Slow and steady wins the race!

We were at the park yesterday and caught a glimpse of this huge snapping turtle along with about twelve other smaller turtles swimming around it.  Pretty amazing!  I'm guessing it's a snapping turtle, I'm certainly not a turtle expert, but anyway it's a beautiful park with an awesome pond if you are ever in Frisco it's definitely worth checking out.

The point though, or rather the thought it gave me, was the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  The moral of the story being:  Slow and steady wins the race!

I've always thought of myself as a "delayed gratification" kind of guy, which I interpreted as patient and a bit on the Tortoise side of thinking and doing.  

But more recently, as in about 7 months ago, I started walking, not running, but walking...  I've been walking every day, and I noticed how much life slows down when I walk.  

How much better I feel when I slow down and go for that walk.  

When I started walking I was really into listening to some new podcasts I'd discovered (here's one of my favorites), then some of my audiobooks (a current favorite), BUT now it is my quiet time.  

It's not my alone time.  I'm walking with someone, talking and listening, and it started out mostly talking and has transformed now more into listening, but this is for another post.  The point is:  I slowed down.  When I slowed down things started to make more sense.

Then, today in fact, it dawned on me that my exercise goals, my personal goals, my professional goals have all been on a Hare's race (the rabbit's pace).  

Go hard -> Burn out -> Start over (after a little break or maybe a long break...  a moderately long break maybe)  

To be kind to myself I could say I've been interval running this marathon we call life.  

To be more realistic and honest with myself I've been sprinting like the rabbit to get ahead as fast as possible and then took it easy or got distracted, got tired, lost focus, lost my passion, etc, while all my friends that have a consistant focus on the race, their purpose, have passed me by...

Fascinating observation BUT not at all discouraging.  

How many of us are running the rabbit's race?  

How many of us have known people that never got out of it?

Pretty cool to recognize it now, and slow down.  

Maybe instead of the quote being, "It's never to late to start over."  it could be "It's never too late to slow down."

Move Well.  Move Often.

Start with a walk.

Go with it. 

P.S.  From personal experience I have gotten further in all my life's goals while walking these last few months than I did over the years of sprinting to fatigue or going at maximimum intensity until I collapsed.  Full disclosure again:  I'm not just walking of course, but it has been an enormous part of my forward progress.  Why?  I think it's because it is a movement our bodies are designed to do, and it looks like the Mayo Clinic may agree...