“I’m taking a break from the Hamster Wheel,” I told my
family and colleagues when I took my career break in 2018. During this time, I
met many “business hobos” like me who use the same excuse to get away from
their nine-to-five job (or eight-to-eight for some us). Some are trying to be
social superstar so that they don’t need to go back to their boring office ever
again, some trying “to find themselves” (and maybe join a cult in the process),
and some just want to enjoy the luxury of doing nothing. It was great watching these
beautiful people catwalking down the runway to run away from whatever it is
that is chasing them.
Give me a break
Despite all the fun, I must break the news to you: “getting
away from the Hamster Wheel” is only an excuse for them, and we should be
careful when we tell ourselves that we are running in a hamster wheel, because
it is it is a mighty depressing word.
Technically, you are in a Hamster Wheel only if you are
“stuck” in a workplace, where you don’t like what you do, probably in a mundane
job that doesn’t bring excitement to your life, but you can’t quit or switch
job because you need the money or status to carry on normal living.
If you can quit your job and without go on living without worries
for a while, you probably do not suffer hamsterwheelitis,
but perhaps exhaustion. Give yourself a good break, but don’t take yourself to
be stuck in a Hamster Wheel. It’s like claiming to have depression in high
school because you got rejected twice by two different people that you hardly
know except they have cute faces.
Break the wheel
If you are actually in a Hamster Wheel at the moment, I am
sorry. I truly am. You can be in the upper middle class and educated and still stuck
in a Hamster Wheel. Anybody can be stuck. It just takes a lack of purpose or
direction to end up there.
Being stuck in a hamster wheel probably feel like being hell
on wheels. Just remember that if you can get stuck, you can also unstuck
yourself, if you have the right attitude. If you need to run the wheel to carry
on living, you don’t stop running. You run the wheel harder than you think you
can, until you break the wheel.
If you think you are stuck, doing the same thing over and
over again in the wheel is not going to bring you anywhere, in fact that is the
definition of being stuck. You need to change something: take extra workload to
prove your actual worth, take a calculated risk on the next opportunities,
attend a networking event, take a part-time tertiary education, learn a new
skill even at your own cost, anything at all, but you need to keep on moving
hard on your game plan. I was once stuck in a hamster wheel too, guess whatbrought me out.
-Inspired by a meaningful
talk with Dominik Baumann, albeit short (he’s charging consultation by
10-minute block, and he is d@mn expensive). Never underestimate how much great
stuff you can get for free from a seemingly simple conversation with great
people.
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