The Pilgrimage was from a point in Espanola, NM to a church outside of Chimayo, NM. 10.2 miles up and 10.2 miles back. I have developed OCD from my years with the FD. It is a great thing for a Firefighter to have but kind of annoying in everyday life. I check things more times than I need to and I always assume the very best plans will go right to hell by a twist of fate that I cannot anticipate.
So when I started out at 05:00 AM on Friday, I was carrying cold weather gear, rain gear, water, and assortment of fruit and snacks..my backpack was not light. Weather was forecast to be in the mid 50's. Thick socks, hiking boots, and I am already dressed in layers. I am ready to adapt, improvise, and overcome any obstacle.
I am starting to learn (a little late in life, but what the hell) the importance of planning for and adapting to plans that go much better than I could have imagined. This is one of those life skills that is important. I am hoping you will master this skill very early on in life. Being able to identify those situations that do not require the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome is as important as identifying those that do.
The 10.2 miles up is all uphill and a daunting hike. Despite the clear, warm morning, I did not take the cold weather gear out of my backpack. I missed other opportunities to lighten my load along the way. Every couple of miles on the uphill climb there are tents where there is free cold bottled water, apples, banana's, and oranges. In retrospect, the best thing here would have been to drink my water and eat my fruit and lighten my load. By mile 4 I could have been comfortably been traveling uphill with a very light backpack. I did lighten my load at about the 18 mile mark.
Planning for worst case is relatively easy. Planning & adapting to best case can be much harder and is less intuitive.
The walk was beautiful and peaceful in a way that is difficult to describe. I certainly could have made it much easier than I did. I can't escape the feeling that I was the guy who was in armor and battle ready ...at a pool party.
There are plenty of times to wear your armor and be battle ready. Learn how to recognize when to not be battle ready. There are plenty of times when you will have to carry a heavy ass backpack and other times when there is no need to do so.
Love Dad
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Say Thank You
I will be traveling down to NM to do a pilgrimage on Good Friday.
For me it is a celebration of everyone and everything I have in my life...and there is a LOT to celebrate.
It is a great weekend to celebrate things like this. Don't forget to do this in your own way.
The battle will resume early next week.
Love Dad
For me it is a celebration of everyone and everything I have in my life...and there is a LOT to celebrate.
It is a great weekend to celebrate things like this. Don't forget to do this in your own way.
The battle will resume early next week.
Love Dad
Doubt 2
I have said this before but it is so true. Anyone who approaches an important task or objective with an absence of fear or doubt does not understand fully what they are undertaking.
You are supposed have doubts and fears. Doubts and fears do not really ever go away. You just simply learn how to manage them and put them in perspective. Doubts and fears help you weigh the risks and adjust your approach to what is in front of you.
They can however spiral out of control from time to time and paralyze you. Think of them as the thread that hangs from your shirt. If you keep pulling it your shirt starts to unravel. Don't keep pulling at it. If the thread is hanging here. Trim it.
Doubt and fear are a integral part of any worthwhile endeavor. You are going to be much happier if you can accept they are part of the package. Don't avoid or dodge them, they belong there.
Remember...if you focus on any one single part instead of looking at the whole thing...you perspective goes right into the toilet and it stops making sense. Doubt and fear are a part of he whole thing..if you focus all of your attention on them...it all stops making sense.
Also very key point. If you keep pulling at that one thread (instead of cutting or trimming it) things will become unraveled.
Remember, there is a reason they call it LEARNING and not KNOWING.
Love Dad
You are supposed have doubts and fears. Doubts and fears do not really ever go away. You just simply learn how to manage them and put them in perspective. Doubts and fears help you weigh the risks and adjust your approach to what is in front of you.
They can however spiral out of control from time to time and paralyze you. Think of them as the thread that hangs from your shirt. If you keep pulling it your shirt starts to unravel. Don't keep pulling at it. If the thread is hanging here. Trim it.
Doubt and fear are a integral part of any worthwhile endeavor. You are going to be much happier if you can accept they are part of the package. Don't avoid or dodge them, they belong there.
Remember...if you focus on any one single part instead of looking at the whole thing...you perspective goes right into the toilet and it stops making sense. Doubt and fear are a part of he whole thing..if you focus all of your attention on them...it all stops making sense.
