When I was a student in Glasgow in the early 1990s ‘Alien Wars’ came to town.
They set up a real live set from ‘Alien’ the movie (it wasn’t massively big) and you paid your money and entered as a group and had a tour of the ‘facility’ by an actor pretending to be a US Marine.
During the tour of the facility the warning sirens went off (we all knew this was coming because we’d heard from other people) they told us there had been an escape and that there was an unidentified object moving around the facility and we had to get out and follow the Marines who were then chased by the aliens.
It was absolutely terrifying.
It was funny how, in that situation, it became every man for himself. I think I remember pushing my girlfriend behind me so that she got eaten by the alien before me, a true gentleman to the last!
The visions that I thought I would have of myself in a situation like that were entirely blown away as everybody just stampeded over everybody else. In the end we ended up in a pretend lift and the Marine told us that when the doors opened we had to run out and go left, left all the time. Predictably now, but not then, the doors opened and there was an alien on the right and we had to run past him. We had to run and fight to get out.
Why is it that I’ve returned back to this and thought about it lately time and time again when I speak to people about their work or about balancing life with their family, work, themselves?
I think it’s because it seems like many of the people I meet are running to get out. People signed up to a system where they’ll be paid a certain amount of money, some of which they can put away, to reach a promised land at 55, 60 or 65 years old. Some guys even have an ‘exit strategy’ that allows them to get out now. To get out and do what?
It was exhilarating in ‘Alien Wars’ and many people paid for it again even though they knew what happened because to be on the outside standing in the street when it had finished was exciting for a short while but then it just dropped back into the mundane.
I think the question for all of us who seem to others to be ‘running to get out’ is to ask “what are you going to do when you’re out?”
Remember that the responsibility you hold now confers a respect upon you that you don’t have when you’re part of the silent majority. When you drift back into an amorphous mass of people with nothing to set you apart, that comes with its own stress. One of the reasons why many, men in particular, find it difficult to retire.
Wouldn’t it be great to write a list of the things you’re going to do when you ‘get out’ and start to do more of that list now? It might even postpone the time after which you want to get out. It might change the financial equation on that. It might change your happiness of where you are now.
It’s advice for all of us I guess – the grass is indeed always greener.
Blog Post Number - 1270