I was talking with a friend recently and we got onto the topic of the tortoise and the hare, an old children's tale. The tortoise and the hare had a race, and of course the hare raced ahead. The tortoise kept on slowly plodding along, but there was no way it could compete with the speed of the hare. Part way along the race, the hare decided to take a nap, and while he slept the tortoise crept past him to the finish line.

Do you ever feel like you are the tortoise, and life is passing you by like the hare? I think it happens to most of us. There never seem to be enough hours in the day. You work as hard as you can and you don't seem to make any progress. Perhaps to get where you'd like to be requires years of study and hard work. Success seems so far off.

Just remember the tortoise won the race. You keep on going and you will make it. Make a plan, and work to the plan. Think of an airplane flying from Canada to Hawaii. If it is just a few degrees off course, it will miss the islands, or at least waste fuel to get back on track. They keep checking to see if they are on track, and make little course corrections along the way.

Those little course corrections are how to measure your success. If you follow your plan, and stick to it, you are headed to your ultimate goal. Your ultimate goal may be a way off, but you are a success to the degree you follow your plan and to the degree you make needed course corrections.

(From the best of Big Dreams)