Designing a life we don’t need to escape from.

Since I can remember myself, I always loved going on vacations;

What's not to like? - Time off. Relaxing. Recharging. Maybe on a sandy beach, maybe at a Ski resort. Maybe at home.

But each time I went on a vacation, there was always one problem: The getting back part.

My vacations served as an escape from real life. For two weeks every year I was running away and rather than dealing with the real issue, I took a pill.

Until, one day, the pill was no longer working. Vacationing was no longer working.
What I needed was a different kind of pill - a "red pill". Similar to neo's journey in Matrix I needed to experience the real world beyond the façade that i had been living.

Taking the "red pill" was not easy. It meant accepting the truth of reality: My life was not how I wanted to live. I wanted something different; I wanted a life I did not need to escape from.

I'm not talking about a life that is one big vacation but instead a life that is so enjoyable, so balanced, so meaningful that I didn't need to run away from.
And rather than planning to retire from work at age 65 or 70 or whatever "retirement age" is going to be in the future, do work that is so rich and fulfilling that I never want to retire from.

So I took the plunge and threw myself into designing that life. 10 years later, and I still find myself ruminating on escaping from time to time. But I've come a long way since then.

What I've come to recognize is that life constantly presents us with the choice of taking the red or blue pill.

Take the "red pill" and confront the truth, however harsh it might be.

Take the “blue pill" and remain asleep in comfort land.

The choice is there at every minute.

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* If you're looking for more inspiration to help you on your personal development journey, you may want to check out my extensive list of SMART goals. This page is packed with thousands of different goal ideas that can help you set new aspirations and reach higher heights in your life. Personally, this page helped me to create my own 100 life goals list, which I pursued for over a decade.

Chief Editor

Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.