Learn How to Run

In one of the Aesop's fables, I have to admit that reading Farrah Gray's Reallionaire, reminded me of the story, of a fox and a rabbit.

Observing the fox and the rabbit were two men. The fox pursued the rabbit hotly, with the fox barking or growling hoping to see the rabbit surrender or slack in its pace, but the rabbit kept running until it ran out of sight and out of reach of the fox.

One of the two men, amazed, asked the other why the fox could not catch the rabbit, the second man replying said, the fox was running for fun and the rabbit was running for his life.

One of the Nigerian proverbs says "when you see an adult running barefooted among thorns, if he is not pursuing something, something must be pursuing him".

On this canvass, I hope to paint a picture on how to run.

By running I mean living, and I believe seeing life like a race may give a perspective that will be better understood and helpful to someone, probably you.

To run properly then, certain questions have to be answered:

1. How did you get in the race? There are many approach to getting an answer to the question, but let us use a more immediate one: The mess you are in, how did you get into it, or the type of life you are living, how did you get to be living like that?
2. Why did I get in the race? This may easily look like finding excuse(s) for how you get in the race, but it is more about your beliefs. Do you think it's because of what you have sown, in behaviors or actions or in-actions?
3. Why am I running? You are in the race, but most events always give room for deciding. Why should I run when I can just surrender, as the rabbit could have done? You alone knows why you must escape the mess or enjoy the life, whichever way you see your situation. This is because what you call enjoyment someone else calls an error to be escaped from; and what you call a mess, to another is enjoyment.
4. How am I running? Am  I running for fun or for my life? Am I in pursuit or am I being pursued? How you are running will determine the end of the race. In the story told earlier, if the fox was not running for fun, the outcome would have been different.

Somebody said, if you want something bad enough, you are most likely going to get it.

I don't know what you are pursuing, if your pursuit is for fun, it doesn't matter how the race ends, whether you make or lose money, spend or lose time etc, it is for fun; it doesn't matter how the exams go, A or F you are less concerned.

If you are running for life on the other hand, your approach is different, how you run becomes extremely important since it's a matter of life and death.

The following affects how you run:

• Your reality. Your worldview.
• Your beliefs which fuels your...
• Passion for or against 'whatever'
• Confidence.
• Focus or distractions and 
• Courage: This essentially is lacking in running for fun. You won't just feel tired until you escape That is how courage is.

Living like an indifferent observer is a choice you may not deliberately make but you will and must live with the outcome.