a)mad scramble or intense competitive struggle, such as in the business world



b)an exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation

c)A rat race is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to escape whilst running around a maze or in a wheel.

I like this definition the best - 'the endless, self defeating pursuit...like a rat in a wheel' as it goes a long way to describing what having a job, and trying to become financially free, is all about. When you are employed by someone, you will generally be paid a monthly salary and in most cases the level of that salary is dictated to by the employer and not by you.

You trade your hours on a daily basis in return for money to buy the things you need and want. Now, in this example, if you wanted to significantly increase your income, you would either have to increase your hours worked, or deliver more in the hours that you currently work.

However, how often is this actually possible? If you increase you hours then what happens is you tend to have less free time for yourself and your family, 'following an exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation'. How often do we see this happen to people around us-it is just not a sustainable nor an effective strategy that can and does lead to burnout.

The second option could be to look to improve your results in the current hours you work. In other words you could consider how to become more effective, to learn new skills to better be able to do your job. This way you will do more in less time.

Will this guarantee you an increase in salary? Well, it won't hurt however what typically happens is that your employer would either give you more work or additional responsibilities, or both. You may be promoted, and get an increase in salary however then the process begins again and so have you made progress or just moved into a bigger wheel to push?

So what is the answer I hear you ask? Well in my experience, the answer has to be that you take control of your future by breaking your current cycle of trading hours for money and instead leverage your available time to create income streams that are not capped by an employer nor by the amount of time you have in a single day.

This must truly be the first step on your path to Financial Freedom. The best place to learn how to do this is to immediately begin leveraging your time by modelling yourself on the people who have successfully achieved this very step and more.