Now in the original story, Laura – the tortoise – wins because she just keeps keeping on. She does not lose momentum from start to finish. She may have been slower than Susan – the hare – but she is consistent and she keeps going until the finish point and probably even beyond. Her journey is just beginning. Susan, on the other hand, lost focus and got distracted leading to her not finishing and in the story, she would be made redundant, Jimmy Choos and all!
However, real life could play out in a few other ways.
- Both Susan and Laura could exceed their goals and keep their job
- Susan could actually have done more than Laura despite losing the plot halfway through the task, Laura gets fired and Susan maintains her ‘top dog’ position
- Laura could realise she is actually a lot better in her role than she thought and accepts a new position elsewhere, deciding that she does not want to be at the whim of this employer anymore.
- They could both do well and the store still shuts down. We are in a recession after all!
I am sure there are more endings to this but the point I want to bring up is that regardless of who we are – a Susan or a Laura – we can win. We can win no matter how many other people win too. It does not have to be an either/or situation. It is really all about the way we choose to react to and think about circumstances. There really is enough for everyone.
Maybe we will not win in a flashy way like a Susan and maybe it will take us a long time to get THERE – wherever that is for you or me. The truth is even if it takes us ten years, we will be better off attempting to do a little something different each day. As whatever we do, ten years will pass and we will either be worse off or better off depending on the choices we make today.
Laura chose to give the scary task a try and she discovered a lot more about herself and her capabilities. If she gets fired, she has the choice to use this new knowledge of herself to engineer a better position elsewhere or to do her own thing. If Laura has any self-awareness about her, she will realise that she is not the incapable girl she once thought she was. She too has a talent that she can develop.
What of you? If you are anything like me, there are times when you wonder what you are good at? You do not want to show yourself for fear of being noticed as a fraud so therefore you stay silent, doing nothing but what you have always done even though inside you long for more.
Well, every new day is your chance to shine, to do a little something different, a chance to change your world. Come On, let us step out of the shadow and let our lights shine.
