Introduction: the marathon of life
Imagine youâre running a long distance race (which we usually call life), you donât know exactly where it ends, you donât even know whatâs really ahead of you. But you know youâll have to figure it out by yourself because itâs your race. And youâll go through multiple different phases just like season changes across the year.
Tap into the rhythm
Youâre right at the beginning, your body is warming up, your breathe isnât smooth, and your form is still changing, youâre busy aligning your mind and body, you are oblivious to whatâs around you.
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It took you a while to settle into a pace that youâre most comfortable with. Itâs your regular pace that you can effortlessly manage, since youâve repeated it so many times before during practice. Itâs the Goldilocks pace, not too fast not too slow, despite a bit boring. Thatâs your rhythm.
The allure of speed
But itâs boring, until you stumble into a couple. Theyâre tall, strong and fast. Theyâre born for spotlight and running like elites. Perhaps whatâs important to you is that theyâre faster than you. Either you donât want to fall behind, or you arenât happy with the attention they draw from others, your instinct nudges you to catch up.
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Of course you did that, letting your intuition autopilot, regardless of how fast the gear is being switched. Youâre looking good now, at least in your own mind. Heavy breathe and soaked clothes canât stop you from losing yourself in your affected feeling.
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Doesnât it sound familiar? So often weâre distracted by the flamboyant traits of others and canât stop from imitating them consciously or subconsciously. Weâre allured to the feeling of impressiveness while neglecting the simple fact that weâre not ourself anymore. The affectation can be hard to notice, especially by ourselves, but our work always speaks the truth.
The price of pretense
The feeling was too good to not be transitory. All of a sudden, youâre out of breathe. You canât keep up with the pace. You start to lose your bearings, then strength and patience. Your morale plunges while your self doubt soars. You are confused by why upwind comes so fast that it leaves you completely unprepared. The only thing that youâre sure about is that you canât afford to keep the same pace as a while go, otherwise youâre risking burning out.
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Your inner voice now whispers to remind you that you donât look quite good, but rather embarrassed; like a deflated balloon. And you probably should consider ending the disappointing show before itâs too late to do so. Itâs calling you to quit - the early exit that exists everywhere. Or to stay in the race, youâll have to dial down your pace. Until itâs much slower than your regular pace so that you can recover your breathe.
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Itâs not easy because weâre wired to upgrade expectation not to downgrade, to speed up not to slow down, as the hedonic adaptation says. What a pain to lose speed and momentum. Thatâs when weâre encountering setbacks. Weâre facing the catch-22 we created for ourselves. We will crash physically if we keep up the pace, or mentally if we dial it down. Confrontation is hard, but easy choice can only lead to harder problems.
Conclusion: embracing the pace
Youâre exhausted but youâve pushed yourself hard enough to the finish line. You donât look well but you choose to stay in the game. You paid the price for being out of pace - a short period of sprinting impulsively disrupted the rhythm of entire race.
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And you know youâre faster and more fulfilled if you were sticking to the original boring pace. But thereâs no if⌠After all, itâs only an imagined race.
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Weâve all heard about the parable of the tortoise and the hare, while weâre tempted by the aptitude of the hare, itâs actually better to have the boring attitude of the tortoise, because it helps to win the race.
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Stay boring, my friend.
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