Years ago, I was in the city with a friend. We drove past a spot that looked down on a field of the High School he attended. He told me something that has stuck with me to this day. He said: I used to be the rabbit.

His track team had come up with a devious strategy to get their top runners into the winning places. In long distances races against other schools, a good athlete would take off running… too fast. He would break ahead of the pack, just a little. The other team’s athletes would increase their pace to chase the rabbit. Then slowly the rabbit picked up his pace just a little more, and then a little more. Finally the rabbit had brought his competitors to an unsustainable speed for distance of the race. As the race wore on the rabbit would burn out from his, too fast, pace. But he was never trying to win. His only goal was to burn out the rival team. Now the rabbit’s team mates who had kept a fast but sustainable pace would motor through to take the win.

It makes me think, there are people running just a little ahead of us. I might be tempted to increase my pace to chase them.

Maybe chasing might look like: working too hard, imitation, resentment, “self improvement”, harsh comparison.

When we chase we are running someone else’s pace. And it’s not good for us.

Only you know if you’re chasing.

Don’t chase the rabbit.