Many of us remember the popular children’s story: The Tortoise And The Hare. The tortoise and the Rabbit had an argument about who was faster and decided to settle the argument with a race. The rabbit sprinted ahead and seeing that he was a great distance ahead of the turtle, decided that there was no need to hurry and chose to sit under a tree and relax before finishing the race. Unfortunately, he fell asleep and the slow-moving turtle eventually overtook him and won the race.
Recently, I read a modernized version of the story, which reads as follows. “The rabbit was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the turtle could have beaten him. So he challenged the turtle to another race. The turtle agreed. This time, the rabbit went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles. The author lists the moral of the story as: Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It’s good to be slow and steady; but it’s better to be fast and reliable.”
There are times to hurry and times where it is more prudent to wait. Sometimes plodding along allows you a vantage point that is unavailable when traveling at high speeds. Knowing how and when to engage in each pace is vital to the fulfillment of your purpose.
THE CONSTANT PACE
Moving in a hurried pace is what many people do on a daily basis. While it can be good for a period of time in order to accomplish a certain task, it’s probably not a great idea to attempt to sustain that pace forever. Racecar drivers speak of the tunnel vision that occurs at very high speeds. If your eyes don’t get enough oxygen, your peripheral vision starts to disappear. Next, your field of vision constricts (tunnel vision), followed by the loss of ability to see colors (called ‘grey-out’). This is simply the brain realizing that you’re not getting enough oxygen to maintain normal vision and gradually shutting things down in an attempt to keep some vision. In essence, they can’t focus on many external details. All they can see is what’s directly in front of them.
There are times in our lives where that type of focus is a good thing. For example, I read a lot (in part because I like learning and in part because there’s a lot of information that I need to know) but my mind tends to wander. I would love it if I could sit down for twenty minutes and read 30 or 50 pages and remember everything I read. Some of the necessary steps required to fulfill your purpose can be aided by intense, even hurried focus, but we have to learn how to turn that off and on again.
THE CAUTIONED PACE
Sometimes we can get frustrated with the slow pace at which things seem to be moving. However, another perspective is that sometimes God is protecting your energy and your output by delaying your launch. If this seems hard to live out I understand. I’ve tried and failed several times to remind myself of this very thing. That said, I’ve also had the benefit of hindsight showing me what foresight never could. I’ve had moments of gratitude after I was forced to wait for what I thought I wanted or needed was revealed to be something I never should have sought in the first place.
The tricky part with learning these type of lessons is that it can sometimes have the effect of making you scared to jump the next time around. If you jump off of the high dive and belly flop on your first attempt, you are far less likely to have a second attempt. If this is you, I want to encourage you to jump again. Waiting is good, if it is spent learning, growing, connecting, or envisioning how to fulfill your purpose. Waiting is detrimental when it becomes a house to hold your fears.
THE CALCULATED PACE
Eventually, you will learn to get into a groove where you can shift smoothly between hurried moments and still moments. Learning to adapt to this ebb and flow will allow you to have more longevity in whatever you do in life. People who live in ‘fast mode’ all the time burnout quicker and take longer to recover. People who live in ‘wait mode’ all of the time never accomplish anything. As the author of the modernized story indicated, it’s not just good to be fast, you have to be fast and reliable. Your purpose in life, whether it be teaching in some arena, serving in some organization, writing, singing, building or dancing will require you to adapt to different paces.
The goal is to remain moving at the speed of purpose.
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