Lessons From The Mountain:
Overcoming Adversity: Part III
Welcome Back!
In my last two posts, I recounted the tale of my most recent hike through the Presidential mountain range, in New Hampshire. My daughter and I embarked on a two day hike over 5 peaks and had an amazing adventure.
We encountered quite a few obstacles but we were able to reach our goals and get home safely. I tell you what too. We learned a few lessons along the way.
While there are many lessons we can draw from the hiking experience my daughter and I had, I decided to talk about 3 main ideas that came to mind. Three main ideas that I feel we can extrapolate to our daily lives. Theses are:
- Setting Goals & Making a Plan
- Being Flexible Because “Stuff Happens”
- Believing In Yourself, Always Move Forward.
Set Goals & Make A Plan:
I believe we all know the acronym GPS. It stands for: Global Positioning System which is a global navigation satellite system that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth.
For all of us, non-technical people, it means “the things that helps to find where we are and get us directions to a destination when we need them”. The best example is: the “Waze” or Google Maps App on your phone. You plug in your destination and in a few seconds we get a map with directions to get there, possible other driving options and an estimated time of arrival or ETA. We take this for granted now because it seems so easy but we didn’t always have it.
When my daughter and I were planning our hike we had to first, decide our goal for our hike. Meaning; we had to decide the destination did we want to reach or where we wanted to go on our hike. We had to decide the route or trail that we would take to get there, how long it would take, where we would plan to stay overnight, what trailhead we would end up at and how we would get back to our car after our hike.
If we didn’t plan out these steps and decide how we would carry them out, we never would have reached our destination. We would have walked aimlessly on any trail until we got tired and then probably would have turned around.
For my hikes… and life, in general, I like to think of GPS as standing for Goals, Plans, and Strategies. You set specific goals for what you want to accomplish, plan out how you will accomplish those goals and strategize on what it will take to carry out your plans that will enable you to reach your goals.
It starts with your goals. Your GOAL is the destination that you put into your “GPS”. Without a goal your brain doesn’t know what to work on. Without goals you end up reacting to the environment and just take everything as it comes, never progressing forward with direction. Once you have a goal, you have something to work toward.
Once you have a goal, you have a reference point from which to make decisions. If something happens on your journey towards your goal, you can, now, make a rational decision that will get you closer to your goals. But if you never had a goal or a destination, then it doesn’t matter what decision you make.
That is why, when we started our hike and “Stuff Happened” we were able to make decisions to get us back on track towards our destination or our goal.
Be Flexible Because “Stuff Happens”:
As I said, “Stuff” always happens. On our hike we had several adversities or obstacles we hit, where we had to make decisions in relationship to the goals we set for ourselves.
First, we realized that one of our trails was closed due to snow and rock slide danger, so we had to figure out another trail/path to reach our destination of the lean-to that evening. Then we had to be flexible when the thunder/lightning storm hit us above the tree-line. We had to make safety decisions quickly to assure our safety and then determine if we could progress forward towards our goal.
This often happens in life where we hit obstacles and we have to make decisions. The problem comes when we don’t have any goals or plans. Without goals or plans; when we hit the inevitable obstacles in life, we don’t have the reference point from which to make decisions so we just randomly respond to what happens, not knowing what the outcome will be.
But with a goal or destination, the obstacle or adversity comes, and you make a decision. The decision either gets you closer or further away from your goal. Simple.
Believe In Yourself & Always Move Forward:
When you set goals for yourself, the road won’t always be easy. Challenges will always be there and setbacks will happen that will make you want to quit. You may have to modified your plans and strategies or take a different path on the journey to reach your goal or destination but if you persevere, you can do it.
Very often, we DO NOT give ourselves enough credit and we are insecure about our abilities. We are our own worst critics. We are hard on ourselves.
Something happens that derails us from our goal and we say; “See,… I knew I couldn’t do it”. But most times we CAN do it…whatever IT is, and it starts with; BELIEVING IN YOURSELF and your abilities to do anything you set your mind to. It’s the ability, when something happens, to say;…”That’s OK! Lets move forward and figure out what we need to do to reach our goals.
When we are locked in a negative stae or revert to this negative self talk we need to do what I like to call a “Mindset Re-Set”. To re-focus our mind to a more relaxed, positive frame of mind. A Mindset that allows us to see things for what they are and move forward in a way that helps us reach our goals. By having the right mindset, it allows us to be in the moment where we react to the day in a way that is in alignment with with …How we want to “BE”.
The “right” mindset allows you “Be” and move forward, always being in the present moment. Not living in the past, ruminating over something that has already happened and you can’t change, or worrying about the future, stressing over something that hasn’t happened yet.
So when presented with obstacles or overcoming any adversity in life, keep “In Mind”, your mindset and remember that when you have goals for yourself, adversity or obstacles are challenges that you will overcome on the way to your goals.
And because obstacles and adversity will ALWAYS pop up, we must be flexible and realize that we may have to detours but we have to modify and re-group to get back on track to reach our goals.
And above all, know that for you to reach your goals you have to start to believe in yourself and get your Mindset right. Because , if your mindset is right, everything will follow.
And make sure you check out my next post on “Mindset Reset”
Have a great day….And Remember,
Be Positive, Be Motivated, Be Focused & Be Well