Also very key point. If you keep pulling at that one thread (instead of cutting or trimming it) things will become unraveled.
Remember, there is a reason they call it LEARNING and not KNOWING.
Love Dad
Monday, April 18, 2011
Keep the Faith
Another pearl from the past posts.
Keep the faith.
The unshakable faith in yourself. Sincere belief really starts with you.
Have you ever heard one person berate another person in that hard, unforgiving way that makes your stomach turn? There is never a real good reason to talk that way to anyone. When it reaches that level, it is time to just walk away.
Being driven and having high expectations is a good thing. There are times when you are going to fall short of a desired or expected result for yourself. When you fall (and you will), how you talk to yourself is so very important. It is far to easy to berate yourself in that hard, unforgiving way that is so damaging. There is never a real good reason to talk to yourself that way. And there are times that you simply have to walk away because it has reached that level.
That golden rule thing about treating others like you want to be treated is right on the money. People forget that the golden rule applies to them first and foremost.
Forgive and you will be forgiven,
Trust and you will be trusted,
Believe and people will believe you.
So if you are running the race with someone and you fall and they pass you, that is not the end of the race unless you do not get back up again. The pain of the bruised ego and body eases a great deal when you are back in the race.
Keep the faith, that unshakable, sincere belief in yourself.
Run Forrest...
Love Dad
Keep the faith.
The unshakable faith in yourself. Sincere belief really starts with you.
Have you ever heard one person berate another person in that hard, unforgiving way that makes your stomach turn? There is never a real good reason to talk that way to anyone. When it reaches that level, it is time to just walk away.
Being driven and having high expectations is a good thing. There are times when you are going to fall short of a desired or expected result for yourself. When you fall (and you will), how you talk to yourself is so very important. It is far to easy to berate yourself in that hard, unforgiving way that is so damaging. There is never a real good reason to talk to yourself that way. And there are times that you simply have to walk away because it has reached that level.
That golden rule thing about treating others like you want to be treated is right on the money. People forget that the golden rule applies to them first and foremost.
Forgive and you will be forgiven,
Trust and you will be trusted,
Believe and people will believe you.
So if you are running the race with someone and you fall and they pass you, that is not the end of the race unless you do not get back up again. The pain of the bruised ego and body eases a great deal when you are back in the race.
Keep the faith, that unshakable, sincere belief in yourself.
Run Forrest...
Love Dad
Monday, April 11, 2011
Always Be On Time*
For every hard and fast rule there is always an *.
True story. Young man was scheduled to work early AM shift at his job and accidentally slept in. His supervisor called the home and his dad answered the call. Dad woke the young man up and he rushed out the door. Supervisor called an hour later asking for the young man and the father said he should have been there already. Dad gets in car to find young son and finds son has perished in tragic accident. Accident was a result of high speed.
Always be on time*.
*When you are late, be late.
Love Dad
Intuition
Intuition is one of those things that is hard wired into everyone. I don't think intuition is more refined in anyone person more than another. People who are very intuitive are the people who listen to that voice, trust it, and act on what that voice says.
Intuition gets mistaken for a lot of things, especially hindsight. The ability to understand, after something has happened, what should have been done or what caused something is hindsight.
Contrary to popular belief, hindsight is not a group exercise, it is a solitary exercise. Even very well meaning people (like your parents) cannot have great hindsight for you. This is something that you have to arrive at by yourself. Never hesitate to ask the people close to you for advice and counsel. I am a big believer in using all of your resources. But at the end of the day, hindsight is something you will arrive at and reconcile with on your own.
Your own intuition has been very developed for years. Intuition remember is not a functions of age, time or experience. There are times you will listen and times you will not. Sometimes you trust what you hear and sometimes you don't.
People will ignore their intuition for a lot of different reasons. To be honest here are some great reasons to hear the voice and not act on it. That is a blog entry for another day.
So the point here is that I want you to know you are already very intuitive. Anyone who listens to that voice is. Never discard or ignore your own voice. Always choose. Learn to listen and choose.
All of that success you are having is no accident and even tho I will continue to take credit for it, it is really just you. It has everything to do with you listening to that voice far more than you realize.
Love Dad
Intuition gets mistaken for a lot of things, especially hindsight. The ability to understand, after something has happened, what should have been done or what caused something is hindsight.
