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What if slow & steady doesn’t win the race?

By on 04/10/2012

Am I good enough?

Do I have what it takes?

Do I really measure up?

When it’s time to level-up in business (or life), those are the first questions that get asked.

When you see yourself sitting next to Oprah, lights-camera-ACTION, ready to deliver your message, you say, “some day.” When you imagine your product on the shelves at Anthropologie, you say, “5 year plan.” When you dream about the 5-page spread in Fast Company, you say, “slow & steady.”

What if slow & steady doesn’t win the race?

What if the next step is actually a quantum leap forward? What if the next rung on the ladder requires you to jump to reach it?

I’ve been there. I’ve done that.

I’ve laid the firm foundations. And realized it’s no fun to live in the basement.

I’ve got penthouse ideas & ambitions.

The thing about slow & steady is that you always know where your feet are going to fall. You know that terra firma will be there to meet you each step of the way.

You know the bills are going to be paid. You know the schedule, the routine. You know everything about your customers. You know the platforms, the methods, the channels.

It’s not that slow & steady doesn’t work. It’s that you’re craving something more.

I have an inkling you might even be a bit scared to admit that, deep down, you’ve always identified with the hare.

Up the the point where she loses, naturally.

So where did the hare go wrong?

You aren’t going to win if you take a nap, run an errand, or get cocky. Okay, the hare had it coming.

But you also can’t compete if you don’t train. Training isn’t about the slow & steady. It’s about visualizing a goal and putting in the work required to get there.

You can sprint ahead but if you haven’t built up your stamina & worked the muscles, you’ll fall behind.

So, yes, there’s work. There are grueling circuits of Olympic-level creation. There are daily exercises in extreme relationship-building. There is question after question after question long after the shin splints have started.

But I know you. This is what you’re already doing. Or it’s what you crave and, instead, you’re endlessly strolling through the “shoulds” you believe are on the path to success.

The training isn’t a problem. So why are you sticking with the tortoise?

I want you to sprint.

Trust yourself & your big ideas. Push yourself to speeds you never before imagined. Take the leap. Swan dive toward your dreams.

Are you ready to surge ahead? It’s time to do a one-on-one Insight Intensive with me. My brain, your business: let’s talk. Learn more here.
Coaching shifts…

Now, when I think of wealth, I conspire ways to create win-wins for us all. I germinate strategies to help [my clients] increase not only [their] financial wealth, but also [their] emotional, spiritual, intellectual and relational prosperity.
– L’Erin Alta-Devki, creator of SisterFire.com

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Posted in | Tagged | 26 Responses

26 responses to “What if slow & steady doesn’t win the race?”

  1. Erin
    Erin 04/10/2012 at 11:25 pm | | Reply

    Great points! I’ve always been more of a tortoise, but I’ve definitely been jealous of the hare. I’ve recently been trying to bring out a little of my inner hare. Haven’t thought of it in those terms yet, but I like it! It seems to me maybe we need the hare’s fast, dream-big, go-get-’em-ness coupled with the tortoise’s persistence and focus. That might just make a killer combo.

    1. tara gentile
      tara gentile 04/10/2012 at 11:31 pm | | Reply

      Yes! I think that’s exactly it, Erin. We need a little of both and it’s all to easy to get down on yourself for wanting to sprint ahead every so often.

      Let loose! Run at full speed! Claim the prize. And then do what’s sustainable until you’re ready to surge ahead again.

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    [...] What if slow and steady doesn’t win the race? Tara Gentile just hits it out of the park, every time. /* Share the love:FacebookStumbleUponEmail [...]

  3. tanvi
    tanvi 09/19/2012 at 9:19 pm | | Reply

    Hi Tara,
    Great post. The freedom to dream is something I feel we often deny ourselves. Never hear enough about day dreaming. I think it has a role in inspiring us too. BTW when I click on a link that says learn more it is taking me to a page about some free calls on May 21 :(
    Thanks.

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