Lessons from the Ceredigion Way–part 1

This was the final hill down into Aberystwyth, and this picture doesn’t do justice to just how steep it was!  We had just finished the walk from Cardigan along the Ceredigion Way.  It was unbelievably beautiful and if you like walking I can certainly recommend it. 

We learnt a lot about the local flora and fauna; it was an amazing show of spring flowers including, to my surprise, drifts of clifftop bluebells (in Surrey, they only grow in the woods), gorse, thrift and even orchids.  We saw over 30 species of birds.

However, it made me think a bit about work and leadership too.  The first two days were magnificent, but having walked a marathon and climbed over 9,000 ft carrying heavy packs we were pretty tired.  We thought about the prospect of yomping off first thing on the third day and it didn’t feel either fun or ‘on purpose’; it was, after all, meant to be a holiday!  So we decided that if we wanted to finish the whole thing and enjoy it, we’d give ourselves a bit of recovery time and catch the bus to Aberaeron and cut the day short by about 5 miles or so.  It might seem like a ‘cheat’, but it was a really smart decision.  It meant we enjoyed the day, and as we slogged the final mile and a half all uphill to the B&B, we were mighty glad we had! 

The thing is that the object of the holiday was to enjoy it and return refreshed, not knackered!  Sometimes one has to change one’s plans when you learn new information.  Plans are great for guidance, but you often (like us) don’t know what you don’t know.  Change is a journey, and you have to be prepared to change your plans as you learn.  You might even discover that you need to alter your destination, adapt and survive!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2014 at 12:18 and is filed under General, Leadership, Personal Blog, Travelogue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.