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– This weekend I followed my own advice
– In the last episode I shared some recommendations on how to make ourselves uncomfortable
– One of them was to get up extra early on a weekend day and get out to watch the sunrise
– Ok – I didn’t make it that early
– Mostly due to my own decision not to push myself unnecessarily because I knew it would be foggy and overcast and the sunrise would not be visible
– But I had made a plan to go to the beach
– Not right away
– Last weekend was my rehearsal – on Sunday
– So I kept the weekend free of any plan in order to prepare as best as possible
– But then it somehow occurred to me in the course of the week that I can rehearse my speech anywhere
o And what better place than to rehearse than in nature
– I combined the less attractive task of rehearsing with something I love and this allowed me to look forward to Saturday morning
– by 7am I was on the road to the beach
– I have my favorite beaches around here, but decided to explore a new one,
– I looked up a hiking path near the beach because I wanted to walk while rehearsing my speech
– I arrived early, my car was the first in the parking lot and there was nobody on my trail
– Good so far
– It was a very narrow trail
– I rehearsed for a while but after a mile or so my trail somehow disappeared
– I didn’t spend much time studying the trail before leaving the house
– It was a trail that runs parallel to the shore so what could go wrong
– It looked long enough on the map, but I now know that a line on a map can be deceiving
– Now I had to put my rehearsal on hold because I had to figure out where the trial goes
– there were sections that resembled a trail, but it wasn’t always clear
–
– I wasn’t worried about getting lost
– from all my climbing adventures, I am not scared anymore of the unbeaten path
– this was an easy trail – not being able to find it didn’t mean I would get lost
– it just meant I would have a rougher terrain to walk on
– it also meant that I couldn’t focus very well on rehearsing
– on the other hand, however,
– I was inspired
– Instead of focusing on my speech, I couldn’t help but think about the meaning of the unbeaten path
– I talk about it in my speech I am rehearsing
– I have been on that path many times in my life
– I’m on it right this moment as I am figuring out where to take this speaking thing next
– We all have been on the unbeaten path at times
o Either because we decided to undertake a new challenge or
o Because we were forces to by unexpected circumstances
– As I tried to navigate my way on that path on Saturday
o A path that I could have dodged at any point by simply cutting over to the beach
o But a path I wanted to stay on partially because I wanted to walk more and because wanted to find out where it takes me
– So many similarities came to mind
– The unbeaten path in nature to our unbeaten path in life
– But thanks to all the information available to us now, the path seems to always be somewhat beaten
– No matter how challenging of an adventure we pick – we can always find some odd duck out there on the internet that has done the same thing, or at least something similar
o And they documented their journey step by step
– My 5 day fasts come to mind, of which I have done 2
– Each time I read in detail about what others went through
– Someone measured their blood glucose levels and tracked them – so I did that too
o I don’t even know why I did it because when you don’t eat, your glucose levels are always low
o Thanks to other’s records I took precaution and took electrolytes because I know from previous low carb experiments that my potassium gets low and that gets my heart rate up
– But despite all the information available – actual walking of the path has to be done by us
– And from my climbing ventures I know one thing – no matter how much research we do prior, we always run into issues that are not in our book, on our map, or on the many printouts we carry along
–
– The biggest drawback of the unbeaten path is that it is scary because its uncertain
o Where is the trail
o Did it end completely or will I pick it back up later?
o What if I cannot find it at all?
– Most of my disagreements with my climbing partner don’t happen when we climb
– They happen when we are hiking
– Hiking trails are often more obvious because lots of people hike them
o There is often signage, maps posted on trails and lots of information available online
– But approaches to the mountain are less obvious
o There are hardly maps online
o Tourist areas like Yosemite may have small posts with a carabiner sign but I haven’t seen them much and I think they are mostly meant for hikers so they don’t get on the wrong batch and end up at a crag
– It often takes us over rough terrain – rocks, bushes, dense trees – and even if many people walk along there, the tracks are not visible like they are on a forest trail
– Climbers sometimes leave markers for each other – small rocks piled on top of each other
– But its not always clear what route they are leading to
– Hence – we quite often argue whether or not we are on the right path
– It’s a repetitive situation
o I will say – this doesn’t look like the right path
o My partner will say – there is no path
o I will argue – but there should be some sign of usage, or – I have seen markers before, now there aren’t any
o He will then answer – just look for the mountain, and orient yourself that way
– He is comfortable in the wilderness
– He can orient himself and probably would always find back to the car
– I am less of an outdoor expert and therefore I am less comfortable with the unbeaten path
– He will find A path
o I want to find THE path
– If there is no path, he will make one
o I am afraid making one will get us even more lost
–
– Just like in life
o We make an investment into something new and risky
 Time, money, effort
o And we don’t know if it will pay off
o Maybe it works for a little while
o Then the going gets rough and we debate –
 Did we make a mistake somewhere?
