When did it all change? It’s a question I’m often asked. As if there was just some magical moment where I moved from point a to b.
The truth of the matter is there is no one single point or moment. There is no single one thing that brings you from one space to another. Instead it’s like this series of pivot points. That all work in concert with each other. Laying down in a way that piece together a number of wood planks that become the bridge.
A lot of those moving parts find their shape in the face of struggle. It’s such an ironic beauty. How nothing worth why can be built with blood, sweat, and even tears. In many ways it’s like this form of controlled chaos.
Where you first reach this body of water that you quickly figure out is to deep to just wade across. After looking around you quickly realize that it’s impassable without a plan and process.
The goal itself is clear as day because crossing is the way to continue the journey. At a glance it’s overwhelming in this sort of way, that it looks undoable. Causing you to sit down on the bank. To take a rest before you turn around and return to where you came from.
By looking at the fact that your body is tired so you chose to rest, you might be overlooking the most power tool in your backpack. Because you made a choice to rest. Nothing is forcing you to rest before the journey home. You made the decision to do so.
Which means that the river even though it looks uncrossable truly isn’t. If you decide that can be crossed. That’s a crazy thought to consider right if your not versed in how to build a bridge. Let alone all by yourself right?
Well it’s not that far fetched with planning and hard work. Nature is filled with countless examples of this principle at play. But once you shift your mindset from defeated to can do, the things your capable of are amazing.
While we are not all lumberjacks or trying move across some crazy river. It’s a way to illustrate the prime principle of self healing and growing in life.
Since the journey is full of these kind of rapids and rivers. Where you get down on yourself or feel stuck. Sometime we just feel like we are on an island and want to give up.
How we view the world around us and how we conduct ourselves all boils down to a decision. You get to choose the outcome based upon what you decide to do with what’s around you.
You see, whether you’re sitting there along the river bank. Or as in my case the seat of an old pickup truck staring into the rearview mirror. In many ways your sketching out a goal of what the other side of this project will look like. What your going to look and be like.
But it’s so important for you, right there in that very moment to place that blueprint in your pocket for safe keeping. Where you can not only protect it but also look at it. As you learn the necessary skills and put in the work. To turn that blueprint into a reality.
One that will allow you walk across that impassable river.
Project Mindfully Outdoors 