Being the Pace Car

One of the hazards you need to look out for in maintaining consistency in your training is waiting for others. Waiting for others does not help them and certainly does not help you. Everyone sets their own pace. Everyone's pace tends to have strong growth phases and also phases of what seem like absolute stagnation. These phases are a natural part of the process. Flow with them and you will be successful. Fight them and you will struggle.

The desire to wait for others can be strong. Don't succumb to it. Waiting for another who is in a stagnant period usually hinders not only your own progress but the progress of the other as well. It definitely hinders the progress of the whole.

Anyone who has ever flown on a commercial airline has heard the attendants warning, "In the event of an emergency the air masks will be deployed". The instructions given are to put the air mask on yourself prior to helping others with their own air mask. While the logic behind this is obvious we are not always creatures of logic.

We help others by being the best we can be ourselves and thereby being a role model. We can't "rescue" others by lowering ourself. I have seen so many with such huge potential not live up to their own potential because they didn't want someone else to "fall behind". There is no falling behind. A person is where they are. They cannot be anywhere else. Their skills are a product of their actions. Rescue them by being a motivating force. By being someone they can look up to. Someday they may do the same for you.

There is a saying, "The rising tide raises all ships". I have seen this in action so many times. Sometimes just one person starts the dynamic. That person will begin to train diligently while others are wasting their time with something else. They step outside of the norm when the norm is not conducive to growth. Most of the time the others will then follow. This can eventually become a habit and then that habit becomes the norm. When this happens everyone benefits.

Think of it as being the pace car at a race track. The pace car sets the pace and everyone else follows. Because everyone is moving along together the pace can quicken. Occasionally it may be that someone else decides to be the pace car but it doesn't really matter because the group as a whole continues to benefit. Everyone can go as fast as possible.

But what happens when the race starts? Some cars will block others. Some cars will crash. The track will become hazardous because everyone is trying to win the race. It is likely that even the winner could have completed the race sooner had everyone stayed in formation and followed along with the pace car.

The desire to win in the race is like the ego in the quan. It may seem to benefit but it really doesn't. What is of true benefit is to either be or follow the pace car. If others should crash don't crash with them. Hopefully they'll get into the pit and get fixed and be able to continue. Following them into the crash helps no one.

Be the pace car or follow it.