Why do people stay in the left lane?
No matter how congested or slow it is, people will stay in the left lane.
How many times have you seen 3, 4, 5, 15 cars in a row in the left lane and nobody in right?
Just the other day as I came up to a red light on one of the busier roads in Asheville, I slow down to count as I passed each and every car to get to the red light.
I passed 17 different cars all in the left lane.
So why are they in the left lane?
Because somebody told them that’s the fast lane.
They believe that, without a doubt, the left lane is the fast lane.
But is it really?
If so, how come I could pass all of them? How come I could pass all 17 cars without even speeding?
Because all 17 people have bought into a lie.
Not so much a lie as a long-standing misunderstanding.
Left lane should be faster right?
It’s what everyone says and believes to be true, but is it really?
We live in a world where people follow the status quo. They’re terrified of what the neighbors may think, how they will look to everyone else, yet they idolize the nonconformists.
The Elon Musks, The Bill Gates, the Dennis Rodman‘s and Ocho cinco‘s.
They revere these people, but they don’t understand what actually makes them special.
It’s that they don’t stay in the left lane because that’s what they were told is the path to success.
They find out where they want to go, and they find the best way to get there.
They aren’t afraid of failure.
They aren’t afraid of what their friends might say.
They aren’t fearless either.
The difference is, they are able to step back and think to themselves.
“What's the point of being stuck in traffic but I can get further, faster, by doing it a little differently?”
Now every once in a while, you’re going to run into somebody going slower in the right lane and you need to make a course adjustment.
Put your blinker on.
Try to jump back in the left lane for a minute.
Then continue on in the other lane.
But what happens when you do that?
If there’s anybody close to you, they usually speed up.
They do everything they can not to let you over because they don’t want you to “win”.
They have committed wholeheartedly that the left lane is better and they are gonna do everything they can to keep their position in line.
They’re not going to let some nonconformist ruin their beliefs.
This is life just as much as it is traffic.
When your “friends” see you moving along, and getting ahead, they’re going to be sure not to let you in.
You’re mad you’re not riding with them.
They resent that you’ve gotten in your own car and have decided to move ahead at a different pace than they are willing to move.
This is when most people who have taken the risk of getting their own car, attempting to blaze their own path, decide that may be carpooling isn’t that bad…
The left lane is a comfortable lie many believe because it is easier than the uncomfortable truth.
Health.
Money.
Relationships.
Fitness.
And business.
Do good in school. Go to college. Get a degree. Get a career. Get married. Buy a house. Have two. Five kids in a white picket fence. Don’t forget your labradoodle. Work to your 67. Retire with your 401(k). Die at 72.
That’s the Dream they are selling you.
Don’t smoke pot, but drink all the booze you want.
Day drinking at Applebees is fine.
Doctors hand out antidepressants like candy at halloween.
That’s driving in the left lane.
Is that the life you want to live?
Do you want to stay in the left lane?
I sure as fuck don’t.
I almost made a horrible mistake right after college.
I was thinking about marrying the girl I was with because that’s what you’re “supposed to do“.
I almost took a job I didn’t really want because that’s what you’re “supposed to do“.
I looked at a lot of my friends who had graduated college, got married, bought a house, and I really didn’t like the wife I saw.
I got out of the left lane.
The good thing about living in the United States is, it’s never too late to change lanes.
Do you like where the Left Lane is taking you right now?
If not, spend some time thinking about where you really wanna go and more importantly how you want to get there.
It’s time to put the blinker on.