Contrary to popular belief, hindsight is not a group exercise, it is a solitary exercise. Even very well meaning people (like your parents) cannot have great hindsight for you. This is something that you have to arrive at by yourself. Never hesitate to ask the people close to you for advice and counsel. I am a big believer in using all of your resources. But at the end of the day, hindsight is something you will arrive at and reconcile with on your own.
Your own intuition has been very developed for years. Intuition remember is not a functions of age, time or experience. There are times you will listen and times you will not. Sometimes you trust what you hear and sometimes you don't.
People will ignore their intuition for a lot of different reasons. To be honest here are some great reasons to hear the voice and not act on it. That is a blog entry for another day.
So the point here is that I want you to know you are already very intuitive. Anyone who listens to that voice is. Never discard or ignore your own voice. Always choose. Learn to listen and choose.
All of that success you are having is no accident and even tho I will continue to take credit for it, it is really just you. It has everything to do with you listening to that voice far more than you realize.
Love Dad
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Expectations
It is a normal, healthy thing to have high expectations of yourself. Having those high expectations is both a blessing and curse. It is not enough to have them, that alone will not make you successful. Learning that you have to constantly manage your expectations is key to being able to manage multiple expectations at one time.
Managing your expectations does NOT mean that you need to lower them, ignore them or forget about them. Managing them is one of those essential life skills.
Every expectation has a weight attached to it. High expectations have a lot of weight attached to them. And when you reach the point (and we all do) that you believe you are not meeting one or more expectations...those are the heaviest of all. Unless you learn how to manage your expectations you will get crushed under the weight of them.
So here are the key points to managing your expectations.
*There are aspects of your expectations that you simply cannot control. People that you are depending on will come up short occasionally and you will have to adjust to that. There are things that you cannot overcome by sheer will alone. The ability to adapt (adjusting) is a key life skill. Forgive the people who have come up short, put it in perspective, and adjust. To your perspective employers, peers, significant others, friends and acquaintances this is a critical skill that tells them a lot about you. You would pick the person that can roll with things, everyone would. In the scheme of things that is more important than never having things go to hell.
*Balance, balance, balance. Every single day is about meeting multiple expectations. Never get so focused on one that you exclude all of the others.
*Listen closely to the way you talk about yourself. Negative talk and thoughts are easy to start and hard to stop. People listen carefully to how you talk about yourself, for a lot of people this is an extension of how they expect to be treated by you.
*Don't be afraid to look at a missed expectation and examine it. LEARN from it. If you are going to whip yourself with it, you are wallowing in some self pity. There is a reason they call it LEARNING instead of KNOWING.
If you ever feel like you got your ass kicked, never let it stay kicked. Clock resets everyday at 00:00. It is a new day then. Make the world kick your ass every day.
Love Dad
Managing your expectations does NOT mean that you need to lower them, ignore them or forget about them. Managing them is one of those essential life skills.
Every expectation has a weight attached to it. High expectations have a lot of weight attached to them. And when you reach the point (and we all do) that you believe you are not meeting one or more expectations...those are the heaviest of all. Unless you learn how to manage your expectations you will get crushed under the weight of them.
So here are the key points to managing your expectations.
*There are aspects of your expectations that you simply cannot control. People that you are depending on will come up short occasionally and you will have to adjust to that. There are things that you cannot overcome by sheer will alone. The ability to adapt (adjusting) is a key life skill. Forgive the people who have come up short, put it in perspective, and adjust. To your perspective employers, peers, significant others, friends and acquaintances this is a critical skill that tells them a lot about you. You would pick the person that can roll with things, everyone would. In the scheme of things that is more important than never having things go to hell.
*Balance, balance, balance. Every single day is about meeting multiple expectations. Never get so focused on one that you exclude all of the others.
*Listen closely to the way you talk about yourself. Negative talk and thoughts are easy to start and hard to stop. People listen carefully to how you talk about yourself, for a lot of people this is an extension of how they expect to be treated by you.
*Don't be afraid to look at a missed expectation and examine it. LEARN from it. If you are going to whip yourself with it, you are wallowing in some self pity. There is a reason they call it LEARNING instead of KNOWING.
If you ever feel like you got your ass kicked, never let it stay kicked. Clock resets everyday at 00:00. It is a new day then. Make the world kick your ass every day.
Love Dad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)