I am the Tortoise: In Principle

The Tortoise and the Hare?  It may sound like a children’s story and it may seem obvious where the hare failed.  However a really useful principle can come out of it when you consider how effective you can be?

I suspect most people have heard Aesop’s fable, a story where the hare ridicules the tortoise for being slow and challenges him to a race.  Why this ego ridden ridiculous eared bully taunted the tortoise into this was because he was certain without doubt that he would win.  I’m telling the story now aren’t I – Oh Well I’ll continue.

The start of the race was inevitable, the hare shot into the lead with the tortoise plodding along at his own speed wondering why on earth he was racing a hare in the first place.  The opposite thought must have occurred to the hare, who decided that he was unnecessarily breaking out into a sweat and decided he has time for a nap.  How the tortoise’s spirits must have lifted as he tip-toed past the snoozing hare part way along the race track.  Well the hare woke in a bit of a panic, he had slept longer than he should.  I am not sure if the hare had a digital watch to determine this but I guess he could tell somehow and raced on.  Only to reach the finish line just moments after the tortoise had crossed it and won the race.

Isn’t life like that?  The hare just happened to wake up at the right second to only just lose to the tortoise.

Anyway what is this all about?

The moral of the story is to keep plodding on at something without stopping, not waking up any hares on the way and you will just about win, right in front of any speedier hares you are racing with.

OK – A bit sceptical?

Your competitors in life may be better than you, faster than you, but if you keep going constantly towards your goal you will win.

The reality is really that often your competitor is not just a competitor with you.  They might be racing others on different tracks or paths.  They too need to stop; they will have different goals and need to do something else, they will be distracted from your goal.

If you have your goal in mind and making every step slowly and surely towards it then you are actually taking the shortest path efficiently towards your own specific goal.

Any distraction of the hare will reduce the amount of time they have reaching the deadline.

Be the tortoise – make each step important – don’t get distracted – reach your goal efficiently – and Win.

Maybe in future though – make a goal something useful – like a really fast car!