“You are the part of the rat race because you are letting them treat you like a rat. This is the modern definition of a slave.”

― Saurabh Sharma

The near-instant successes of bloggers like @heiditravels, who have managed to enrapture us with their freedom, and faith in their decision to break free of the shackles of modern working society have shown me very importantly how quickly the growth of personal liberation is becoming a priority amongst the people of the world. One recent Telegraph article stated "Two in three people [in the UK] said they were 'unfulfilled', 'miserable' or 'drifting' in their jobs and more than half claimed they would happily earn less money in a role that made them feel better about themselves".

The problem with career satisfaction - or the lack thereof seems to stem right from the beginning, where parental and peer group pressures lay the foundations for a predetermined path from preschool through to university; often in family dictated study paths. Adedeji Tella of the Osun State College of Education "found that parents play an invaluable role in laying the foundation of their children's career choice." Meaning for example (and it did happen) that my Jewish father spent a considerable amount of his income on mine and my two sister's educations in the hope that we'd become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer which I then decided to study...oh the irony that my sister became a chef and restaurant entrepreneur, and after my Business & Law degree... I did the same! Curse my Irish mother and her love of food I guess?

The is a trend, now known as 'Zenployment' that has seen a plethora of people from mostly developed nations (no surprises there) choose to change careers, specifically post 40 years old to something offering a more compassionate or fulfilling career for their last twenty odd years of employment. A study by Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurance services provider revealed a surprisingly large "one in four (27%) [people questioned] put making a difference to others top of their second career agendas - twice the number who want to make money (12%).

So how many people are leaving?
Well, to be honest I'm not sure, I looked around, did some research, and did find that according to a Prudential study "two out of five under-35s planned to cut back their high-pressure lives in 2004, with around 1.3 million intending to quit the rat race altogether by 2013." However, I couldn't find up any followup to see what percentage actually committed.

So, fellow steemers, active combatants of stagnation and mundanity... how many of you left? How many of you are using Steemit as your primary source of revenue to fund your new liberated lifestyle? Or how many of you - like me aren't quite free yet, but are using their current careers as a pole to vault ourselves to post 30 year old liberation? I'm a big fan of all of you in this community, I'd love to know any tips for myself and fellow readers about great ways to maximise efficiency in getting to the point where a 9 to 5 is no longer necessary.