Think about. For those of us who work 40 hours a week Monday through Friday and hold a traditional office job, it's not by accident that you happen to find yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally drained at the end of each workday. It's not just a coincidence that you find that you have little to no energy to do anything else outside of your 9 to 5 grind. It's not just mere happenstance that you often find yourself wanting to do nothing more than just lay down, relax, and watch Netflix. It's not accidental that you have to summon every ounce of energy and strength that you have left to do something other than lay down, relax, and watch Netflix.

It is all by design. It is designed that way so that you can focus the majority of your day furthering someone else's agenda for little in return. It is designed that way so that you can make someone else rich and wealthy instead of making yourself rich and wealthy. It is designed that way. It is designed that way so that you get paid enough for your efforts so that you can survive, but not enough to make it worth your while. It is designed that way so that you can completely give up the most important resource that you have: time.

I was listening to BiggerPockets podcast episode maybe 2 weeks ago and the guest that was featured on the episode was a guy who had a family and was working a full-time job while raising his family on top of investing in real estate. I would have to go back to listen to the episode as I don't recall off the top of my head what kind of job he had, but I do know that he said he was over his job and didn't want to continue working that job for the rest of his life. He said something that stuck with me and I'm paraphrasing him, but he said, "I left my job because I didn't want to devote the best part of my day working for someone else while my family would just get the leftover version of me after work where I was too tired to do anything." This guy wanted to be fully present in his family's life.

He wasn't wrong. If you have a family and you want to be fully present in your family's life and you don't want to give them the leftover version of yourself that's too physically, mentally, and emotionally drained to focus on anything else after work, then working a 9 to 5 isn't going to cut it or, according to him, just working a job in general isn't going to cut it. He found a way to escape the matrix. He took matters into his own hands and I honestly applaud him. There's just something about people who go off the beaten path and/or take the road less traveled to make something of themselves that doesn't involve working for someone else that puts them in a category of their own.

If you have aspirations like this guy and I definitely do myself, then you have to find a way to escape the matrix like he did. If he can do it, so can you. There is no reason why you can't make your escape too. Figure out what you truly want out of life and just go for it. That's all you can do. My escape is currently in progress and it's only a matter of time before I do in my eyes. Stay tuned!