Over the Easter weekend, I joined a few volunteers on a three day hike through some beautiful mountains in Peru. Along the way, I realized that a lot of the advice you get for hiking also applies to life. Feel free to add some more if you want.
Watch your step
When you’re walking along a trail, it is very easy to get distracted. There is plenty to look at around you, people to talk to, etc, and little by little you become less concerned with what you are doing. You pay less and less attention to the steps you are taking until you stumble, stub your toe, slip on a rock, or step in a puddle. My favorite part about that is it takes us by surprise every time, as if we have no idea how that happened. We forget that each step does matter and if we don’t pay attention to what we are doing, there will inevitably be consequences. On the hike, I would often try to take in the scenery around me, watching the trail out of the corner of my eye. Problem is, I wear glasses and things are a bit blurry that way. It turns out that donkey poo, if you blur the edges and aren’t really paying attention, looks a lot like a rock. The other problem was that the trail had a lot of standing water and I was basically hopping from one rocky patch to the next, and so when I did mistake a pile of manure for a rock, I really mistook it for a rock.
Look ahead
And while being aware of what steps you are taking is important, it is equally important to make sure that you are heading in the right direction. More times than I could count, I would be focusing on what I was doing only to realize that I could go no further. On this hike, the problem was generally that the trail had turned into a small river and we would have to backtrack and find a way around. No big deal, but it takes a lot less time and energy to look ahead from time to time to see if the path you are taking will get you where you need to go.
Go at your own pace
This is one of the first things our guide told us, and also tends to be one of the hardest things to accept on the trail. We tend to rate ourselves based on what those around us are doing, and on a hike, this means that we are somehow losing if we aren’t walking as fast as everyone else. No one wants to be the last one into camp. But if you focus on keeping up with everyone around you, you completely miss the point. The point of a race is to be the first one to the end. The point of a hike is to enjoy the walk, look around, take pictures, and in general, make memories. I’m not saying you shouldn’t work for things. Climbing a mountain is obviously going to be at least a little difficult no matter what. But you don’t have to kill yourself to get it done.
Don’t be afraid to lead
On a hike, there is always one person in front with everyone else following behind. Quite honestly, I had never been comfortable being the person in front. I preferred being the second or third person. I just didn’t like the idea of people watching me, stepping where I stepped. I always worried that I wasn’t going fast enough or I was going too fast. I would get all embarrassed when someone would take a different way than the one I went on and it turned out to be better. But apparently I have gotten over that. Everyone, at one point or another, will be the one in front. And you know what? You’ll probably do just fine.
Make your own trail
There are times when the official path, the path that everyone agrees is the correct path, is still not the best path for you to take at the time. This was especially true on this hike because the rainy season was just ending, and about 3 months of rain had turned much of our trail into a river. But what a trail is nothing more than the route that other people have taken to get to a certain destination. It is not the only route that must be taken to get there. True, if that many people have gone that way then it probably works. Just because the majority of people go that way, it does not mean that you must as well.
It’s more fun with friends
Hiking, as well as life in general, is more fun when it is shared with people you care about. And I am not talking solely about experiencing beauty together or sharing good times and laughter. Some of my best memories of the hike are about overcoming obstacles and getting through rough moments. You learn a lot about your friends in times like that, and when you come out on the other side you are usually closer for it.
Be in the present
Have you ever noticed that we rarely focus on what is happening right now? We are usually planning some future event or going over something that happened in the past or, as happens most often in my case, coming up with hypothetical situations that will most likely never come to pass. I noticed this happening a lot when I was on the hike. There I was, surrounded by beauty that will not remain much longer (the glaciers we saw up there are disappearing fast), and I noticed that my thoughts were everywhere but on what was happening right then. I find my inability to focus on what is right in front of me both sad and frustrating. Sad because I feel like I miss a lot of opportunities that way, and frustrating because I am having a hard time changing. I really want to learn how to be content with now instead of constantly coming up with what I could have done differently yesterday or trying to change what will happen tomorrow. I want today to be enough.
It’s all in your head
But the key lesson I learned on this trip is that what you are dealing with is not as important as the way you are dealing with it. The first two days of our hike it was raining. We were cold, wet, and tired. One thing after another seemed to go wrong. And yet, there was a minimal amount of complaining. It turns out that you can be physically miserable and still have a blast. We laughed, we joked, and we really appreciated the simple things, like the wonderfully warm soup. It could have been a miserable situation if we had let it be. We could have focused on the hardships and gotten frustrated and upset, but we chose not to. It was just one more instance where I realized that it is your attitude, more than any other factor, that defines a situation. There is a quote that says “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right” and I completely agree. We build things up in our mind to be impossible, and therefore they are. We decide that we are miserable, and therefore we are. “I think, therefore I am.” I realize that is not what he meant when he said that, but I still feel that it applies. It really is only as difficult as you make it.
