The Hare & The Tortoise Story

You learn something every day, if you pay attention to all your folds. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. Children have to be educated, but they also have to be left to educate themselves. As a child we all read many stories, In-fact we forget all except few. Somehow believe the story of Hare vs the Tortoise still holds strength in all. May be the reason being on various context throughout we kept listening to it as examples here & there.We can still spell magic with this story in a new light making it worthwhile for all of us.

The Hare & Tortoise story is one of Aesop's Fables, a collection of stories credited to Aesop, a slave from Ancient Greece. The hare blind to over confidence thought that he’ll win taking a nap or break was his right & the tortoise’s diligent regular, plodding pace allowed him, in-spite of being  slower competitor, to cross the finish line first.

Are you a tortoise or a hare when you approach a large task?

There’s no right or wrong way, but just whatever system works better for you.If the story is dissected to the given living conditions in which we nurture can be forked into two ways…

A Tortoise prefers to work more days, for fewer hours–three hours a day for seven days - Slow and steady.

A Hare prefers to work fewer days, for more hours–seven hours a day for three days - Bursts of effort.

I am a Tortoise. I like working every day, but I don’t like feeling that I have to get a huge amount done in any one session. I like having distant deadlines that I approach slowly and steadily.

A friend of mine is a Hare. She allows herself to take a day off here and there, but she makes up that work. She doesn't mind the pressure of needing to accomplish a lot over a short period. She feels energized by deadlines.

One problem with being a Hare is that to be effective, you really do need to catch up. You can’t sleep through the entire race. I see quasi-hares fall into the trap of the “tomorrow problem”. “I didn't work today, but I’ll work seven hours tomorrow”–but when tomorrow becomes today, they don’t feel like working the seven hours. If that’s a challenge you face, you might try a tortoise approach. Don’t try to do too much on any one day, but push yourself to be very, very consistent.

Interestingly this story scores on many morals, where we had earlier one…

·        Slow & Steady Wins the Race

·        Consistency can beat Over Confidence

·        First identify your competence & then change the playing field to suit your core competence

·        When we stop competing against a rival & instead compete with the situation we perform better

·        Never give up

·        Never under estimate the weakest opponent