In an article in the January 2009 Oprah magazine, there was an article by Martha Beck, “Escape Your Rat Race.”  Martha Beck wrote about even when people feel trapped in their cage (whatever that may be) they are still terrified about making a change. 

Have you ever had that feeling?  I have.  Years ago I was in a job that I had come to really dislike.  I was unhappy, suffering migraines every time we had a staff meeting, and found that I had started to distrust my skills and knowledge because I wasn’t in a very supportive environment.  I was seeing a counselor and taking anti-depressants.  I was making good money and had great benefits - I was trapped in a cage and couldn’t leave.  I have friends that will testify that I tried to get up the courage to leave that known job for an unknown reality for 3 years.  So I understood at a deep, personal level what Martha Beck was writing about.

In her article, she talked about a study on addiction conducted in 1981 by psychologist Bruce Alexander and colleagues.  He took two groups of rats - for one he built a 200-square foot rodent paradise (Rat Park) and the second group was housed in traditional cages.  Both groups were offered a choice of plain water or sugar water laced with morphine.  The traditional caged rats became instant addicts.  However the rats in Rat Park avoided the drug-treated water.  Alexander saw many parallels between the junkie rats and human addicts.  Beck draws the parallel between this study and humans dealing with change.

We get trapped not only in jobs and lives, but also in attitudes.  “I have to look successful.”  “I need to be a lawyer to make my dad happy.”  Ideas and attitudes become so deeply entrenched that it becomes hard to see them and they can be more powerful than physical prisons.  We don’t want to see the truth.   

I was terrified of the unknown.  “What ifs” just about choked the life out of me.  It was much easier for my friends to see this than for me to see it.  For three years, I chose the cage.  I couldn’t see anything outside of that cage.  I was afraid to dream or to envision my future.

I think this can and has happened for many people.  How many people do you know who stay in an unhappy marriage.  They have a litany of excuses but the bottom line is they are afraid of taking that leap.

And when you step back and think about it - why are we so afraid to take that leap?  If we never leapt into the unknown, we would never grow and change.  Honestly, some days I think it would be easier to never experience change, but then I look back to those three years.  I don’t want to live that way for the rest of my life.  We need to change and grow and live our lives as fully as possible.  As I have on the bottom of my letterhead…….

Change is inevitable.  Growth is optional.