We must have heard the famous saying,
“If you don’t Time your actions, even the best actions will go waste….”
This is often quoted when people don’t follow the stereotypical phases of life and decided to do things in an unorthodox manner. By stereotypical phases of life, I mean the timetable that society expects everyone to follow. Failing to follow the same, makes the person unfit for society. The whole life span of a person is fragmented in several phases’ right from birth to death. Stand up and walk at the age of one; Start speaking gibberish by one-one and half years; Go to a playschool by three; Kindergarten by five; Complete primary education by 16; Higher secondary by 18; Graduate by 21-22; Get into a job soon after; Settle by 25-26; Get married by 28; Have kids by 30; Raise them and take care of them; Then their kids. This is the rigid time frame set out by our society for a happy and successful man/woman. But does this time frame suit all of us.
Just as each individual takes his time to complete a marathon, isn’t it the same with our lives too?
Life isn’t a 100m race wherein coming first means to succeed. Life is like a marathon, you have got to keep pushing, keep trying and keep striving hard throughout the marathon. The ultimate goal is to complete the marathon, not to complete first. But throughout your entire journey, you should enjoy it. One should be totally involved in his journey and appreciate every part of it.
Our aim should not be to overtake or to win over someone, because keep in mind each one of us have got a different track for our journeys with our own clock ticking.
By saying this it might be clear that the result isn’t important, but the journey is more important. It’s alright if you don’t get a job by 22-23, it fine if you haven’t settled in life until your mid-30s. Eventually, you will get through and succeed, remember what you seek is seeking you too. Many inspirational leaders, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and celebrities got their breakthroughs at different stages of their life.
At the age of 65, when most people are looking at slowing down and retiring, Harland David Sanders began Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain across the world. Charles Darwin was 50 years old when he published “On the origin of species”, the book for which he is best known today. The globally famous and most praised comic book publisher, Marvel’s founder Stan lee wrote his first-ever comic at the age of 40. On the other hand, working as an engineer until his 40s, Henry ford succeeded only at the age of 45 by releasing the Model T Ford in 1908.
So, it’s very much evident that everyone’s life doesn’t fit into the molds of our society. Each individual takes his time to hit the right note in his life.
Until then keep striving and keep pushing; moreover,
relish every step of your journey and have fun.
Remember the idea is to complete the marathon not to complete first.