It is a story told a thousand times over to children, with conflicting messages on what the moral of the story is. Take your time and work carefully; you will succeed. Do not be overconfident in your ability. These seem to be the most common morals chanted. Admirable rules to live by. But in the case of working slowly, what of those who still succeed while seemingly speeding ahead recklessly? In the case of confidence, how much is too much confidence?
There's the saying, 'the early bird catches the worm'. True enough, under some circumstances, the faster you are, the more likely you will succeed.
But success by what measure? Who determines what is success or failure? Is it success recognised by the people around us? Or is it success that we measure for ourselves?
'One man's garbage is another man's treasure'. What mean and rule do we use to assign value to a thing or circumstance? Is it not due to the scope of our ability that we weigh something as valuable or useless? If so, then whose scope of ability determines the agreed-upon success of an individual? Is it not the individual themselves?
Do we judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree? No, we don't. Instead, we measure a fish by its ability to swim. Water is, after all, the fish's natural environment, not land. Then should we not judge success by the ability of the individual in the environment?
Consider the main topic of this piece, the Hare and the Tortise. It is an unfair telling. Why? For the race occurs on land!
While tortoises can function both in water and on land, their performance in both environments is completely different. For in water a tortoise is three times faster than on land!
Consider now the hare. It is a land-born animal. Land is its natural environment, and as such, it is very fast on land. 45 mph by some measures. Put the hare in water and it's movements are slow. No exact estimates have been found, as hares seem to swim only as a means of escaping danger.
Then, if we were to change the environment of the race in that they were racing across a lake, would not the tortoise be speedier and, in turn, overconfident in its ability? Would he not then take a break in mockery of the hare struggling to get across?
He most certainly would.
When we are comfortable in an environment, we are most confident in it. We exhibit a degree of hubris, to which onlookers may be disgusted or put off by. It may be an overestimation of our skill or an accurate one.
The overestimation of our ability stems from countless successes in the environment. We have seen and succeeded at all that our comfort has to offer. In a way, we have attained godhood in our comfort zone. We can predict and assess with 100% accuracy the direction and outcome of events.
Consider this: As a runner, you have completed multiple 200m races. You know your ability and the track in all weather conditions. You can run 200m races and win with your eyes closed. You have even raced two consecutive races on several occasions. Is this not also talent for a 400m race? So you take on a 400m race. Only it calls for much more energy and effort than two consecutive 200m races. You lose the race. While a 400m race is logically two 200m races, you have never run a real 400m race.
In the case of it not being an overestimation but an accurate measure of our ability. Is it not the limitations of strangers' perceptions, who are not aware of our ability, that we seem overconfident?
Consider this: A prize is offered for the first person to score a basket from the opposite side of the court. Many have tried and failed. Now you enter. At this point, people believe it to be impossible, but you say that you can make the shot. They would believe you to be overconfident, cocky even. You take the shot and win the prize. The onlookers are dumbfounded. "How'd you do that?" Unbeknownst to them, you had spent countless hours practising to shoot a basket from the other side of the court.
Now, if we consider the hare and the tortoise's race on both land and in water, the true moral of the story emerges. Progressive diligence will lead to a fruitful end.
Progressive diligence means to continue working at something. Challenging yourself. If you are comfortable on the path, move onward to the next stage. Because you can be diligent in a task and make no progress in it.
Consider this: You are learning a new language. Every day you practice one of the lessons you have long completed. How much progress in the language will you make if every three days you return to the lesson of counting 1 to 100, and every other day you revisit simple greetings? You are diligent, yes, but you are not progressing; you are diligently marching in the same spot, not moving forward.
Moving forward is difficult; it is challenging. You are forced to leave your comfort zone and enter a new area where you are out of your element, you feel lost, and you can't seem to keep up. You struggle and can see no progress to your actions. Stopping would be easier, you would feel better, no one would blame you, you did try. Did you really? Give an honest assessment of yourself. Did you really try? Did you push past your comfort zone? Did you feel like you were breaking and kept going?
That breaking is where we leave our comfort zone, where we truly enter the next phase. It is after this breaking that our tries and efforts start building into progress and results. That breaking is the rearranging of our internal self. It is necessary for us to take on the new phase. Consider it the death of the old you as the new you grows to take on the challenge.
We admire heroes, not because they are strong. But because, in the face of adversity, they are progressively diligent, they keep facing the challenge, even when it breaks their physical bodies.
A fruitful end is where you see the results of your diligence. Success is measured by the goals you established at the start and the new ones you set during your journey that are met at the end of it. Your goals should be based on an honest estimation of your ability while also challenging you to go further.
Struggle not to become a person of success, because you determine what your success is. And in reaching your success, you have only attained a new level of comfort, which will lead to your stagnation and downfall.
Whether a circumstance is a failure depends wholly on your view of it and your actions after the fact. Every failure is a lesson to be learned; every lesson learned is knowledge acquired; knowledge acquired becomes wisdom; and wisdom begets fruitfulness.
Hence, the story should be called, 'the slothful hare and diligent tortoise'.
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