Slow and steady wins the race.

We’ve all heard Aesops Fable of The Tortoise and The Hare, and I think the lesson from that story is something that more people should apply to their lives.

Ultimately, it’s a story of patience, a story of focusing on yourself and not worrying about what others are doing.

I’ve spoken about this a number of times before but it’s something I think about a lot so here we are again. I’ve also been reading “Good Vibes, Good Life” by Vex King this weekend and it talks a lot about your energy and how focusing on others can take away from your own energy, which led me back to the story of The Tortoise and The Hare.

I was having a conversation earlier this week with my best friend and he was asking about how it had gone launching a business. He said it seemed like it had gone well and asked me if it had met my expectations in terms of how many followers we had, etc. I had told him I had set no goals on the launch and also wasn’t too bothered about the rate of growth. I told him I was willing to be patient because I was focused on me, and me alone. I know it will come over time after applying consistent hard work.

The follower numbers of a “competitor” don’t bother me, I can’t control that so why should I dedicate any time to it?

Andy Frisella summed it up pretty well in an episode of his podcast ‘Real AF’ earlier this week when it came to competitors of his business. To paraphrase, he said he couldn’t care less what his competitors are doing because he just focuses on his own business and that’s where his success has come from.

The art of patience and focusing on yourself isn’t easy. Especially when we live in a consumerist and materialist society where everything is about owning the latest gadgets and clothes, etc. But patience is possible to implement.

When your life isn’t going as well as you think it should be, it’s very easy to look at the success of others which in turn compounds your misery a little bit more because everyone else seems to have it all together. That can be disheartening and I understand it but the more you can focus on yourself and yourself alone, the less stressful life becomes.

It’s about recognising those moments when you’re getting impatient at your own progress because you’ve seen someone else’s success and making a conscious decision to pay it less attention, if any at all.

The Tortoise and The Hare is the perfect analogy for exercising patience and focusing on yourself. You are you, you’re nobody else and you never will be.

Focus on yourself and your own journey.

One other way to stop the feelings of jealousy of the success people is pretty simple. Work hard on your own dreams and goals and make them a reality. As the saying goes “Happy people ain’t hating.”. You’ll also find that anyone with any success isn’t jealous of others, they’re too busy focusing on themselves.

Everyone is on their own journey, moving along at their own pace. The sooner we can all realise this, the quicker we can all find ourselves a bit more happier.

Hope you’re all doing as well as you can during lockdown. It looks like we might be on the road to exiting it. Fingers crossed.

Stay safe.

See you next week.