Pace

…. “my pace is my pace” I maintained adamantly, “So let me be!” I added with the cockiness of a hard core rapper. My logic being that each animal comes with its own pace, the tortoise is slow, that is the way he was designed, the cheetah is fast, that is the way his maker made him, the snake slithers, that is the way he is designed to move, the galloper gallops, the jumper jumps, the hopper hops, etc. And I am ‘me’, doing ‘me’, manifesting ‘me’, moving at ‘me’ pace, so let ‘me’ just be. And ‘you are ‘you’, doing ‘you’, manifesting ‘you’ so I should let you be.

But I have come to wonder, is my pace set like a car on auto cruise or a plane on auto pilot? Is my pace truly my pace? Am I not determined and my pace influenced by my surroundings? Am I simply not a product of my environment? Do I not have to obey the speed limit of the road I find myself on? I am sure that there are a few people who are like cactus, incredibly resourceful, robust and resolute and will thrive in almost any environment, however I suspect that majority of people are like any other plant, our soil, environment, nutrient level, care determines our growth and if you like our pace.

I have been in environment where I have been slowed down by the negativity, energy draining, unbelieving crowd I am surrounded by. My brain is slower, my physical pace is slow, my countenance is dropped, my energy is withdrawn. My outlook on life is negative, my assessment of my self and my projection of where I can go, who I can become is thwarted by the cloud of negativity.

In the same vein, I have been around positive, encouraging, believing people, who approach life with the ‘can do’ attitude, who believe in themselves and believe in me. I walk away from them 10 times taller, I take giant strides, my legs grow out, I bounce, I run, I hop and do all kind of gymnastics. My brain is sharper, my gaze is stronger, my mood is positive and my pace is faster! Yes, my pace is faster! So my pace is not my pace after all, it is influenced!

I guess we have all heard it, to choose our company carefully as this determines our pace and who we become. But sometimes, this is easier said than done, also we need to be careful and assess that we are not the toxic one. But for the sake of argument, if we assume we have carried out self assessment and we are good, we are kosher, no untowardness (at least within reason ) can be found in our camp. How do we deal with the situation where we found that at work, we are surrounded by the most negative bunch of people that life has ever thrown together, or worse still, life has cunningly position us in a family of back stabbers (unpleasant to imagine, but it happens), take it one step further, we are married to ‘dare I say!’ And produce children that are likewise? Let’s move away from family, our church or any place of worship or even social gatherings, clubs , where we are regular, is festering with moaners and complainers. There is no pleasant way to put this, but we are in for some stunted growth and sloooooowwwww pace, unless we proactively find ways to introduce nutrient to our life.

To grow, we must leave hindering environment and be planted in nourishing one, to improve our pace we must be in enabling environment. Physical leaving is ideal, but not always straightforward and sometimes not practically possible especially in the short term. However we can all mentally, internally, psychologically uproot ourselves and start our journey in a positive direction. We can blank out in our minds, people and environment that are not conducive to our growth and embrace positive and uplifting experiences. I have read stories of people in incarceration, on death row for crimes that they did not committ, but somehow have found ways to liberate themselves in their minds. I accept that even this is excruciatingly difficult in certain circumstances especially where people have been bastardised, but we can only but try.

Our pace is not our pace, we are product of our environment and where we have opportunity to choose our environment, our pace is as a result of our decisions.