Have you ever noticed a pattern in your life? A pattern that your parents followed, then you and probably your kids would too?
When I look back, there is one pattern that’s very obvious. I call it “the race pattern” !
- The race to come first in the class 🏆
- The race to join the best college 🙋🏻♀️
- The race to get the best job and salary 💼
- The race to get the best partner 🙎🏻♂️
- The race to have the best marriage 👰🏻
- The race to get promoted 💰
- The race to get your child admitted to the best school 🧒🏻
And Repeat! ♾
It’s a full circle! It’s a “Rat Race”!
This is something that never changes, no matter what age, what stage in your life. Everyone wants the best. Everyone is in the same race and wants to come first. And why not?
The point is, at what cost? What are you willing to pay for it?
The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
Lily Tomlin
At first this pattern may seem very obvious and something you wouldn’t consider as an issue. But, as you dig deeper, you will realize, you are missing out on the most precious gift given by god – “Life” !
Life is the cost that we are paying being in this race.
We somewhere forget to live, to be, to exist, to appreciate the mere fact that we are alive today and we could breathe!
I’m going to enjoy every second, and I’m going to know I’m enjoying it while I’m enjoying it. Most people don’t live; they just race. They are trying to reach some goal far away on the horizon, and in the heat of the going they get so breathless and panting that they lose sight of the beautiful, tranquil country they are passing through; and then the first thing they know, they are old and worn out, and it doesn’t make any difference whether they’ve reached the goal or not.
Jean Webster
Can we not just slow down for a bit? Can we not just be and let be? Can we not for once differ the pattern?
What if I don’t come first? what if I am not the best employee of the year? what if I failed in my relationship? Can I still Live?
Word of The Day Prompt: Precious
Discover Prompt: Slow
The rat race, for some will never end. Some even enjoy the whole experience, good luck to them. If you’re from an Indian heritage (like myself) then this ‘blueprint’ of life is already mapped out. It’s a competition from the age of 14 onwards (much earlier now in this dawn of the generation). Have to be No.1. How about, ‘have to get up each morning and feel loved at what I do’. This experience we are all going through shows that no amount of money or power in the world can save you. And for those who replace family time with ‘making money and being productive time’ may hopefully realise what they have been missing. In the rat race is there is only one loser, (us) and one winner (life – chuckling at your state).
Nice post.
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I know and can totally relate to it! Thanks for your amazing comment ❤️
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Your welcome. Have a great weekend.
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You too! Stay safe!
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It is fascinating to me how the “race” mentality is more prominent in certain cultures– and how different cultures sometimes have different ideas of what it looks like to win the race. Beauty? Independence? Wealth? Freedom? Power? No matter which one though, you are right: we can never win by those standards. And in the meantime, we are missing out the gift God gave us– life itself!
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Thanks for your wonderful comment! 🙂 Glad you liked it.
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Totally agree. Life just isn’t one big competition. We all have our own path to walk – we are different people after all.
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Yes! And why to follow what everyone else is doing? Why not choose out own path. Unfortunately sometimes we do not even realise that we are part of the same rat race🤷🏻♀️
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I don’t know if you think this is off-topic but one thing that has always bothered me is how many women tend to put each other down, whilst trying to be the best. They would rather succeed alone than empower each other. I’m not generalizing though. There are certainly a lot of people that encourage others, run their own race & enjoy seeing others grow.
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Yeah a little off topic but I get your point.
In my opinion, people in general try to put each other down a lot of times, it’s not only limited to one gender. There are all sorts of people in this world and we can never generalize it. It totally depends on what you got to see in your life.
In my childhood, I read a poem, which taught me a great deal and it makes sense now.
When a bird is inside the egg, it feels that this is the world and there is nothing else. When it comes out of the egg and lives in the nest, it feels this nest is the world and that’s it. But the day it learns to fly it realises that oh! It was wrong!! The world is huge, it’s big.
So we make conclusions and form opinions on what we see and experience. Which is totally fine! But that does not mean “that is it! ” 🙂
Take care! Stay safe! 🙂
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Definitely agree. Our experiences shape our perceptions. One of the reasons I started writing on a platform like WordPress was to see things differently & consider views of various people. And don’t get me wrong, i didn’t generalize – I only explained from my experiences. I have dear friends, my mum, sister, wife & I only expressed my feelings as a result of what I experienced with them. They do a lot of great things & they would never be successful at the things they undertook if they indeed succumbed to the negativity spewed at them from other women. Genders aside, we should never make it a competition. We should always aspire to be a better version of ourselves. I also strongly believe that dimming another persons light doesn’t make yours shine any brighter. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, much appreciated
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Yes absolutely agree with you!!! You can never grow if you are pulling people down.. 🙂🙂
It’s great meeting different people here and expressing our views. It definitely opens up our perspective of seeing things 🙂
Stay safe! Have a great day❤️
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