That’s right, you will never escape the Yabba.

Wait, what the hell is the Yabba??

I’m glad you asked, buckle up, this is an interesting story. The Yabba, aptly named by the locals of the town Bundanyabba is a fictional place from a film called Wake in Fright. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Let’s paint the picture, John Grant – our protagonist – is a school teacher stuck in a remote town in the outback in part to the onerous terms of his financial bond with the Australian government in return for his university education. John is on his way back to Sydney after the school term to see his girlfriend. But he has to go to the Yabba for the night to catch the flight to Sydney the next morning.

On his arrival John goes for quiet drink, where is he befriended by the locals, and after a few too many ends up being sucked into the world of the Yabba. He participates in illegal gambling with the hopes of winning enough to pay off his bond and ends up losing it all. Leaving him stranded in the Yabba with no money at the behest of the citizens.

Here John is sucked into an ever maddening word of extreme hedonism, alcoholism, debauchery, violence, insanity, and even suicide. Despite John’s best efforts he is continuously dragged back into the fray as he becomes more and more desperate as time goes on, his frustration grows but no matter how much he lashes out he is beaten back down to be part of the Yabba. John even tries to escape the Yabba, but he ends up back, feeling despondent he turns a rifle on himself and survives. Eventually accepting his fate, and never leaving the Yabba.

Cool Story bro, what does this have to do with me?

So imagine the Yabba, and John’s story as an allegory for your life. Perhaps you are feeling stuck in the same patterns, the same habits, the same cycles which leave you wracked with frustration, guilt, shame, and that ever annoying voice in you head telling you this is the last time. But then Friday evening rolls around again, and the vicious cycle starts all over again, the same routines and habits which you said you would break seem to happen over and over again. You are figuratively stuck in the Yabba.

Ok, maybe…..

Lets face it, there are habits and routines that you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis which you know deep down are not good for you. But you keep doing them anyways, because in that moment you feel great, all your worries melt away, you feel great. But the moment fades, instead you’re left with a pounding headache, and all your problems and issues are still there, and reality comes falling back to you. All you’ve done is push the issue until tomorrow to deal with, and then you keep kicking the can down the road and 10 years later nothing has changed except your hairline and waistline. You’re still stuck in the same place, despite swearing you would change as the world passes you by.

You make a good point, but….

Let me ask you a question. Do you ever go through your local city (London for me) and you see that person in the expensive car, or that person in great shape, or that beautiful giant home or penthouse apartment?

Yes…

Do you ever wonder what makes them different, or how they got there?

Sometimes…

Look, I’m not saying chase money. I’m using these examples purely as they outline someone who has full control over their life, their habits and routines which is enabling them to live the best life they can. Let me tell you how I see life in general.

Go on…

Life is controlled by two key factors: A) The Decisions you make B) The problems you solve. That is how I see life in general, everything you do is either a decision or solving a problem at hand. These two options go inexplicably hand-in-hand. The correct decision for a particular problem can shift the future outcome of that action favorably in the right direction, or the wrong decision will leave you annoyed at your past self. Often the problem may not even show itself until you are actually faced with it years ahead of any decisions you make. Lets use an example below:

You start earning good money from your hustle, and now the dream of that new car, watch, house, attack helicopter, etc. becomes reality. One part of your brain wants to scratch that itch and enjoy the lavish lifestyle and rewarding yourself for all you hard work, which is totally fine! As you enjoy your life and you get to retirement age, you are suddenly faced with the prospect that you have to keep working to survive in your late age, something you never accounted for when you made the decision all those years ago to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Suddenly the problem rears it’s ugly head, and you are still stuck in the Yabba.

The moral of the story is that for every decision you make, you must account for the future problems that it may hold in store for you. Instead of living for tomorrow, and the weekend, you must live for yourself in the future. To do so you must begin looking at all your habits and decisions now, with a future lens. What am I doing now that I will come back to bit me in the ass later? “One cigarette now isn’t that bad” but 15 years later you may be questioning your choices
“I’ll start eating better tomorrow” 10 years later and your physical health is not where you want it to be.

But it’s not easy to change!

Of course not, nothing in life is easy at all. Otherwise we would all be the perfect versions of ourselves. Breaking bad habits is not easy, as we have continuously trained our brains down that path that the activation energy required for that activity is so minimal that it is almost a mindless routine. When you have been doing the same thing over and over again, the routine is ingrained into our brains as a habit.

But like everything in life you must take small and consistent steps to change, and you must be ready to fail. And fail you will over, and over again. You must have the courage to keep going until you adapt. Remember the first time you learned to drive, ride a bike, play that sport, that instrument? Did you master it instantly? Hell no! I remember when I learned to drive, I was absolutely awful! I remember wanting to throw the towel in constantly as I frustrated my driving instructor by making the same silly mistakes over and over again but I kept at it despite my thoughts of insufficiency, and doubt. 12 years on, driving isn’t so bad. The hardest part of starting something new is taking the first step, the second hardest part is accepting the inevitable failures and the mountains you have to climb, and carrying on regardless.

Don’t forget that you are allowed to ask for help. To have the most consistent life, you must undertake hobbies and routines where you have a broad spread of competencies. i.e. There will be things you are fantastic at as you have been doing them for years, and there will be things you are learning for the first time. This helps keep you on your toes and moving forward.

Finally, there are three directions you can move in life:

A) Backwards: This is pretty easy to do, double down on all your negative habits, keep doing the things that make your mental and physical health worse, and neglect everything in your life.

B) In Circles: This is pretty easy to do, change nothing, do not challenge yourself, stay in your bubble and accept that nothing gets better. But if you look from above, you still may be spiraling downwards.

C) Forwards: This is the challenge. You will hate it now, your mind will plead with you for comfort, you body will ache. But you keep persisting, and your future self will thank you.

I remember recently after a bout of ill health, I asked myself this question: “Is this it, another 40+ years of this suffering with no change?” That question changed my perspective on everything. What is a small sacrifice, a small amount of pain to pay now in a matter of days and months which can lead to decades of wellness. Putting this into perspective, you can ask that question about everything you do going forward, each small decision you make now will have compounding effects on your future outlook and can leave you better than ever. The pain of sacrifice and hard work now can do wonders for future you. Slowly but surely you too can escape the Yabba.

I’ll finish this by quoting the words of someone wiser than me: “Do the hard work, even if you don’t feel like it”

Catch you next time

Faz