How To Embrace the Tortoise Mentality: Achieving Long-Term Health and Wellness
The tortoise and the hare. It is a classic tale about slow and steady winning the race. The well-known fable by Aesop is the story of a tortoise that is bullied by a hare for being slow. The tortoise, fed-up with being ridiculed, challenges the hare to a race. The hare zips off, leaving the pokey tortoise in his dust. The hare is so confident he will win, that he stops along the way to take a nap. When he awakens, he sees the tortoise crawling slowly and steadily across the finish line.
Most people are familiar with this fable and its’ message. Yet so few people apply it to their lives - especially as it relates to health and wellness. The hare approach to health has always been flashier and sexier. It is always promising a quick fix with minimal effort - there is even time to stop for a nap along the way!
The reality is that there are no shortcuts. Sure, there are best practices that can shorten someone’s learning curve or set them on the most efficient path to living a healthy and active lifestyle, but not shortcuts.
This leads to the discussion of supplements. Specifically, supplementation by student athletes. Kids are notoriously impatient. The majority of adults were the exact same way in their youth. It is normal! That impatience, however, often leads to a path of least resistance in an attempt to get “X” quick. This is stinkin’ thinkin’.
Of course there are shortcuts that can accelerate muscle and strength gains in the gym or shed pounds in the mirror. Anabolic steroids, growth hormones, diuretics…the list goes on and on. But what is the true cost of those shortcuts? The answer is a (shortened) lifetime of poor health.
A goal can absolutely be achieved quickly by taking a shortcut. There is a price, however, that must be paid back at some point in time. While it may seem like a long way off for a 20 year old student athlete, the reality is that diminished health and longevity will begin to accumulate much sooner than one might care to reralize.
So what is the answer?
Do the work.
Be consistent, not constant.
Do not give in to the temptation for a quick and easy solution.
Plod along in a calculated, methodical manner.
Be disciplined in making hard work a priority.
In the end, slow and steady will win the race.
