In the loop of Rat Race

Imagine a scene of a racecourse where rats are running in a race, they are running fast. Their goal is to reach that big pile of cheese, whoever gets there first will have the most amount of cheese. To achieve that, all of them are trying to surpass the other. Yeah, that’s pretty much what a rat race looks like except that there isn’t a pile of cheese but the luxurious lifestyle which is the goal, there aren’t the rats which are competing, it’s the PEOPLE who are trying to surpass each other.

How funny it is that there are no rats in the rat race we are running in. it gets funnier when I say that most of us are in that rat race for all our life… Now if that race is so long that we are running it all our lives than why is it not called Rat Marathon instead of the rat race?

At some point in life, we became the part of this race unknowingly. We became the part because we followed the people that were there before us, doing this was common because everybody is doing it.

Alright! Let me buckle my shoes and run! Yeah! That’s fun!

Okay… now I am getting a little tired.

What now? I am running for so long but why? We never asked ourselves about this.

The faster we are running in this, the more we prioritize our wants over our needs. Ask yourselves… does this tradeoff of wants and needs even make sense? NO! Absolutely not!

We are just fighting to be more privileged than the one who is running beside us. In a race or in a competition the rules are fair and equal for every participant…but is this race fair and equal? We all are special and beautiful in our own ways… how come we measure our success with one single standard? How can we measure our happiness by the car we own or by the house we live in? The answer was always in front of us but lest we bothered to look at it.

If I label rat race as the root of all problems of the world it would not be wrong. The moment we perceive that we are in a competition the next thing we want is to win but at what cost?

"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat" - Lily Tomlin

I am not saying that is bad to go after your dreams, we all have different dreams we all have different paths…a win for me is not a defeat for anyone, I win alone and nobody loses. There is no comparison if we follow the above mindset. The key to growth is to think that there is always room for improvement but your growth doesn’t need that comparison. If we keep comparing ourselves, we should know that there will always be someone better. The key to growth should be our ambition but, this ambition should also be regulated. We should not overdo things, it is important to know that materialism makes us addicted to it after some point. After that no matter how much you do, your soul will always crave for more. This will cause us to lose our passion and destroy the charm of those dreams.

Here are a few thoughts that I adopted and you can adopt too to abandon this rat race and strive for growth without trading off your happiness and peace of mind:

1. I win alone, nobody loses.
2. I am a team player, I will look after those in need.
3. I know when to stop, I know that at some point I will start to overdo things.
4. Materialistic things are not a measure of my success, success is how satisfied I am with myself.

 

We are stuck so deep in the quicksand of the rat race that it is really difficult to abandon it completely once and for all. The process is difficult, you will face challenges. I am trying myself to get out of this since my second year at university, I haven’t had complete success yet but I am trying. I believe that rather than worrying about those challenges we should make this process memorable and full of lessons so that we enjoy this sinusoidal journey of self-improvement and breaking that infinite loop.

*Suggestions & Constructive Criticism is always welcomed*