Being Ahead, Getting Ahead

Who doesn’t want to get ahead?

While on a spiritual pilgrimage along the 500-mile Camino de Santiago, I wanted to get ahead of everybody. I was in Burguete on the second morning, after walking from St. Jean Pied de Port the previous day. I remember waking up before 6am to the clumping sounds of footsteps and the drumming of walking sticks hitting the asphalt road. I had planned on starting out at 7 that morning. I thought it was a good time to start walking to get to my next destination by 2pm that afternoon. I also thought that it would put me ahead of the other pilgrims. So, I was surprised and disappointed to see people starting their journey so early…and ahead of me. I had the immediate impulse to get dress and catch up with them. Well, not just catch up to them. I wanted to get ahead of them. I wanted to be the leading pilgrim as though I were participating in an enlightenment race and that a special prize awaited me at the end just because I outpaced all the other pilgrims. Sad. I know.

I eventually slowed down, partly because my life partner and fellow pilgrim complained for two weeks that I was going too fast for her. The message eventually got through to me and fortunately I still got the greatest of prizes – Self-knowledge.

All of us are on some kind of journey and many of us are preparing to start new ones this year. Whatever journey you are on or about to start, maintain your own pace and not that of others. Keep clarifying your intentions. Perhaps, most importantly, understand that being ahead is not the same as getting ahead. Being ahead is inner work that leads to self-knowledge and collaboration and getting ahead is outer work that is about egotism and competition.

While on your journey, slow down to be ahead. As with many other things in life, slowing down will likely be more rewarding that speeding up and getting ahead.

May you grow in 2019.