Escaping the Daily Grind
We found ourselves stuck in a monotonous routine. Waking up early, rushing to work, commuting through traffic, spending nine hours at the office, and then heading home to cook dinner and clean up. Our evenings were short-lived before it was time for bed. Eat, sleep, work, repeat. We were deeply unsatisfied with this lifestyle and knew we were on the verge of breaking free from routine.
“Job is an acronym for ‘Just Over Broke.’ ”
– Robert Kiyosaki
Seeking Inspiration and Change
At some point, we had already been exploring other options, so we read and digested numerous books. One infamous book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki, made the most significant impact on us. Kiyosaki uses a story to tell extremely powerful lessons, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. We started to realise that we were getting swallowed up in the rat race, and we wanted out. Excited to make a change but also completely overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task. Paralysed with procrastination for some time although we didn’t give up. Instead, we kept going forward and pursued further learning through groups, audiobooks, TED talks, YouTube videos, and more.
Embracing Small Changes and Positive Habits
We began making small, daily changes and building small positive habits. By this point however, we realised that without goals, we were just drifting with no direction. After thinking long and deep, we finally documented some goals that we would pursue, whatever happens. We made sure that every decision we made, big or small, was aligned with our new dream lifestyle and goals we documented. From small things like choosing whether to go out with friends for the fourth time this month or questioning if having pizza again this week is a wise choice for our bodies and minds or to decide whether it is a good option to binge watch 4 seasons of ‘The Walking Dead’ series this weekend. At that point, we had taken control again and had already started using our brains in a way that was now helping us. We were no longer giving up and letting our brain be lazy and sabotage our new life goals.
Developing Beneficial Habits
Habits can be formed in as little as 21 days. Introducing a new habit could be as simple as dedicating 60 minutes each day to learning, reading, or working on a business idea. By doing this you will be breaking free from routine and over the course of a year, that’s 365 hours of progress! We’ll have a separate post about creating good habits and breaking bad ones.
Creating a Solid Plan and Staying Motivated
Surprisingly, we realised that if you keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving, you have a distinct better chance of actually arriving at your destination. Shock horror I know. Well it’s the same with other aspects of life – by keeping our goals in sight, it distinctly improves our chances of success. This spurred us on to create dream boards filled with inspiring images related to our short-term and long-term goals. As well as having these on the wall in our bedroom we also set these images as backgrounds on our phones for a constant reminder, particularly effective when having a bad day at work! To then stay on track, we also set weekly goals aligned with our larger goals and logged our progress in a journal or calendar. Tracking our progress helped us stay motivated and focussed on our objectives.
Balancing Work and Play
Don’t forget to plan rewards for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. In order to recharge our batteries, we would treat ourselves to a spa day, a meal out, or another relaxing activity to rejuvenate our energy and motivation. The rewards were always to not only take our minds off both our 9-5 jobs, but also to take our minds off our personal growth mission. It is important to fully relax else you will not revitalise properly. Striking the right balance between work and play is essential for staying on track and enjoying the journey toward a more fulfilling life.
Actionable Takeaway
To recap, here’s a few actionable ideas to try for yourself if you want to start breaking free from routine and getting our of the rat race and start making steps towards your own goals and dream life:
- Read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book by Robert Kiyosaki.
- Avoid procrastination and keep moving ahead, progress always beats perfectionism.
- Document life goals and a dream lifestyle.
- Consider questioning how is best to spend your time, after all, you can’t get it back.
- Start introducing good habits.
- Journal your progress. Without tracking, it’s difficult to know whether you are moving or forward.
- Plan suitable ways to reward yourself when you make progress.
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