Put your best foot forward is advice that causes many people to die at the start line.
What would you say if I told you that some of the most talented runners in the world never win the greatest race of their lives?
Many talented people die at the start line of the race because they can’t make the simplest of decisions. There is no questionnaire at the end of the race that asks if you started on the right foot, the best foot or any other choice you may have had to make along the way. Yet talented people are disqualified from the race because they never start.
While we are able to see the story here, we encounter many points in our lives when we could enter the race with great chances to be crowned the winner. With great chances to receive rewards and recognition beyond our wildest dreams. We have greater skills than the competition, we have greater training than the competition, we have a lock on winning this race yet we are disqualified because we never get out of the starting blocks.
Keep in mind that the race is not over until the winner crosses the finish line. Others may start before you, but you can catch up. Others may start before you, but your superiority can make up for the lag in time. Many times your intellect is so much superior that you can even psyche your opponents out.
Why, oh why do we allow this to happen? We can see things from a different vantage point in this story. We are above the roar of the moment and we are looking at things with clear eyes, and an open mind. The choice is simple. Get in the race and win it!
Yet, in our everyday life we miss opportunities to get in the race because we are paralyzed by the fear of analysis. We allow our mental superiority to interfere with our common sense. We spend forever studying the situation. We are afraid of making the decision to just enter the race and take the first step.
We have been exposed to the story of “the tortoise and the hare”, yet we don’t take the moral of the story to heart. The rabbit (hare) has the skill to win the race handily, but allows distractions and perceived superiority to keep him from crossing the finish line. Meanwhile the tortoise makes the most of the opportunity and steadily make progress towards the finish line.
We often find that common sense is not common practice and here in lies the rub. Everything in our analysis of this story tells us that the tortoise should not ever enter the race because the rabbit has greater physical skills and at least on paper is “guaranteed” a win. Handicappers have drawn up the odds and posted information that the rabbit is going to win the race. The radio, the television, the newspapers all pick up the story and are predicting that the rabbit will win by a large margin.
The rabbit hears the hype and “knows” the prediction and believes it because he is aware of his speed. He is able to see the speed of his competition. He is logical and there is no way that he can lose the race. He enters the race full of confidence, yet in the end he is distracted and wakes up to find that despite all of the intellectual analysis he has not won the race.
The tortoise (turtle) on the other hand has not listened to the hype. Has not allowed the foolishness to enter the equation. He knows that the only thing that is important is that he cross the finish line first. He knows that the only way to do this is to start and not quit.
The simple philosophy “start, stay focused and not quit” is the winning philosophy! The philosophy that you have it in the bag or worse yet, that your competition has it in the bag is the philosophy of a sure loser.
The race is not always a race of physical performance alone. Many times it is a mental, or emotional challenge that we face. Yet we have everything going for us, but we spend our time analyzing the situation over and over. We look at every angle, we look at every obstacle, we look at every challenge and challenger, when we do wake up to find that these are only distractions that have kept us from finishing the race and being declared the winner.
Let me make this real simple.
- It makes no difference which foot we start on.
- What makes the difference is that we get started.
- What makes the difference is not the many analyses that we make.
- The simple solution is getting started, staying focused and not quitting.
Please share this winning philosophy – pass it on!