How to Escape the Rat Race: The 5 Steps Workbook

Everyone on this beautiful planet has the power within them to succeed in whatever endeavours they set their mind on, and that includes escaping the rat race.

In this 5 step guide, I will take you through the process of creating Clarity in your life so you can escape the rat race starting today.

The steps are:

•         Step 1: Determine which things you definitely don’t want in your life.

•         Step 2: Determine which things you definitely do want in your life.

•         Step 3: Define what an ideal day would look like for you.

•         Step 4: Let's talk about money.

•         Step 5: Framing

As we go through them together, you will see how all this ties together and why they are in this specific order.

Escaping the Rat Race: Step 1

What you don’t want!

We will start the process by first thinking about everything you don’t want in your life.

Take as long as you need to list everything you do not want in your life. Do not think about this too much.

Write what pops into your head. Make as long a list as you need.

Escaping the Rat Race: Step 2

Let’s shift 180 degrees and focus on what you want.

It is essential to stay away from money. There will be time for this later.

Here’s what you need to do:

Make a long list of everything that you do want in your life. Again, take your time with this.

Just write down whatever pops into your head.

Escaping the Rat Race: Step 3

It is now time to use this information to construct a perfect day in your ideal life.

“The reason being is that an ideal life is made up of many ideal days."

“What would your perfect normal day look like? What would your perfect normal day look like if there were no limitations on what it could be?”

Definitions:

Perfect – a day that delivers as many of those things you have identified in what you want while avoiding as many (if not all) those things you’ve listed that you don’t want.

Normal – a day that isn’t a one-time event but a routine day in your ideal life. So, no meeting your favourite pop star, partying in Saint Tropez, or anything other than what’s routine.

No Limitations—Forget about your current responsibilities, obligations, and any and all physical constraints (money, job, business, etc.). If you could live your life in any way you wanted, leave all that behind you.

Many people freeze up when they attempt to write out their ideal day, so I found that it is easier to answer questions that lead to having everything done. It should take you less than 30 minutes to complete this.

When you think of this perfect day, be very specific, extremely detailed and precise, let’s start:

Overall Lifestyle questions:

Where do you live (city, town, countryside, on the water in the mountains, which country?)

What do you live in? (an apartment, house, mansion, penthouse, a yacht, farm, villa)

Who are your friends? (what are they like, what do you do together and what do you talk about)

What hobbies do you have, and how often do you do them?

What do you do for personal fulfilment?

Describe your relationship with your spouse (and children) what do you do together?

How much time do you spend together?

Your Job or Business:

How many hours a day do you work?

What are your primary responsibilities?

What do you do whilst working?

What hours do you work?

When do you start and finish?

Describe your work environment (home, office etc)

Talk about your work colleagues or team, how do they make you feel?

What about your work makes you proud?

Your day:

What time do you wake up?

Let’s break your day into four-hour intervals:

How, where, what and with whom do you spend the first quarter of your day?

How, where, what and with whom do you spend the second quarter of your day?

How, where, what and with whom do you spend the third quarter of your day?

How, where, what and with whom do you spend the fourth quarter of your day?

By answering the above questions, you will be able to clarify your vision of the life you want and create a clear picture of your ideal day.

Escaping the Rat Race Step 4: Let’s Talk About Money

Let’s talk about money; when I ask people about their financial goals, most have arbitrarily picked numbers that do not mean much to them.

Quick tip:

When you consider how you would spend money, it’s much easier to come up with the figure you require to make each month to live the life you just described.

How much will the ideal life you just articulated cost to achieve and sustain?

How much monthly income would you need to live 30 ideal days a month? Or 365 days a year?

How much would it take to live those ideal daily days:

Escaping the Rat Race: Step Five

Now that we have defined your ideal day and life and the monthly income required to live that life, we can create the proper outcome that is written properly and visualised properly, and then we will get into some action-taking.

OK, let’s answer a couple more questions:

What evidence is there going to be that you have accomplished your goal?

Next question:

What reward are you going to create for yourself when you get what you wanted?

Moving on to the next question:

Where are you when you accomplish your goal:

Here is an example:

It is time-based, present-tense, and described using the five senses; after you have read this, I will give you a process so that you can take it and place your goal into the future.

The actual outcome that I wrote back in 1997, here goes:

I, Mike Ruffles, am sitting in the salon of Ruffles Spray, thinking have I completed all the things on my list before the launch.

I’ve crossed out the final item on the list and can hear Ann calling, “The travel hoist is on its way.”

As I sit on my yacht in the boatyard, I lift my head and stare at the rumbling noise of the travel hoist. I can feel the gentle breeze across my face, and I hear my dog Ellie move around in the cockpit and watch her lie down beside my feet. I can hear seagulls calling out as they fly overhead.

I feel a tingling at the back of my neck as the travel hoist rounds the corner. I think back over the last five years. I can’t believe how rewarding it is to finish Ruffles Spray, and she is finally being launched.

To reward myself, I’ve booked a 5-star hotel in South Wales for three nights, with full pampering sessions for my Ann and me. I also booked the restaurant to enjoy a famous chef's dinner menu for Saturday evening. I can smell the ocean air, I look at the waters of Milford Haven and smile.

Have you noticed that when I described that goal, you had to visualise it? If you write down a goal in a way that requires you to visualise it, you automatically have to see yourself accomplishing the goal in order to even read it.

That is how to do it. That is the correct way to do it.

Ok, so what is the formula again:

“You write in first person present tense, visually, auditory, kinesthetically descriptive.”

Please do it now.

Escaping the Rat Race: Step 5 Framing

Okay, I am going to take you through a process of placing this goal in the future of your life, in the future of your timeline.

Whatever your evidence is, see yourself there. See it in your mind.

I want you to see where you are at.

Feel your surroundings.

Feel the chair you are sitting on.

Feel the wind or the sun on your face, arms, and legs.

Hear the traffic noise coming through the window or see the wind blowing the trees outside.

Maybe you are in your house.

Feel the carpet under your feet.

See your cat or dog jumping up or rubbing against you.

See the people around you, your wife, husband, and children.

Get that image clear in your mind.

That is you down there accomplishing your goal.

Now, take that picture and place it in a frame as if it were a picture frame. As if it is a picture with a frame around it.

Now, grab it with your hands and imagine yourself floating with it in your hands.

Most people see time like this:

The future is to the right, and the past to the left.

Some see time with the future ahead and the past behind, it doesn’t matter how you see it, just imagine yourself floating in time.

Now, place that frame right there.

You are accomplishing that goal one year from now.

Now, fly back from that day in the future and fly back to the now.

To the today. See it every day for the next year. Do it every day.

Watch for the road signs. Adjust your course and take massive action.