The Race

The other day, I asked a couple of my friends following question, "Suppose, you are running a race and are very close to the finish line, but then you realize that this isn't the race you wanted to be a part of. So, what do you do, do you finish the race or quit?". Both of them started their answer saying, "it totally depends on the kind of race", but one of them said she would complete the race and the other one said she would quit. Now, this doesn't mean the other one is a loser or the first one is a winner. Going back to their first statement, "it totally depends on the kind of race", makes them wise. When I asked this question to them, both of them imagined a race of their lives, wherein the first one found the end result of the race beneficial for her, hence she chose to complete. Whereas, the other found the end result of the race destructive for her, so she chose to quit. Hence both of them wisely chose their plan of action.

After talking to them, I sat down and analyzed the race which I was running, which had initially triggered this question. To decide whether I should finish the race or quit, I had to answer 4 basic questions about my race:

1. What kind of race it is?
2. Who are my competitors?
3. What is the end result, good, bad or unknown?
4. Is this race really important to me?

Once I had the answer to the above questions, I knew what I had to do. But, during this process, I learnt that in this competitive world, sometimes it is ok to slow down, maybe to think or just to regain the energy to run again. And it is not necessary to participate in each competition life throws at you, we need to choose our races wisely.