 Should we have done something differently?
 should we call this whole thing off?
o Everyone who ever started a business knows this well
o Anything new starts scary and uncertain
o But only in the beginning
o The flipside of the unbeaten path is when you did it
o When you walked it and you look back
 Even if you didn’t reach the destination as you had hoped
 Even if it looks a little different than you imagined
 But you did it
o The sense of accomplishment is one of the best feelings I know
o I feel happy most often as a result of having something major accomplished
o
– The biggest advantage of walking the unbeaten path is that it is more rewarding than doing something we have done before
o The constant focus keeps us not only alert but also alive
o Compare that to doing something you have done many times
o It becomes second nature
o If you walk the same trail every Saturday, then you will eventually know every bush, every tree, every hole on the path
o Sure – you are walking and getting out into nature
o But your senses stop being engaged because they already know what’s ahead
o There is less excitement with knowing what is to come
o
–
–
– When my not-so apparent trail merged with the beach, and I saw only my foot prints – I kept thinking about our fascination with footprints in the sand
o I know I am not the only one who snaps IG shot of my footprints
– And I think it has to do with the fact that we are the ones leaving a track
o The only ones, the first ones
– Our footprints left a mark – we were here
– We walked this, for the first time, at least today
– It makes us feel special
o That why people carve their names into trees or rocks at the end of long hikes
– Accomplishments makes us feel confident, capable, and validated
– And that makes them so worth it
– Because we did something on our own
– We made it happen
– We are creating our own experiences
–
– Next Sunday is my birthday and I will be climbing Cathedral Peak in Yosemite
– Its not a technically difficult climb but it peaks at 10,500ft, making it a very high climb
– The approach is a steep 2 hour hike and the descent is scary
– The climb itself will go slow because of the altitude
– It’s a popular climb so we will start very very early
– It has been done by many before me, but I have never done it
– It will be my birthday present
– A present I will create for myself – by climbing
– My partner has climbed if before – so I will have some certainty
– But how I do, how challenging it will be for me – I don’t know
– I could easily say no – lets do something easier
– Its my birthday after all
– But I want to create a memory for my birthday and the only way to do that is by doing something hard and something unpredictable
– I want to leave my own footprints
–
– Often – we are not comfortable on the unbeaten path
– We want certainty
– We want to feel safe and protected and we want to know where we are going
– I am the same way
– That is why I challenge myself in climbing
– Because that is one area where I feel comfortable taking a risk
– Maybe because the challenge is physical and I know I can pull through tough challenge if I need to
– But in many other areas of my life – I struggle
– I don’t trust myself
– I am scared of people saying no
– Of things not working out
–
– For my rehearsal on Sunday I invited someone I just met
– A professional contact, not a friend
– We had only met a couple of times and exchanged contact info on LinkedIn
– I debated for a long time
– I think I was more scared of asking this person to come to my rehearsal than I am of climbing that huge mountain next weekend
– But I did it
– I invited him
– And – he came
– I was so happy -mostly with myself for having dared myself into the discomfort of trying what sacres me most
–
– When we forge the path
o climb over obstacles
o figure out the direction
o and make it happen
– we are collecting the reward
– We look back at our footsteps
– Proudly
– We look at the fruits of our labor
– The outcome of our creation
– And it feels rewarding
– The unbeaten path is the ultimate discomfort
– Exactly because we haven’t walked it before
– You see
– Out entire life is an unbeaten path
– We may have been given certain genes and characteristics we are stuck with, but where we take our life is completely up to us
– We can spend it trying to step into the footsteps of others
– Following what everyone else is doing and never taking a risk of our own making
– But then we miss out on the joy and excitement this life has to offer
– Lets take the unbeaten path more often
– Lets do things that scare us
– We will get so much further in life – I know it
– I feel it
– I see it just based on the few things I have done in the past few years
–

Much love my friends