was being told what to do at all points in time. I've gotta get ahead. I've gotta climb the ladder. I've gotta get ahead. I've gotta climb the ladder. I've gotta get ahead. I've gotta climb the ladder. And people wake up and they're like, this isn't what I want. But the problem is we've been sold a lie. You've been sold a lie. I've been sold a lie. We've all been sold a lie. And the lie is, you know, you're supposed to work so that you can get something in a present or to get out of this present moment so that we can possibly have a better future. And then you get to that future and now you have another future you've got to work for. Then you get to that future and then you have another future that you have to work for. No wonder why people are so stressed is because they can't enjoy this one present moment where nothing is wrong. Everything is beautiful. Everything is amazing. The present moment that we're all in no matter what life circumstances you're stuck in right now, everything is beautiful right now, but we're told it's not good enough because there is a potential better future that we always have to be working for. And so people are stressed and they're anxious and they're depressed because they're constantly thinking about how this moment sucks compared to what the next moment could be or what I could have or the car or the job or the family. And then what happens is people wake up and then the issue is they can't get out of it, they don't think. They feel like they're stuck. They end up getting married. They end up getting a mortgage. They end up having a couple kids. They've got cars they've got to pay for. They've got car insurance they've got to pay for. They've got bills. They've got everything that has to be the lights, the electricity, the air conditioning, the water in the house. Everything has to be paid for and they feel stuck like they've literally dug themselves into a hole that they don't know how to get out of. No wonder why people are so stressed is because they're stuck in a reality that they do not want. Yeah, that sounds like it sucks. So what do you do? Well, with the feeling of being stuck, the way I like to talk about the rat race, Kevin O'Leary, the guy from the Shark Tank, they call him Mr. Wonderful, and he calls himself Mr. Wonderful in the Shark Tank, a quote that I love, he says, Salary is a drug that they give you to forget your dreams. It's a good one, right? Your salary is a drug that's given to you to forget your dreams, to forget about what it is that you truly want to do. But the beautiful thing about it is that no matter where you are, no matter how stuck you are or how stuck you might feel like you are, is a better way of putting it, you can always pull yourself out of it. You can always remove yourself from the rat race at any point in time if that's what you want to do. Or you can stay in the rat race but get a job that you actually enjoy. Maybe it pays a little bit less. Would it be better to love your life versus hating your life and make a $10,000 less a year? I don't know, I would think that it probably would be. So if you feel like you're stuck, realize, you're not stuck, you're not a tree. You can always make a move. Now, what stresses people out is they think that, oh my gosh, I'm in this job. I've come to realize that I don't want to be here. I need to get out as soon as possible. And they think they need to get out in like a week or two weeks or a month. And in reality, if you have a family, if you have kids, if you have bills to pay, you're not going to be able to leave most of the time in the next week or two. And so what I always recommend to people, if you want to remove yourself from this bullsh** rat race that we're sold into, as if that's what's going to truly make us happy, is to come up with a transition plan. Try to figure out how you can get out of the position that you're in in the next two to three years. Now automatically, if I say that to you guys, those of you guys who are thinking, oh my gosh, I gotta leave, I gotta leave, I gotta leave, do you feel a little bit more, okay, I don't think I could do it in the next month, but I think that I could figure out a way to get it done in the next two years. Yeah, you definitely can. You come up with a transition plan. That's why people are always stressed because they can't stop moving. They can't stop moving. And they think, oh my gosh, I've got to move immediately. I've got to get out of this immediately because we've been sold that idea of a better future coming to us later on down the road. And then we get to that quote unquote better future that we are waiting for. And you're like, this future isn't great. This isn't the future that I wanted. Now I'm stuck here, right? So if you look ahead to your future and say, okay, if I were to remove myself from the rat race in two years from today, how would I do it? And you start coming up with a plan. And I've done this with many of my old one-on-one clients. When I used to do one-on-one coaching, I don't do one-on-one coaching. I don't have the time to. I coach in groups. When I used to do one-on-one coaching is I would work with people who literally had jobs. They were stuck in corporate America. They were making 80, 100, $150,000 a year. Good money. $60,000 a year sometimes. And the idea was how do we build you a business outside of that business or outside of your current job that you can start growing over the next two years? Because all you really need to do to leave is to be able to first cover your bills. So then what you got to think of is how much are my bills? Are my bills that I can't move that I know I've definitely got? Is it 2,000 a month? Is it 3,000 a month? 