I wish I could be content to live like a sloth.
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of zoos and believe that the only reasonable need for their existence is the protection of certain species from extinction due to the invasive nature of human expansion. Animals shouldn't live in cages, plain and simple.
A few months ago, I took two of my nephews to the Chattanooga Zoo for a few hours of oohing and awing. It was my second trip recently, having escorted a group of 7th graders a few weeks prior. The big cats were majestic, and the red pandas were adorable. This trip, though, I found the sloth to be the most interesting animal I encountered.
He has his own domain, right in the center of a room, complete with a tree and foliage. I observed that as he moved from one perch in the tree to another, the sloth was so incredibly slow. He held onto the tree with those big claws, but I was amazed at how painful it looked to move that slow.
If a sloth could think in words, I wonder how many times he'd think "I wish I could just be there already."
Would a sloth constantly berate himself for not being able to get to the food as fast as his stomach would desire?
Would a sloth develop a negative self-image around his slow-moving tendencies if he saw how fast an antelope could run?
I wonder if she would lament ever being born a sloth once she saw enough pictures of all the animals in the world and how amazing their lives are?
Here are a few life lessons I'm learning that the sloth has perfected.
1. Progress, however slow, still gets you to where you want to go.
I have a flaw that so many other people have, the hesitancy to start something that I'm not perfect at yet. I love to be naturally good at things, and the idea of starting off knowing NOTHING about a task or being TERRIBLE at some activity leaves me crippled.
Twain said it in a way that would make any sloth give a head nod.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
One claw movement at a time, time and time again, will get you from the place you are now to where you want to be. Don't lose hope so quickly. Patience, my friend.
2. Patience
In 2016, patience is one of the hardest things for me to get right. I want it now, whatever it may be, just like everybody else. Waiting has become one of the hardest things for me to do. Everything should be immediate, right? Gary V has so many great videos about patience for entrepreneurs, and I think he has it so right on that topic. Even if everything you're doing now is COMPLETELY wrong and goes awry, odds are that you still have time to adjust and keep going! Be patient and trust the process, limb by limb, that you have it in you to get where you want to go.
3. Be confident in who you are. Your progress doesn't have to match that of everyone else.
Social media isn't a lens through which to view your own life. Social media is a lens through which to project your own life. There's no amount of likes or hearts that will overcome your own insecurities. If you like to share pictures of dead leaves that look like presidents, you do you! If you're young, old, slow, fast, big, small, short, or tall just know that you're who you are and that is pretty awesome! No matter how much you may feel like you are spinning your wheels (or worse moving backward), don't compare yourself to others. Your uniqueness may be the thing that people want to pay money to come see!
3. When everybody else thinks you're not going to make it, that's when you think "I've got this."
In that video, there are moments where it looks like Mr./Mrs. sloth might actually not make it up the tree. I imagine the whole time, as the people watching are wondering and questioning, the sloth is only worried about the next step. There is not an ounce of fear in his next movement, just doing his thing and knowing he will make it. I get so mentally exhausted by worrying about my next step and the next play in life, wanting to make sure I do things the best way I can. In all of that, though, I know that I'm going to be fine. I'm going to keep moving, slowly but surely getting closer to where I'm going.
