YoM Day 30: At your own pace

Yesterday, I talked about how kindness is something that is as essential to our lives as the air we breath. Today is a new day.

“O snail,

Climb Mt. Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!” - Issa

It’s a dog-eat-dog world we live in. We’ve been raised to see life as a competition and we’re always racing to get ahead of the others. I’m 26 and sometimes I feel pressured into starting a family because I see others my age already having their second or third kid. Once I stop to take a second to think about it I remember “to each their own”. There’s no point in me comparing my life to others as we’re all different.

Don’t let anyone pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do. Despite what school has drilled into us, success is defined by the individual. What I consider to be success might be very different from yours. That doesn’t make either of us “wrong”, it’s a representation of our priorities in life.

This is one reason I believe that we should be ourselves and not change ourselves by catering to other people’s needs. Like the tale of the tortoise and the hare, “slow and steady wins the race”. The message of that story was that we needn’t rush in life if we want to win, we should take things at our own pace.

I’ve learned time and again that doing things at my own pace has produced the best results and the least amount of stress on me. When I’d rush things, especially essays and tests, I’d end up missing important details and wouldn’t do as well compared to if I didn’t worry about deadlines and instead focused on what I could do.

The mantis waits patiently to catch its prey. Without fail it always finds the right moment to strike. There’s no rush. Your dreams aren’t going anywhere. 

 

                                                                                                               Peace

Even baby steps are significant in making progress.