rat race, who are the competitors?

All of us heard about the term "rat race". Basically, it's a metaphor for being in pursuit of power and money, which in reality, is never ending. 

Why never ending?

Because the allure of the supposedly comforts that power and money will provide, so the more the merrier right? And hence, the rat race never ends. There is no finishing line unfortunately. You just keep running until you can't run anymore, maybe due to injury or worse, death from exhaustion.

Are you competing with anyone in this race? Absolutely. But I think, these competitors are only living in your own head. No one will openly say they are competing with you. So someone you think you are competing with, may in fact be someone who don't really care about how fast you are relatively. 

In this modern capitalist world, most adults are in the rat race. There will be some who knows and hate the race, and have clear plans laid out to allow them to leave the race intact. Think FIRE movement. There will be others who have no plans laid out to exit the race. They could be barely getting by with survival and have no bandwidth to think about exit plans. I feel sorry for this group. Then, there are some who have bandwidth to plan an exit, but are so bought into the system that they feel this is their life, and their mission is to grab as much as they can until whatever the government of the day says is the official retirement age. They feel obligated to work. These are the rats that the authorities and rich love; they are hardworking, productive, and they don't take care of themselves, putting the race above everything else, even their own happiness and health and life. If I am a rich land owner, business owner, I'll love these rats. I can enjoy my life while the cash flows into my pockets due to their hardworking mentality and sacrifices. 

Unless one is born into privileges, being a rat in this race is inevitable. But the exit can usually be planned out, except for extreme cases of really bad luck at birth lottery. When given a chance to plan exit from the race, please grab it. Don't waste the time and your life. You only live once. 

Everyone is different, and thus the exit plans will also be different. Typically, we plan for exit (stop working) when we have accumulated sufficient resources to sustain our life without earned employment income/active business management income. The key is "sufficient". What is sufficient to you is determined by you, not outsiders. Work out your sums, be realistic on what you want/need, what you can earn, what is your expected lifespan, and set that threshold and go from there.

Uncle thinks he has reached that level, took a break, build fitness and mental wellness focused lifestyle, and now have options. Options to continue retirement, or to go back to the race, but on my terms mostly. What terms? Reasonable stress levels, meaningful work, and clarity on when to stop. Such terms can only surface up when you have determined you reached your sufficient threshold, so you no longer fear. Fear of not bending backwards enough to please the company, the bosses, the managers. 

May you enlighten up and start your exit plan. Exit the race intentionally, and not be forced to exit at the worst possible time.