Run Your Own Race

It’s absolutely fine, it’s absolutely okay, it’s absolutely alright if you get out of this lock-down with no new skills, zero book read, no deep realization, no certificates. This is not a productivity contest.

Every human being  is put on this earth to achieve something worthwhile. Nobody is worthless, everybody has their own gains, their own ups.

I am sure you must have heard about the famous story of the bamboo and the fern. Even though both received the same light, water, soil and fertilizer, the fern started to grow but the bamboo didn’t. The bamboo takes 5 long years to bring up its shoot and during these years it starts building up its base, its roots, making it strong as ever. If it had compared itself to the fern or had got disheartened and stopped growing, it wouldn’t have reached the heights of today

If  life has taught me something, it is that everybody runs their own race. The comparison trap is an easy one to fall to and once you fall down, it’s hard getting up.

Every person has got their own time. Every seed has got their own growth. You’ve got to learn, adapt and improvise.

Instead of comparing yourself to others and work on what you can change and accept what you cannot change, learn to focus on your own progress. It’s always YOU vs YOU.

Be content with what you have, be your competition. Don’t compare yourself with others, you are what you are.

People around you may seem ahead or may seem behind , but everyone is running their own race in their own time, it’s their pace, it’s their race. You’re not supposed to judge, you are not supposed to deduce. They’re in their timezone , you are in yours, nobody’s lane is the same.

The moment you start worrying or looking over your shoulder at what other people are doing and how their going up, you lose focus. You lose time. What seems like a trivial second or two can completely shift the paradigm for how we see ourselves and what matters most.

Set the goals, set the bar really high, trust yourself, trust your path.

Do you know why race horses wear blinders? Because they focus on their own race. We have to learn to do the same. Stay on your own lane.

You’re not early, You’re not late. You’re on time.
                            “Take pride on how far you have come. Have faith in how far you can go.”