Has "turtle trends"?

If you were asked to compare your personality traits to a living creature, which creature would you choose? Could you be compared to a lion because people hear your roar? Or maybe an opossum that plays dead when faced with a difficult situation? The list is endless to compare our personality traits with animals or reptiles. However, the creature that is of most interest to me to make a correlation is none other than the turtle.

While a turtle can be cold, slimy, and live in a tank, pond, or ocean, it has other traits that can be very human-like. The turtle wraps itself in a hard natural shell, just as we wrap ourselves in shells of fear, denial, and guilt. The shells we wrap ourselves in are not always visible to others, but they are a very important part of our being.

Over the years, I’ve probably developed a “shell” of some sort…it was a must when I was going through cancer…as long as I was “tough” and had my “shell” to protect me. It could happen. That shell often took the form of laughter, jokes, bravery…when underneath I too felt the same anxiety, fear and worries that every cancer patient feels…but I focused on being tough on my kids, my family and I. I have always been a positive thinker at heart and indeed it is a must during a difficult time. Yes, the shell of determination was solidly in place.

If we keep reflecting on the virtues of turtles, we realize that a turtle doesn’t get anywhere without sticking out its neck. A tortoise cannot take a single step without sticking its head out. A turtle can’t get anywhere in life if it doesn’t take the first step of sticking its head out of its shell. We are often like the turtle. Our tortoise tendencies sometimes cause us to withdraw into our shells and the process of taking risks, trying new adventures, facing trials, striving for dreams, developing aspirations gets bogged down while we remain inside our shells of doubt and fear. If we don’t take chances, stick our necks out, or seek new directions, we quickly get stuck in the rut of our lives.

You have to take risks. The risks of trying a little harder and trying new things can propel us to new adventures and successes. The risk of enjoying life as it is meant to be enjoyed can be liberating! If we don’t try new things and push ourselves to new heights, we’ll never know what we can become…and that would be a shame.

If you were asked to compare your personality traits to a living creature, which creature would you choose? Could you be compared to a lion because people hear your roar? Or maybe an opossum that plays dead when faced with a difficult situation? The list is endless to compare our personality traits with animals or reptiles. However, the creature that is of most interest to me to make a correlation is none other than the turtle.

While a turtle can be cold, slimy, and lives in a tank, pond, or ocean, it has other traits that can be very human-like. The turtle wraps itself in a hard natural shell, just as we wrap ourselves in shells of fear, denial, and guilt. The shells we wrap ourselves in are not always visible to others, but they are a very important part of our being.

Over the years, I’ve probably developed a “shell” of some sort…it was a must when I was going through cancer…as long as I was “tough” and had my “shell” to protect me. It could happen. That shell often took the form of laughter, jokes, bravery…when underneath I too felt the same anxiety, fear and worries that every cancer patient feels…but I focused on being tough on my kids, my family and I. I have always been a positive thinker at heart and indeed it is a must during a difficult time. Yes, the shell of determination was solidly in place.

If we keep reflecting on the virtues of turtles, we realize that a turtle doesn’t get anywhere without sticking out its neck. A tortoise cannot take a single step without sticking its head out. A turtle will remain locked in its hard shell if it never sticks its head out. A tortoise can’t get anywhere in life if it doesn’t take the first step of sticking its head out… I also found similarities with the tortoise. Risks, adventures, tests, dreams, aspirations… all part of sticking your head out! If we don’t take chances, stick our necks out, or seek new directions, we quickly get stuck in the rut of our lives.

You have to take risks. The risks of trying a little harder and trying new things can propel us to new adventures and successes. The risk of enjoying life as it is meant to be enjoyed can be liberating. If we don’t try new things and push ourselves to new heights, we’ll never know what we can become…and that would be a shame. We are here to reach our potential…we are here to risk our necks…we are here to be like the turtle…to crane our necks to keep going. I guess being like a turtle isn’t so bad.

We are here to reach our potential…we are here to risk our necks…we are here to be like the turtle…to crane our necks to keep going. Stick out your neck! Try something new! I think being like a turtle is not that bad!