DODGING around slightly over friendly horses that insisted on coming to welcome me to their paddocks, I skipped and squelched my way across flooded sections to the top corner of the paddocks where my recalling of the map took me. Fences pinched together and the puddles were the same constant ruin of a mess. The mud the same light brown waterlogged shade. I plodded on, finding the driest spots and step stepping over and around the water. BOOM; I am shin deep. Step forwards to keep my balance, boom, two feet up to the knee! Start the extreme wading. Step, step, step, heaving, pulling, lugging my legs with me. Still deep. Remorseless. The horses watch me curiously. Wade on. Look up. Look back. Look ahead. A puddle stretches across the path, both sides flooded. If it's eighteen inches deep here, that'll be worse. Turn around, wade back. Heave. Pull. Lug. "Every success is plagued by repeated and frequent failure." SOMETIMES you just have to turn back. Sometimes there is no other way. To go on is foolish, dangerous or just too uncomfortable. Turn arounds are not failure. They are measured decisions. What was I balancing? Depth of water, potential of taking a muddy swim - in water that could be five inches and could be five feet, probably five degrees - dodging the unknown I heave and pull and lug back to a broken down 'that can't be the way' stile that I scrabble over and then find a footpath that peters out, a Staffordshire bull terrier (friendly) and an electric fence (not friendly!) Turn around. Again. TURN arounds fill with them moments of fear. Moments of feelings of being conquered and beaten and defeated. We are not allowed to turn around. Not allowed to retreat. Being beaten is bad. That is the way we are going and we are going that way. No retreat. No excuses. "That is the way we are going and we are going that way." NO chance. Any success is beset on all sides by potential paths of winding broken trails of fear and trails of failure. Every success is plagued by repeated and frequent failure. Failure is the footprints of success, following it surely and steadily. You have to lose much to find success. THE victorious podium is shadowed by failure. The footprints that lead to it are faltering, they stumble here and there, wander off distractedly now and then, come back to the trail wearily and return again. And again. "Make positive performance out of your everyday simple actions. " FAILURE is fear-full; that is full of fear. It is something we have been trained to escape from, avoid and dodge. Our failures are the stepping stones across the rivers. They show us where to go, where not to go and they help us to navigate true to our values and to find the way across to the safe shore of success. FEAR too is a navigating tool. Fear guides our internal radar, telling us what our body can do, what might be risky, what could be dangerous, where we may be set back. Attuning your mind to your fear is a sure way to foresee the potential pitfalls in plans and actions. FEAR is a sign that we are making progress. Fear is a sign we are pushing hard enough. Pushing well. Fear shows you the way to turn, or where you need to resolve (re-solve!) and clarify your vision in order to make positive performance out of your everyday simple actions. NEXT time you feel the pinch of fear, tune in to it and listen to what is being offered. Fear as well as courage can be a fine guide. Words of caution will take you safely across the river too. Listen to what Fear has to offer, and re-invent your plans accordingly.
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A poor excuse, really. Why do you climb the mountains? "Because it's there." WHEN we engage our-selves in the outdoors and throw our lives out there on the line what do we discover? What do we learn? We find that we are in dangerous places, trudging through waist deep snow, poking at slopes with avalanche probes, watching rivers pummel themselves into furious white patterns and watching storm clouds race across the landscape towards us as we turn and run from the peak. IS this danger embraced will-fully and actively Because It Is There? Are we risking our body and mind and our very existance just because a few hundred thousand years ago some rock shifted and shaped these hills and mounded up this rocks, or because the action of the water over the last million years happens to have created this gorge. So it happens to be 'There'. And so we go up it, or paddle down it. 'BECAUSE it's there' is not enough. WHAT is a more reasonable answer? Because I will soon not be here. In the eyes of the hills and the views of the eons of river creations you are insignificant, very insignificant, in fact, you are completely insignificant. Our lives are transient as the water, flashing past. The world watches from the banks as we dash by in a flurry. HUMANITY has the power to alter the course of rivers, to change the faces of mountains. We can change the landscape as much as we desire, given enough time and enough money. IN the end, the world wins out. The mountains that we blast with explosives, the rivers we dam with concrete, the shapes we lay in the land will last out beyond us. They will not last forever, neither too will the mountains and rivers, their longevity is, however, far superior. NEXT time you harness up and tie in to a rope to scale a cliff, or launch your boat onto a river. Remind your-self why you are there, out in the big wide world of dramatic and dangerous landscapes. Because, some day, you will not be. Some day it will be someone else pulling on those holds, and dodging into that eddy. Then smile, exhale and go get your fun. BECAUSE you are there! Thank you ENGAGE more deeply in your activities, unlock the power of your mind and learn the power-full tools within you with my FREE course in visualisation CLICK HERE for more details. Performance online courses, focused mental training to allow your to perform more positively and find success easier, CLICK HERE to find out more. Bespoke personal coaching courses out there in the world of paddle sports and rock climbing also available, CLICK HERE to find out more. ACM Positive Passionate Power-full Performance. The track to the mountains.
