To get out of what? Any box, trap, prison, chain, or handcuff that is causing you pain, discomfort, boredom, or anything else that you don’t want or like. It could be your dead-end job, an unhealthy relationship, a failing business, a commitment you no longer want, or a blog that is going nowhere.
Everything you do has a price. Everything you don’t do has a price. There is no free lunch no matter what many in our modern world think you can get for free. You pay a price to change and you pay a price to maintain the status quo. The price you pay may be in the form of money, time, stress, health, a confrontation, loss of friendship, loss of material things, or anything else for which you have value.
The price you pay to stay imprisoned in your trap is usually much more expensive than the price to get out. If you choose to leave your dead-end job you will pay a price, but you are paying a price to stay in it. You are paying the price of wasting your life on something you don’t enjoy. You are paying the price of foregoing other opportunities that you don’t have time or resources to undertake because you are using them up in your current job.
You are paying a price to stay in an unhealthy relationship. Many people are afraid to end a relationship because they are horrified by the imagined price they will have to pay to get out. What they don’t truly see is the horrible price they are paying to stay in it.
To me the best approach is to just rip off the band aid – pay the price and be free as quickly as possible. Take the temporary and possibly intense pain of the rip and get out. Then you are free of the slow burning pain and free to get on with your new great life. Prolonging the problem by refusing to pay the price will cost you far more in the long run. People stay in bad jobs or relationships for years and the price they eventually pay to get out is far worse than the price they would have paid earlier. They’ve also lost the opportunity to build something valuable in the meantime. Don’t make that mistake!
How to Pay the Price For Freedom
Identify the the trap
Whatever is holding you back, there is always a way to get out of it. Some common examples of these:
- A job you don’t want
- Unhealthy relationships
- Poor Health
- Commitments
- Debt
- Urban congestion
- Burdensome relatives
- Clutter
- Previous investments
- Lack of discretionary income
- Guilt
- Boredom
- Fear
Calculate the price to get out
If you want to be free from debt so you can unlock the golden handcuffs, then figure out what you have to do to be debt free. You may have to sell your home or car and take a loss. You may have to dig into savings. The price may seem horrendously high to you but then what is the price you will pay to stay chained to your mortgage for the next 30 years? What about the pain of that price?
If you want to be free from an unhealthy relationship, you may have to suffer the disapproval of relatives, the drama of a breakup, the pain of child-support, or the pain of the loss of a long-term relationship. It may seem horrible, but what is the price you will pay to stay?
Whatever the case, get clear in your mind exactly what it will cost to gain freedom and what it will cost to maintain the pain.
I don’t dispute that there may be times that the price is too high, but those cases are the rare exception. It is almost always case that the price to get out is much lower than the price to maintain. If you find the price is higher than you are willing to pay, then get creative. Keep looking for alternatives. Don’t assume your first idea is the only one. There is almost always an alternative available that will be worth the price in the long run.
Imagine what you will do with your new freedom
It is very important to understand what you will gain when you pay the price to get free. You will likely underestimate the value of your freedom. Most people have no idea what it is like to be free and what they will do when they are free. If you gain freedom from debt you may be able to quit the job you hate and devote your time to your true life purpose and passion. Figure it out. Don’t just quit your job and then sit at home and watch TV with no idea what you are going to do next.
Pay the price and be free
Imagine paying the price to get out over and over. Visualize it until it no longer seems so bad. Then pay it and get it over with. Rip off the band aid.
Don’t get sucked into the mistake of taking the pain of the status quo for granted while imagining horrible price to gain your freedom. You almost always underestimate the price of maintaining and overestimate the price of freedom. It is the fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar that scare you. It’s not that your current situation is comfortable, it is just familiar. It’s the fake comfort of bearable pain that exists in your familiar zone.
You do not have to suffer the chronic problems that most of the world takes for granted and lives with on a daily basis. You can be free if you are willing to pay the price. Remember you are paying a price either way.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Tagged as: escape rat race, freedom, Happiness