YES, Life Is NOT A Sprint!

 

WHO says LIFE IS A SPRINT?  Noooo sirrrrrrs, it is definitely NOT.  True, there were obvious outliers, LIKE I remember WHEN I was taking my own sweet time at the cozy airport lounge, totally forgetting that time was ticking off for the long-haul flight I was boarding.  Whewwwww, I remember I was LIKE huffing and puffing even if I was going through the interconnected walkalators.  BUT other than those outliers, I firmly stand on solid grounds that YES, LIFE IS NOT A SPRINT at all.  WHY do we hear narratives of some folks falling flat on their face?  You're 'spot on' dude, that folk must have been SPRINTING no less📗📙📘

Let's do a quick 'dice and drill' here.  WHAT sets apart SPRINTS and MARATHONS?  Simple, simple dude.  With SPRINTS, it's akin to have all your cylinders in full throttle.  Those times WHEN I was on a long-drive and I had to overtake a slew of vehicles, sometimes, 20-wheeler trucks all in one go.  Those were times WHEN I had to give my 'all out'💚💛💜

From an infusion perspective, there's a super-huge difference WHEN comparing SPRINTS and MARATHONs.  WHEREAS in SPRINTS, you've got all your cylinders 'on fire', in MARATHONS, you've got to pace yourself, reserving your energy, your fuel for the long-haul.  With that famous Boston Marathon, I've heard of marathoners WHO would breeze past throngs of runners only to find themselves 'eating dust' towards the last mile OR so.  WHY?  Simple.  They DIDN'T pace themselves well enough OR if they did, their pacing was just totally way off the mark.  Such narratives happen over and over again our life.  Bright students in school WHO doggedly work right on Day-1 of classes only to falter towards that crucial 'last lap' because other competitive students reserved their energies for the last lap as well💥💥💥

It's true, sometimes we hear cliches that OPPORTUNITIES knock only once.  Verily true many times.  BUT again, it hinges on one's perspective.  If you take that opportunity you now have as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' kind of thing, then, go for it.  BUT seriously, how often are there 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunities?  I guess you can count on your fingers and throughout your lifetime, you will NOT run out of fingers counting it through your pair of hands.  That's the thing.  With human nature, we tend to kind of 'stereotype' opportunities as 'once-in-a-lifetime' stuff WHEN in fact, more often, they are NOT 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunities at all.  Because down the road, similar opportunities will 'pop up' from time to time☝☝☝

Our takeaway:  Bottomline here is that you've got to finish that race, that marathon of our life.  Do whatever it takes for you to finish that marathon.  Moreover, if you can finish it several notches way ahead of your target-goal, then you're much better off.  As long as we DON'T forget that LIFE IS NOT A SPRINT dude😌😌😌

Life is NOT a 'SPRINT'

Life is NOT a 'SPRINT'

There's this widespread fallacy that to be quickest and the fastest is the way to go in our lives.  Unfortunately that is NOT the truism that prevails in real life.  We need to clear up the air of all the fallacies.  THAT life is not a 100-meter sprint.  THAT life is not a one-chapter storybook.  THAT life is not a replica of those flashes in the pan.  THAT there is no shortcuts in life except if you are looking for those dreaded shortcuts towards doom, towards failure, towards frustrations, towards one-way roads where you're headed towards that dead-end.

On the other hand, there are numerous sectors in our society who do accept the fact that life is a marathon but the problem is, quite a number of us are still [stupidly] locked-in towards sprinting the marathon, [wrongly] thinking that the earliest bird catches the worm, that the best sprinter wins them all.  What's being overlooked is that in our marathon, the road ahead is not paved and smooth.  It's a 'rough and tumble' game of potholes, of landslides. of deep ravines and cliffs by the side, of rickety bridges we need to cross.  You can win the top plum in your sprint today but that's only a chapter of a lifelong saga you need to endure.  

BTW it is no rocket science to figure out how to survive our marathon in life.  Just one simple logical advice: 'PACE YOURSELF', no more no less.  Remember we're just humans and although we got our own fuel tank, that is finite.  Eventually, that tank gets emptied unless and except you 'PACE YOURSELF' and having that best judgment when to accelerate or when to just be in that 'cruising speed' good enough to sustain the longer stretches.

Alas, we can't be totally faulted.  Why?  Because we are just damn motivated.  We wanted instant success, instant gratification, those overnight success stories. But hey, that's more fiction than anything else.  You got to invest pain, tears and even frustrations before you reach that precipice of success.

So, where's the trick.  Nada, nil, nothing unfortunately. You gotta earn your spurs, gotta remain focused and committed, be consistently glued to your goals and never get distracted but the multifarious disruptions now happening in our lives.  Note that you don't have foes and enemies in your marathon except yourself.  Everything is within you, dude.✅✅✅