No fear
When I quit my modestly paid day job, I felt very proud to have acted according to my will and to no other. But I was secretly scared of what would happen next. Would I end up destitute? Would I have to do things even worse than clerical work in order to avoid destitution?
Three years later, Iām still living on the money I saved from that job, supplemented by an income so small that most people (including those people who work at the tax office) consider negligible. They consider it negligible because they are addicted to a consumer lifestyle ā the mild and dim lifestyle shown to us in magazines and on the television.
I am not a hermit or a monk or a dreadlocked radical. I did not āescape to the countrysideā or go āback to the landā and I do not live in a squat. I live in a nice little apartment in the fashionable part of a civilised metropolis. I do not live in fear of what will happen next. I do not do work that I find undignified. I do not wait on tenterhooks for pay cheques.
I donāt have all the answers and I have no personal investment in whether people choose to continue on the usual treadmill or to escape it. But to those people who arenāt having a good time and arenāt too proud to take some advice from someone who doesnāt mind looking bit arrogant: try doing what I do.
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About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
Almost exactly three years after doing almost exactly the same thing I can only say that I can report almost exactly the same findings. To anybody reading this whoās still on the fence: Try doing what Rob (and I) do, indeed.