4,000? Whatever it is, that's the number I've got to get to and be able to cover in order to be able to leave. Because then when I leave and I get 40 or 50 hours of my life back, that's when my business can really start to explode. You have to realize that you can't enjoy a future moment presently if you can't learn to enjoy this present moment right now. So if you're constantly thinking, oh my gosh, I've got to do this. I've got to get the new job. I've got to create another business. First off, before you ever make any changes, any transition plans, all of that stuff, what you have to do, absolutely have to do, is learn to appreciate and love and be grateful in this present moment. Because that's what's really going to help you. So don't think, oh my gosh, I hate my job. I've got to figure it out over the next two years and then you go into your job the next two years because you haven't transitioned yet and you hate every single moment of it. No, you can still be grateful. You can be grateful for a job that you hate. It might take a little bit of work, but it's possible. Oh my gosh, what can you be grateful for? I'm able to feed my children. Maybe I'll put clothes on their back. I'm able to have a car that I enjoy. Whatever it is, there's ways to be grateful in every single thing that you do. So be grateful while you are transitioning out of this current position, which is important. If you're thinking about maybe I should leave, maybe I should and I'm not really sure what I should do, what I want to ask you is this, if you were to fast forward 10 years, if you were to stay where you currently are, maybe get a promotion or two and fast forward 10 years. 10 years from today is that where you want to be. Just think about that for a second. For me, when I decided to leave corporate, I was just sick of working for someone else and I was impassioned by what I did. I made great money, but it was just like, it was soul-sucking to me is the way I felt. I was thinking, okay, if I fast forward 10 years from today, I'd probably been making $250,000, $300,000 a year. I'd probably have a nice house. I'd probably have a nice office. I'd be spending 50, 60 hours of my life under fluorescent lights in a button-down shirt when I don't even like dressing up. And I started looking at it and I was like, me in the corporate world, if I'm 45 years old in a leather chair wearing a button-down, telling people what to do and spending 60 hours under fluorescent lights, making a couple hundred grand a year, it doesn't sound exciting to me. I'm not like, oh yeah, that's a hell yeah for me. And I always say, in life, if it's not a f***, yes, it's automatically a f***, no. So if my 10 years from today fast forward, if your 10 years from today and whatever job you have, if you fast forward and put 10 years into work and see where you are, if it's not a f*** for you, that means that you need to get out of it and try to figure out some way to move. So let's talk about how to escape this rat race that we're talking about. If you're being woken up, if you're sitting there going, yeah, this is definitely resonating. I definitely feel this. What's next? If you don't want to be there, you want to think about what you want to be doing. It's okay to move to another job. You don't have to run a million-dollar business. So if you're out there, you can switch from one job that you don't enjoy to one job that you do enjoy. Maybe it pays you the same, maybe it pays you less, maybe it pays you more. I don't know what it is. But I would rather you go and spend the majority of your waking hours, which is what we do. Working is the thing that we do, the majority of waking hours. I'd rather you enjoy the majority of your waking hours versus not enjoy the majority of your waking hours and not torture yourself to go there. As I said, I recommend creating a two-year transition plan. If you fast-forward two years, what do you want to be doing? How do you want to be doing it? How much money do you want to be making? All of that stuff. So step number one, I'm going to give you four different steps. Step number one is you have to decide what it is that you actually want. So a lot of times, people don't know what they want, but they know what they don't want, and they don't want to be where they currently are. They don't want to stay in this position. They don't want to be in this position 10 years from today. So number one is you got to decide what it is that you want. If you don't know what it is that you want, the first question is how do you want to feel? So when you wake up and you're about to go to work, whatever that work is, either working for someone else or working for yourself, how do you want to feel? That's the first place to start. Do you want to feel free? Do you want to feel happy? Do you want to be excited to wake up? Do you want to be grateful? Make a list of everything that you want to feel when you wake up in the morning, five years from today. How do you want to feel? Start there, and then you start asking yourself, what makes me feel that way? How could I create a job or move into a job that would make me feel that way? You know, I'd much rather you work, if you're making 60 grand a year right now, and you're working as an accountant, and you don't want to be there in 10 years. I'd much rather you work, you know, if you love plants, to work at a plant store, you know, working full-time, hourly, and make 40, 45 grand a year. Because at least