Think Like a Rat

We talk about “being in the rat race,” but this is probably unfair. It’s actually demeaning to the rats. Rats won’t stay in a race when it’s obvious there’s no cheese. The popular little book Who Moved My Cheese showed how even smart rats quickly look for new routes to follow when the cheese is gone. Humans, on the other hand, seem to often get themselves into traps from which they never escape. Some research shows that up to 70 percent of white-collar workers are unhappy with their jobs – ironically, they are also spending more and more time working.

Jan Halper, a Palo Alto psychologist, has spent ten years exploring the careers and emotions of over 4,000 male executives. He found that 58 percent of those in middle management felt they had wasted many years of their lives struggling to achieve their goals. They were bitter about the many sacrifices they had made during those years.

Just recently I had an attorney tell me she feels like a prostitute. She said that in exchange for every nice paycheck, she had given up her soul and her life. Each week I talk to individuals who feel trapped in their current work. They talk about being demeaned, belittled, and emotionally abused. And yet they stay, hoping against all odds that things will magically improve. Some seem to take a martyr’s attitude that God is working something out or that Satan is mercilessly attacking them.

Rats, however, move on once they realize the cheese is gone or perhaps was never there. Rats would probably be embarrassed to be labeled “being in the human race” for doing ridiculous things like continuing to go to a job that they hated every day. Take action to move toward whatever is pure, good, and honorable – in your life and in your work.

Source:  Dan Miller