“I looked at my driver, and thought he is enjoying my dream car, and he is much happier than I am. I knew at that moment I had to get out of this rat race. “Sanjay Narang, Once Mumbai’s hottest hotelier. (Brunch, dt. 19th Nov 2017).
Today is the International Men’s Day. The rat race is a part of the most manhood.
One thing we men really need to think and ponder over on the occasion of the International Men’s Day is: How do we escape the rat race? Our happiness is largely dependent on our participation and pace in the rat race. Our efforts of happiness while in the rat race will be mostly futile.
Definition of rate race: A way of life in which people are caught up in a fiercely competitive struggle for wealth or power.
Declan Wilson, who left his job in June this year writes, it is possible to leave the rat race but not for the normal person. You need to be an outlier. He recommends five ways one can escape the rat race;
- Live like you don’t know when (and where) your next paycheck will come from
- Believe you can actually make money on your own without having to show up and sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week
- Work outside normal working hours
- Wake up on Monday morning with a purpose
- Adopt a value-creation mindset
Men join the rat race from the school days. Struggle for percentage, college admission in preferred college, job and salaries, comparison and competition of who is earning more, FOBO and FOMO; everything is making a man to not only run the rat race but to run it faster.
The casualty is early heart disease, diabetes, depression, obesity, gastrointestinal problems, backache, frustration, and depression.
In her article 8 Types of Work-Related Stress, the author Kristin Koch has profiled 8 kinds of people traits and the problem with each of the profiles.
On the International Men’s Day, it would be ideal for every man to take the stock of our rat race participation, reflection on the life goals, our health, and relationships.
Pause, reflect and change the course of your life if necessary, is the best way to celebrate International Men’s day.
“Only when manhood is dead – and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it – only then will we know what it is to be free.” Andrea Dworkin.
wethecouple.com 