2023 Mt. Goddard: Rule Of Five

 Thanks for coming along on the 2023 Mt. Goddard Hike.  It is always a joy for me to do this, both because it makes me process things from the hike in a more and it allows me to relive the hike again (this time, from the comfort of my home).  It is also a joy to be able to share these places with you.  

(Note:  All the pictures in today's post are pictures of plants I took across varying days of the hike.)

As longer time readers might now, I try to build a "lessons learned" from these sorts of things, which I call The Rule Of Five, a handy idea I took from a sales and business consultant named Jeffrey Gitomer who borrowed it from an old NCR sales handbook. I like it because it is simple and short - and in theory, can be counted on the fingers of one hand

1) Guides are invaluable:  I have said this the Grand Canyon post-script  as well, but this trip both reminded me of it and made it more real.  Yes, guides are the ones that lead us to places, but the very best sort of guides - and a guide could be a mentor, parent, teacher, or even a friend - stay with us through the parts that are difficult, quietly encouraging us and urging us on.

2) We really can do more than we think we can do:  This, too, is apparently a note I made in 2021.  In this case, I was simply forced to go forward - even at 50 step intervals - because there was no other choice.  As it turns out, I was able to finish the hike.  It was just that I did some days much more slowly.

3) Keep going:  If you cannot do 70 steps, do 50.  Or even if 30 steps are all you can do, do that.  Going slowly is never the end; coming to the point of stopping to advance is.

4)  Make the most of the view you have:  In my mind as I was preparing myself for this hike, I tried to visualize myself at the summit of Mt. Goddard.  Visualization has a lot of research behind it in terms of success; what it does not account for is when things like the physical inability to do something manifest themselves.  In those cases, there is still a view to be seen - just perhaps not the one we were planning for.

5)  Just go:  Too often I do not try to do things for the silliest of reasons:  I do not feel ready, I do not know that I will have the money, I do not know that I am capable, it is a silly idea.  Certainly not everything can be done right away, but "right away" is not the same as "never".  If we continue to find reasons not to do things, eventually we will not try anything at all.

Again, thanks for coming along with me.

Next week, we will be returning to Greece and pick up where we left off - at the monasteries of Meteora.