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Why Slow and Steady?
Slow and Steady Wins the Race. You’ve heard it a thousand times before. You’ve said it at work. Someone has said it to you during a season of life where things aren’t moving quite as fast as you’d like. Why do we say it? Why are we going slow and stead? And for the love of all that is holy why are we racing through this one precious life?
Welcome back to a Fulfilled as a Mom Podcast short. These are going to be little riffs or episodes where something comes up and I just want to share it with you. It’s not going to be a full Fulfilled as a Mom episode and formal and scripted but it’s going to be me saying “hey I heard something that might resonate with you”.
In these Fulfilled as a Mom shorts I want to break down common phrases and I want to talk about wording and mindset and the things that we’re saying every day to ourselves and to each other. Really what I want is to systematically dismantle these phrases and assumptions just by bringing them to your attention.
Today I’m going to unpack the phrase slow and steady wins the race. This is a phrase that I think that we often hear whether it comes from kids being persistent and slow and kind of pacing yourself in a little5 k that you’re running or whether it’s with investing in the stock market: slow and steady wins the race. The stock market is down right now, so just keep investing, just keep dollar cost averaging as your money is going into the market because it will come back up (it always does) slow and steady wins. Get rich quick is rarely get rich quick.
There are 2 pieces for this phrase: Slow & Steady | Wins the Race. Let’s start with the second half first.
Wins the Race
Wins what race. What are you racing to and who are you racing with? So if you’re racing against yourself or your skills or abilities if you’re racing with.
If you are racing with your spouse and your kids or with your colleagues towards a goal that is passionate and worthwhile and something that you deeply believe in yes race towards that finish line.
But if you’re racing it against strangers on the internet or people who live in your neighborhood. Or someone who works in your department and the finish line of the race might not be somewhere. You not want to go.
It might be what you thought success looked like before you got here. It might be. The way that you thought your life would look like instead of what you thought it was going to feel like if you are in fact in a race.
Be Aware of the Race
Are you consciously running that race, are you headed on purpose towards an intentional destination or did you just see everyone else running and suddenly you’re running too and you’re not even sure where you’re headed?
So if you’re not sure where you’re headed. You are not alone. It is easy to get swept up in this herd mentality and everyone is doing it… so It seems like it’s the thing to do!
My question to you: do you want to be racing or can you slow down your pace and be more intentional with how fast you go and what your finish line is? What are you running towards or what are you running from?
You are afraid of something. Are you trying to leave something behind that you’re running from that you haven’t unpacked and worked through yet? Take some time to unpack this.
Slow and Steady
The next is this idea that slow and steady is the best way to get there. The words that we use are so powerful and I think a lot of these riffs are going to be unpacking the words that we use the connotation of those words, the emotions that those words evoke in us as we’re saying them so slow and steady wins the race right?
There’s the infamous story about the tortoise and the hare and the hare takes off running and uses all his energy early in the race and the tortoise just keeps going and going. And, you guessed it, the tortoise wins the race by slow and steady progress, putting one foot in front of the other.
The tortoise is slow and he is steady and he keeps going and going and going and in that way it is good and inspiring to keep showing up and to keep persisting despite challenges or obstacles that may come about. But if you’re saying slow and steady wins the race and slow and steady is the way that you want to live your life you’re missing the opportunity to say this could be fast and flexible.
Alternatively, this could be slow and unsteady and that’s okay because forward progress is forward progress and it doesn’t have to be. One foot in front of the other It’s not a linear path. Sometimes you take steps forward and then you get knocked back and you get up and you try a different way around or a different strategy. You don’t just keep plodding on if what you’re doing hasn’t been working or what if you go medium speed and it feels easy.
A Challenge for You
When I hear slow and steady it evokes this feeling of it being a slow and almost painful process that you just keep going and going and going. But what if in your life you want things to be quick and efficient and easy. So maybe instead of slow and steady you say efficient and easy wins the race when you can do things efficiently and effectively and a short amount of time in a way that feels easy to you because you’re using your unique skills and abilities to the best of your ability that to me feels more exciting I want things to be efficient and easy I want to be efficient and effective I want them to be efficient and fun.
I want you to decide on a phrase instead of slow and steady wins the race. Blank and blank wins the blank. It could be efficient and effective wins the day or slow and intentional wins the race.
I want you to tag me on Instagram or direct message me or email me info at fulfilled as a mom dot com and tell me what your new phrase is blank and blank wins the blank and what are you going to embody and what are you going to lean into and what are you racing to or walking towards.
The Finish Line
The next question to ask yourself is: iss that the direction that you want to be going in my life? Life is so busy that sometimes we forget to pause and make sure that where we’re going is.
You, my friend, have a unique set of skills and abilities that can be leveraged to make this phrase as specific to you as possible. You get to choose the finish line. You get to decide on your Core Values in this life. You get to determine the outcome of your life. You are the author of your own story.
Come to think of it, if you are interested in discovering what type of PA you are, head on over to https://www.tracybinghamman.com/type to find out. I made this super fun quiz just for you. There’s lots of emojis. It’s really actually quite fun to take and what it’s going to give you at the end of the quiz is your PA personality catch phrase.
What kind of a PA are you? What is the thing that you are saying day-in and day-out?
The quiz is super fun and it’s just going to be a reminder of why you are uniquely qualified to say I don’t want to be slow and steady, I want to be fast and flexible as I go about my day.
So tag me on Instagram at Mrs Tracy Bingaman or at fulfilled as a mom podcast head to https://www.tracybingaman.com/type to discover what type of PA you are and I will catch you next time on fulfilled as a mom.
