Everyone is rushing to beat everyone to the next best thing. In our hyper-connected world, it seems like we're all caught in an endless race—people talking loudly, beating metaphorical drums, and waving attention-grabbing flags. There's this constant clamor as everyone tries to be the loudest, the brightest, the most visible. But when we step back and really think about it, that's not the point of the journey we're on.
The digital world has turned life into a competition. On social media, wins are measured in likes, shares, and followers. We scroll through highlight reels of others’ victories while wrestling with our own unseen struggles. Without even realizing it, we end up comparing ourselves and running a race we never chose to enter.
The Mimicry Trap
A common business strategy taught is to know your competition. Know what they're doing, how they're doing it, and why. Makes total sense when you're selling products, right? But somehow, we've dragged this mindset into our personal lives too. And there's a big difference: instead of learning from others to grow in our own way, we just... copy. We see someone killing it on Instagram with their morning routine videos, and suddenly we're setting our alarms for 5 AM too, even if we're night owls who do our best thinking after 10 PM
This copying doesn't stop at work. It creeps into how we decorate our homes, how we spend our free time, and even how we try to improve ourselves. We jump on the same bandwagons—bullet journals, cold plunges, intermittent fasting—without asking if these things actually make sense for US. And we end up becoming knockoffs instead of the real deal versions of ourselves.
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
"The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."
Sometimes the best person doesn't win. Life has its own timing, and chance matters more than we admit. I know this firsthand. My master's degree didn't prevent my life from falling apart. Specialists couldn't save my dad. Prayer didn't keep my husband alive. My stable job didn't protect me from losing my home.
These hard lessons taught me about control. You can do everything "right" and still get knocked down. I'm not suggesting you give up—just free yourself from thinking perfect planning prevents pain. Some things—timing, opportunity, chance—are beyond our control, regardless of how many self-help books we read.
The Freedom of Finding Your Own Path
When you can't hear yourself think anymore because everyone's shouting about their hustle and their success—that's when you need to find your own race. Your own path that fits who YOU are.
What does that actually look like? It means asking yourself the hard questions: What would I do if nobody was watching? What makes me feel good inside? Where do my natural talents, interests, and values overlap? You won't figure it all out in one journaling session, but just asking these questions starts creating space for the real you to show up.
Finding your own race doesn't mean becoming a hermit or never competing again. It means being picky about which conversations you join, which measuring sticks you use, and whose opinions actually matter to you. It's knowing the difference between "this inspires me" and "this makes me feel like garbage about myself."
Redefining Success on Your Terms
There's a race where it's just you SistahGirl, against time and chance. Success isn't counted in followers or comparison—it's measured by whether you stayed true to YOUR path.
Your version of winning might include some promotions or achievements, but it probably also values things you can't post about: staying honest when it would be easier to lie, being kind when you're exhausted, the wisdom you earned through your darkest times, or finding peace when everything's chaos. Maybe it values deep friendships over a huge network, or meaningful experiences over a long list of accomplishments.
Rewriting success for yourself takes guts. You might disappoint people. You might look like you're "falling behind" in the conventional race. People who are still playing by the old rules might not get you. But the alternative—living someone else's idea of a good life—costs way more: it costs you YOU.
A Weekend Practice
It's the weekend... breathe. Step away from the noise. Find your own rhythm. Your own pace. The world will still be there on Monday, with all its rush and clamor. But maybe, just maybe, you'll return to it with a clearer sense of which race is actually yours to run.
Try this simple thing: For the next 48 hours, notice when you feel that pull to compare yourself, compete, or fit in. When you catch that feeling—you know the one—pause. Take a deep breath. Ask yourself: "Is this my race to run? Does this path honor who I really am?" Then choose what to do next.
Over time, these little moments of awareness add up. The noise doesn't go away, but your ability to tell the difference between outside pressure and your inner wisdom gets stronger. You start moving with more confidence and ease, less thrown around by whatever's trending this week.
In a world obsessed with competition, choosing your own path might be the most rebellious—and brave—thing you can do. It's also the only way to make sure that when you cross your finish line, you arrive not just at some random destination, but as the most real, most authentic version of yourself.
#FindYourOwnRace #WeekendWisdom #OneDegreetoVictory #ODTV #BlackWomenHealing
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