The Great Escape – Learn to Dream Again

October 10th, 2008 |

January 1, 2008

- this is a date that I will remember forever. This is the day I became a free man. This is the date I quit my job and went to work for myself.

I will remember the feeling when I drove out of the parking lot of my place of employment on December 24 for the Christmas break. I knew I would never darken the door of that place again. I didn’t even look back. I was surprised to find that I felt no fear of the future. Only great anticipation for what the future would bring.

I had been in the electronics manufacturing industry for over 28 years. The most recent position was the VP of Operations at a midsized plant in Toronto Ontario earning a respectable 6 figure income.

At first the job was very stimulating. But over time, the problems increased, the stress grew. In addition to the many stresses involved with running a manufacturing plant we had many outside factors such as huge completion from China and the rapidly changing value of the Canadian dollar. As a result, I was spending 60 to 70 hours a day, 7 days a week at the plant. I had a one and a half hour drive back and forth to my home.

I became burned out and the stress was affecting all aspects of my life. I became physically sick, I was over weight, my joints ached and I had frequent head aches. I got to the point that even if I had a day off, I would spend it in bed. I stopped seeing my friends. I stopped going to public events.

I stopped living!!

These things have a way of creeping up on you slowly. Before I knew it I had been in the operations position 6 years. My dream job had become a life sucking experience. My only goal each day was to make it through the day, get 4 or 5 hours sleep, pull myself together enough to do it again tomorrow.

Looking back I realize that I am very fortunate that the stress didn’t do any serious damage to my health or I didn’t fall into substance abuse or worse. I am also very fortunate to have a very loving and understanding wife and family.

Now that I look back, I realize that my transition from employee to the master of my own destiny, started about two years prior to my last day.

Two years before I quit, I started a personal fitness program. I decided to lose weight and take charge of my own fitness. I became obsessed with running. I had never run in my life, but I started. My first few months could not be described as running – mostly walking … and worrying. I became so hooked to running I ran outside until the snow flew in late November. I would do this at 5:00am … in the dark before I set out to work.

This passion for fitness planted the seed that grew into a vision of taking charge of my entire life.

Viktor E Frankl, in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, describes the horrific treatment he and his fellow prisoners received at the hands of the Nazis in the death camps during the second world war. He chronicles the declining mental state of the prisoners as they were dehumanized and put through unimaginable torment.

The difference between the death camps and your job are huge, but the psychology of the human mind when it is under stress is the same. Frankl observed,

“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future – his future-was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.”

We must dream. We must formulate a plan. We must see a future for ourselves. Stephen Covey in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” calls it “seeing the end from the beginning”.

As we start to dream, we start to plan. As we plan, we start to take action. As we start to take action we start feel in control again – we start to live again.

Now the first objection I hear is “But I don’t have a choice. I have bills to pay and responsibilities to my job …”

Think about it. If a prisoner in a Nazis death camp can retain his hold on his faith in the future. We, every single one of us, have the ability to choose the life we will lead.

The first step on our journey to freedom is to dream again.