To What Extent Does Someone Else Own Your Life?

I was with one of my oldest friends just the other day – she called me because she wanted to talk as she had come to a very important realisation.  On the surface she has it all, great job with a good salary, the recognition and respect from her colleagues, manager and company, a good career progression and great prospects.  But, and this is the biggie – She realised that in having the great job/career with a good salary etc. that her employer just about owned her life.  She was a fully paid up member of the rat race and now she realised this she wanted out.

She no longer felt she had control over what happened in her life & because she was working such long hours she felt like she lived at work.  She no longer had the time or energy to enjoy her money, she did not get to spend quality time at home being just herself or even with her family.  She was expected to not only do her own job but then had to often cover for colleagues, or had to drive long distances to attend meetings (in her own time) or ended up spending the precious time she managed to get at home planning something else for ‘work’. 

In short the money she earned very quickly began to look like a pretty duff deal for all the hours she spent working jolly hard.  This realisation did not happen overnight it was more like a slow dawning then one day she saw the big picture.  When she did see it she felt submerged a bit like she was drowning and did not know how to swim to the surface because of the weight of the water on top of her and the weights were pulling down at her feet. This was the point she knew she had to change & she said to me ‘I am ready to change because this is my life & I want to begin to enjoy it and own it as mine!’.

I know that this is no isolated case as every single week I speak to people who are now ready to move their lives to a place where they ‘own’ it & ‘enjoy’ it – they want to quit the rat race.  By taking that first decision to change the hardest part has been done because the mindset has been changed at a very deep level and the energy to commit to change is now there. Once the realisation hits then there is no going back and you just cannot wait to move forwards to the change and all that it brings with it.

Brigitte Mehr is an internet Marketing success coach specialising in Marketing Training & Education