I’ve always been a bit of a racer. It’s more than not liking to wait. I tend to rush. I’m a mission-driven, most-efficient-finding, road-plowing kind of gal. Dreams inspire me. Vision catapults me. Determination sustains me. I hit the ground running, heading straight for that triumphant finish line.

But, sometimes, instead of gaining ground, I merely spin my wheels trying.

Have you seen the movie Cars? I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more connected to a Disney character before now. Lightning McQueen. A racecar on a mission. Man, did he ever have his dream in sight. Even when an unexpected detour takes him far off his targeted route, he’s determined to do whatever it takes to reach his destination. And quickly! He is a racecar, after all.

So, here he is, trapped in an inconsequential,  no-name town, every second holding him back from where he wants to be. Regardless of how much he flatters, argues, or whines, he can’t get out of facing the one thing separating him from reaching his dream. A broken road.

He stares down the long stretch of disheveled pavement ahead of him. Just beyond the edge of the brokenness lies the road to freedom. He sets his eyes on the horizon, revs his engine, and screeches into gear, ready to race straight out of this temporary setback all the way to the racetrack where he was designed to flourish.

But he doesn’t move. His tires spin. Dust fumes. His gas depletes. His engine strains. But he doesn’t gain any ground. Puzzled, he peers behind him. And there, shackled to his bumper, is the monstrous weight of his allotted task preventing him from bypassing a road he must travel.

It’s not something that can be rushed. Oh, he could try, which he does. But he’d end up needing to redo it, which he does. Thankfully, it only takes one colossal failure for the humbled racecar to learn his lesson. Aside from making a rather drawn-out movie, a succession of repetitive attempts would’ve bore a little too close of a resemblance to our own journeys, wouldn’t it have?

Lightning McQueen was born to race. He was tailor-made to excel on the racetrack. From the drawing board to assembly, his designer handcrafted him with a distinct purpose in mind. And McQueen saw everything about this little pit stop town as opposition to fulfilling his purpose.

But here’s what I love. In the midst of it all, his purpose didn’t change. He still reached the racetrack at the appropriate time. He still excelled in his take off the way he had trained tirelessly to do. He still hugged the corners of the track the way he was built to. Nothing about his design or his destination wavered from the blueprints.

You know what changed? His vision of the finish line. That temporary speed bump in an off-the-map stop changed his perspective in a way that only traveling a broken road can.

What broken road are you facing right now? Are you spinning your wheels? Don’t be so quick to race through your assignment. What appears to be a detour of inconvenience may be a road of character development. For how you travel the road of obscurity will determine how you travel the road of success.

http://crystal-walton.com/spinning-your-wheels/