Tryfan from behind Ogwen Cottage, Snowdonia, North Wales. YOU are the Hero of your life, Hero-You is out there against the world and with the world and in the world. Each day bringing new and exciting challenges to negotiate. Joyous and sorrow-full, the Hero's Journey continues. I wrote a few weeks ago about the Hero's Journey and its relevance in narrative and your life. Hero-You engages in all sorts of activities; mundane and simple, complex and dangerous. Some of the tasks are easy, some are difficult. Some are downright death defying. However, all follow a set pattern; Departure, Initiation, Return. Hero-You sets out on a task, later today I will be going into town on my bike with my son to buy some multi-vitamins. A hero's quest indeed. Under the lens of the Hero's Journey we will depart, to do this we must be prepared, have the correct tools. Including a working bicycle, child seat attached, a bag for the shopping, wallet-phone-keys! Helmets and shoes on, off we go. WHAT will be our initiation? Weaving and wending through the traffic of post rush hour, yes. Finding/deciding where to lock up the bike for my errands, yes. Choosing and deciding on what to buy, yes. Packing up bags and heading home, yes. Simple, mundane, almost dull. AND upon my return, an analysis of the journey, which hills I rode, how the bag rode when packed a certain way, choices I made of cutting through the woods or not. And so forth. EACH errand you run, each task you do; the washing up, the school run, a trip to Spain, climbing a mountain. Each one is a Hero's Journey. Let Hero-You be best prepared. How can you help Hero-You prepare? With On-Ramps and Off-Ramps. Your journey is like the highway (motorway / freeway.) It was specific places that you enter in from and exit from. ON-RAMPS are there to help Hero-You to depart in the easiest and most relaxed manner. We all complete our best work when we begin easily and relaxed. So allow that to happen. My On-Ramps for my errand into town are that my wallet-phone-keys are in a basket near the door, easily accessible. The bag I will take is there too. As are all our shoes - we have a barefoot policy in the house. My bike is stored in the garage, the child seat pops off Vicki's bike and attaches to mine shockingly easily (Hamax brand, brilliant!) ANOTHER fine On-Ramp is visualisation, I scan over my journey and look where I am going and how I expect it to be, where will it be easy, where will it be difficult, where can I rest and for how long? Click HERE for information on my four-week e-Course on visualisation for your favourite sports, activities and life. LOOK over your day, how can you make your departure easier? A climbing partner of mine stores his rope, shoes, harness and gear in his rope bag. Going climbing he has one bag to grab. Done. Easy! I have a small mesh bag that takes my wallet-phone-keys plus diary, finger tape (first aid for outdoor sports enthusiasts), an old pot of lip balm, a 'buff' (scarf / hat), this mesh bag is slung in my locker and stores away everything quickly and safely. OFF-RAMPS are similar, and in reverse! Where are you going to throw things when upon your heroic return? If the weather is bad where do things go that's different? How does the results of your trip affect your return? RETURN and Off-Ramps are also affected by thoughts, feelings, emotions and mentation. You need to be aware that you will return in a very different mental state depending on how you Hero's Journey pans out. This is something that requires personal and specific focus and interpretation by you, or discussion with other parties. How can you most easily do that? A kettle that is ready for boiling is a fine place to begin. HERO-You is honoured and respected when you accept the needs or your journey and you engage actively in the process of departure, initiation and return. Use the tools of On-Ramps and Off-Ramps to consciously help you to find your way. Thank you, ACM Positive Passionate Power-full Performance Starlings and the old pier at Brighton.
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AuthorAndy Clubley-Moore: joyful outdoor sports activist, writer, father, husband. Lover of life, activity, success and barefoot living. |