RUN YOUR OWN RACE

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RUN YOUR OWN RACE

In a marathon race, you would notice that there are different kinds of people in that race; fat, thin, large, short, tall - some run very fast while some run slowly but in the process of the marathon, you would find out that if you keep focusing on the race of others, you will either be intimidated by the fast and tall runner or overconfident that you will beat the fat and slow runner, either way you get distracted running your own race unless you get to realize that the sizes, shapes and strengths of these people have nothing to do with your goals; they are running their race and so are you.






In life, some people may be faster than you while some may be slower than you, which ever one it is, its none of your business, you just stay and remain focused on your own lane and keep going on with your race. We all have our different timings in life and we will all arrive at our various destinations. Just because you are faster than your contemporaries doesn't make you superior or better than others and just because you are slower and others are faster than you are, doesn't make you inferior to those who are moving faster in life. Time and chance happens to all. "I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all". Ecclesiastics 9:11



Remember the Nigerian bread seller, Olajumoke Orisaguna who accidentally photo-bombed the photo shoot of TY Bello on a set? She came from a humble background but on this fateful day, Jumoke was going about her normal business of the day hawking bread in which she gets her daily living from, she accidentally appeared on a photo shoot by TY Bello which left TY Bello trilled and the bread seller was sought for. With the help of TY Bello, the bread seller became a model appearing on cover photos of magazines, traveling to places she never dreamed of and that changed her destiny and that of her generation for the best. 

"Run your own race" has become sort of a mantra for me. I need not get trapped in comparison irrespective of other people's success or growth since I know we all play different games. Each time there is a tendency to feel insecure about other people's success, envious or getting trapped in comparison, when people talk about their successes in life in front of you and you feel kind of intimidated, when you see the good life of people posted on social media like Instagram and Facebook, that's their race and not your race, when it seems everyone is getting ahead of you in life way too fast than you had imagined, don't be intimidated, simply say to yourself  "run your race", and if your race seems to be too slow compared to others, say to yours " this is my race and I must run it well" its not how fast but how well that matters in the end. Just keep going. No matter how you feel and what happens, no matter what is ahead of you or behind you, just remain focused on the next step in front of you and get it done.


Comparisons are not necessary when it comes to your personal goals in life and are not helpful. Focus on what you can do and when you can do it. How you do what you do is no one's business neither is it your business of how anybody does his/hers. There is nothing wrong in trying to speed up certain aspects of your life i.e having speed targets but there are times you get to a halt in life and seem to get stuck. When/if you find yourself in such a situation, don't get discouraged or give up. It means you just found yourself another race and its all part of the process in life - stay focused with your head held high and not in shame. Take your race one step at a time. Don't get suck just because you could not meet up with a particular race at the time you set to achieve that particular race in life.


The more you are worried and concentrating on other people's success, the less time you have to focus on your own success and progress in life. Even when having an actual competition in racing, swimming or any kind of sporting activity, you ought to focus on your own race but if you get distracted by the race of others, you loose focus on your own race. Do what what you can do for yourself, do what is within your control to do and go about your daily activities with diligence just like Jumoke and before you know it, your time will come. Time and energy used to monitor, envy or compare your race with that of another is a wasted time and energy but only becomes fruitful if used to focus on your own race.

Quote for the day - " It doesn't matter weather you come in first, in the middle of the pack or last. You can say ' I finished'. There is a lot of satisfaction in that." - Fred Lebow.



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