you're going to be happier. And here's the crazy thing about it. I'm going to talk about downgrading, if it's necessary. Sure, you can downgrade if necessary, but what's really crazy is that once you actually step into this flow of doing what it is that you want, it's kind of like the universe comes on your side and you start making more money, but let's just say that doesn't happen. You start making less. Wouldn't it be better for your children to see a parent that's not exhausted every single time they come home and doesn't have a short temper every single time they come home because they've been pushed around at this job as an accountant that they don't want to be anymore? And they can see something that they love doing? Would it be better for your children to be around that? I would say so. It's not worth an extra $10,000 a year, plus take, you know, 30% out of it for taxes, $7,000 a year, just to be able to, you know, buy a couple extra pairs of shoes every single year, drive a little bit nicer car. So think about that, you know. Decide what is it you want. Decide how you want to feel, and then start to figure out what it is that would make you feel that way. So that's step number one. Step number two is to get on the old, powerful Google and start actually researching some stuff of how to make money. The way that I learned how to make money online is literally becoming obsessed about how to make money online. I went online. I started Googling it. I went into YouTube. I went to conferences. I started going to networking events. I started going to meetups just to meet people that are like that. But it all came because first off, I started on Google and said, what is it that I want to figure out? I know how I want to feel. I don't know how I'm going to feel this way. Let me go ahead and Google it. And so what you do is you Google it and then you just try some of those things. Try new things. See what it is that you want to do. That's step number two. Step number three is to connect with other people in that industry. So if you decide that you want to be in the plant industry, like I'm just saying, how can you go to other conferences? I'm sure there's plant conferences. I guarantee that if you Google plant conferences, United States 2022 or 2021, you're going to come up with something. There's conferences for literally everything. So start connecting with other people. Are there networking groups in your area? Are there places you can go to? Stores you can go to? Are there nurseries for plants that you can go to and actually see what they're doing around there? Just start being around other people who are in that industry. It makes transitioning into that industry a lot easier when you start to know people. So conferences, YouTube, Google, networking events, meetups, stores, whatever it is that you want to do, figure it out. That's step number three. Connect with other people in the industry. Step number four, start making a plan. All right. Now I've decided how I want to feel. I've decided what I want to do. I've come up with a little bit of plan on how to do it. I've met some people who are doing it. Now I'm going to sit down and I'm going to write myself a detailed plan of the date that I'm going to be leaving my job. This is what I had every one of my clients do when they used to do this with them. I need a definite date you're leaving that job. No matter what, it's the fan. You get hit by a truck. You're leaving August 14th, 2023, whatever it is for you. What is the date that you're going to be leaving? And now that you figured out a date, start figuring out a plan. Okay. On the weekends, I'm going to do this. Three times a week, I'm going to do this. And you start coming up with a plan to actually start transitioning. I need to make $4,000 a month in order to be able to cover my bills. And so this is how I'm going to come up with $4,000 a month and start coming up with a plan because then when you see this plan, you realize it's not as hard as you thought it was because when it's in your head, the thinking and the plan is in your head, it's very abstract. It's hard to come up with the exact way to do it. When you write it down, you can see it on paper and you come up with a plan. You go, you know what? I can do this. And I'm going to do this. So ultimately, those are the four steps to remove yourself from the rat race. I want you to realize this. Don't live your life. If you're currently in this position where this episode woke you up in some sort of way, I've had so many people. I mean, so many people message me and tell me that I've told them, you know, I helped them quit their job in some sort of way. I never met them, but somehow I helped them quit their job in some sort of way. I've helped so many people do this. Don't live the rest of your life working for someone that you don't want to work for, doing something that you don't want to do. You spend the majority of your waking hours doing that. Start coming up with a plan and start extracting yourself from the rat race. And this is a four-step plan of how to do it. Hey, thanks so much for watching this video. If you want to learn even more about Master Your Mind, click right here and watch this video as well. If somebody stops quote-unquote loving you because you have grown into a better version of yourself, you've brought out more potential because you've stopped playing small because you've stopped dimming your flame and you've put your light as bright as you possibly could, if they stop quote-unquote loving you, they never loved you in the first place.