The tortoise ends up winning the race, so why is there still pressure to be a hare?
I thought while growing up the abilities of that of a hare is what defines success. While tortoises could still be ’smart’, but only on different terms.
In school, I lacked patience. I longed to be the hare, not a slow tortoise. Since my dyslexia meant I couldn’t be the hare, I decided not to join the race at all in the first place. I want to embrace being a tortoise. Being a hare in school was not my strong suit. Chaos was created. My procrastination in school created anxiety and ultimately made me dread learning.
There is no race. We can be as slow as we like and make progress inch by inch for the rest of our life. We test ourselves against our past selves. We can choose to be tortoises instead of hares where there is too much sense of urgency. We can bee more calculated in our decisions. Over a timespan, much can be achieved by being patient with yourself.
Being on a fast train going in the wrong direction is useless. It’s like on a sailboat, you want velocity pointed in the correct direction. Hares are those who process without understanding. Speed is rarely a measure of actual performance.
Steady self-awareness is the tortoise against the erratic emotions of the hare. There is no race for self- awareness. It is a steady pace. Reflecting back on previous experiences and compiling learnings. Slowing down to speed up in the long term is strategic. Our personal journeys of becoming aware and developing never fossilize. It is always evolving.
Figure out the method and create the will to be the way. If you enjoy the process, you don’t rush it and take pride in it.
As Warren Buffett puts it: “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
Thank you to Malcolm Gladwell on Revisionist History for inspiration from the 2-part episodes Puzzle Rush and the Tortoise and the Hare
Also for this Tweet https://twitter.com/anthilemoon/status/1298238295416209409?s=20