Quite a

 few people have asked me how I managed to escape the “9 to 5″ rat race. Well to tell you the truth is wasn’t any one event, I didn’t get fired, I wasn’t laid off and I wasn’t forced into this industry because it was my only option. My life is what it is right now because of many small events that have happened over the course of a few years.

There was however ONE specific moment where I made a conscious decision to do something different and I remember it as if it happened yesterday. Today I want to tell you about that EXACT moment and 
hopefully give you a little bit of inspiration if you are in a place where you feel like things HAVE TO CHANGE and you want MORE 
out of life.

rat race –noun Informal.

any exhausting, unremitting, and usually competitive activity or routine, esp. a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure, contemplation, etc.

It happened in an instant…

Like almost every other day, I was sitting at my desk looking out the window on a beautiful afternoon that was like every other one for the past 6 years. This was my first professional, corporate job. 

I had just spent the last six hours talking to clients, solving their technical problems and making sales. It was weird because I had talked about being unhappy at my job before but on this particular day something so strong had moved in me that it almost 

scary. It was as if in that very instant…I had just released all the anger I had about being stuck in a job I didn’t have any passion for, all the anxiety that was paralyzing me because I was scared to leave (it paid very well) and all the guilt I felt because I had a job that any other person would have done back-flips to have.

I realized that I did not want to look back and regret my life. Every work day I would drag  my butt out of bed, drive to work pissed off, and sit at a job that brought me ZERO satisfaction! 

Then I would go home, tend to the house, cook dinner, maybe spend time with my husband depending on his work schedule and then I’d prepare for 
another fun-filled day. It was like a bad dream that never ended. I was in the Twilight Zone. 

I felt LIED to, like I had been TRICKED and the joke was on me.  Like many people, I did everything I was  ‘supposed’ to do. I got good grades in high school, was a well-rounded student-athlete, went to college, 
and then graduated with a degree in Biochemistry. I even spent a few years traveling the world running as a professional track and field athlete, 

and was blessed to be able to run in the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. But at the end of it all, after all of this hard work I was smack dab in the middle of this crappy, unfulfilled existence where I 
obsessively watched the clock, counting down the minutes to when I would 
be  FREE to do what I wanted.

So as I was sitting at my desk, I made a decision…

I was NOT going to live a life of unhappiness.  PERIOD. I was done. It was time to escape the rat race. While I had absolutely NO 
clue how it would happen, I decided I would create a life 
filled with happiness. 

I had made that decision with calm and ease. Now I knew 
I had to get up the next morning and go right back to work but I also knew without a shadow of a doubt that my life was going to be changing…REALLY soon. This was TWO years ago. 

Right now, I can honestly say my life is amazing!

 No I’m not saying things have been easy. In fact, I have been working harder than I ever have in my life, and I have made a number of personal sacrifices to get to where I am right now. But what’s different now is that I am working with a purpose and a passion. Living life on my own terms.

So this is my point…

I don’t know your situation and I don’t know where you are in your journey called life. Maybe you’re  happy where you are, maybe you’re happier and more
 successful than me. But my guess is you’re like a lot of 
people. You desire more in your life, but you don’t know where
 to start. 

In my opinion, it starts with a simple decision.

  You
 have two choices:

 ONE, you can keep living how you’re currently living, doing what you’re currently doing, and getting the same results.

..or 

TWO, you can decide that you’re going to
 be the captain of your OWN ship, see the world how you want to see it and DO something different. The choice is simple and the choice is  YOURS to make. Each and every day we’re given a chance to create our perfect day, stir things up in our lives. 

Maybe today is that day for you. 

I’m not suggesting you go out and quit your job tomorrow. Instead,
 I encourage you to make a commitment that you’re going to refuse 
to live an empty, unhappy life, NOT doing what YOU want to do.

All it takes is ONE simple decision.

To Your Life Success,