The Tortoise Mindset: How You Can Win The Race Of Life By Going Slow And Steady

Sep 27, 2018 by apost team

If you have ever heard the fable about the tortoise and the hare, you know just how important it is to persist toward your goals.

This Aesop's fable has a valuable life lesson for people young and old. If you do not remember the fable from your childhood, read on.

The Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare

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Once upon a time, there was a speedy hare who always bragged about how fast he was. Finally, the tortoise could not stand listening to him anymore. He challenged the hare to a race. When all of the forest animals heard about the race, they gathered together to watch.

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The race began, and the hare took off. He ran down the road for a while before pausing to look back at the tortoise. The slow tortoise was gradually moving forward step by step.

The hare mocked the tortoise and asked him how he could ever win at such a slow pace.

The hare knew that he had plenty of time. The tortoise was too slow to catch up. While the tortoise slowly moved forward, the hare decided to take a nap and relax.

Slowly, the tortoise kept moving forward. He never gave up until he was at the finish line. As he approached the end of the race, the other animals started to cheer.

Their loud cheering woke the hare up. In a panic, the hare tried to catch up to the tortoise, but it was too late. The tortoise was already across the finish lane.

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Forever afterward, the animals remembered the lesson of the race. You might be fast, but someone who goes slow and steady will always win the race.

The Mindset of the Hare

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This story offers valuable lessons for modern life. Today, people live life like the hare. They are never content to just work toward their goals. They brag about how amazing they are and challenge the tortoise to a race.

No matter how much they want a goal, they are not willing to put in the long hours necessary to achieve it. Instead, they want to get everything fast.

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Modern life is filled with this attitude. Everyone is obsessed about instant gratification and getting immediate results. People do not want to save money for years to become a millionaire. Instead, they blow all of their money on lottery tickets in the hopes that they will become rich overnight.

From fad diets to cosmetic surgery, we are constantly buying things that promise instant results.

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Right now, you could get fast food in just a couple of minutes. You can mail a package so that it arrives overnight and buy one-hour glasses. A text message can be sent to any corner of the world in less than a second.

Many of these inventions are good for society, but they also teach us bad habits. We start to expect instant results. When we cannot get what we want overnight, we become discouraged and give up.

The Tortoise Mindset

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The best results are unlikely to arrive overnight. In most cases, it will take time to achieve your goals. If you exercise for three hours a week for a month, you will have very few results. Reading a single book will not make you suddenly smarter or more knowledgeable.

Likewise, meditating for just a couple of weeks will not make a major impact on your mind. Instead of thinking like the hare, you have to act like the tortoise.

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Focus on making lasting, long-term goals in your life. Finding success in life is all about making a few changes each day. You have to stick to these changes over the long run for them to have an impact. Think about doing a few of the following things.

  • Meditate 10 minutes a day. In a year, you will have more than 60 hours of meditation done. This will help boost your focus, memory, compassion and creativity. It will also lower your anxiety and stress.
  •  Exercise an hour a day for three days a week. In a year, you will have more than 150 hours of working out completed. This will make a major impact on your health.
  • Read a book every month. After a year, you will have finished 12 books and gained new knowledge.

These examples show that being consistent and persistent is more important than being fast. Little changes add up if you do them each day.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

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When you stop focusing on instant results, you will actually be able to achieve your goals. You have to be persistent and relentless. When you are consistent, it helps you build momentum and self-confidence. Each additional day of reading or working out builds on the last day's efforts. Before long, you have created long-lasting changes that reshape your entire world.

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If you are ready to break up your goals into small, persistent pieces, let your friends know all about it.