Challenging

I had an interesting little personal experience.  As regular readers will know, I’m not only a keen walker but on a ‘getting in shape’ challenge at present.  So, as yesterday looked like being a perfect autumn day, I decided I’d take myself off for a walk.  I thought I’d step things up a bit and do a bigger walk.  This one turned out to be 14.5 miles and over 4,000 ft climbed.  I have done this length before but it was longer than I normally do and I caught myself feeling just a little daunted by the challenge as I set off.  Whilst I ‘knew’ I could do it… what if it was longer than I felt up to once I was halfway round and other silly thoughts.  The reality and details of this are trivial but the apprehension, though fleeting was there.  It made me think about how we react when facing challenges.  A bit of me wanted some wriggle room, a way out if I didn’t ‘feel’ like it.  However, what got me round was the knowledge that I was the only one who could help and I was entirely reliant on my own resources to get home.  Obviously different people have different thresholds for trying something new or difficult, but once you have decided to challenge them, knowing how long to leave them to it is a key element of helping them grow.  It is very similar to the issues parents face when watching a child try something for the first time, if you rush in and rescue them too soon, you stop them growing up.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2014 at 11:38 and is filed under General, Hints, Tips & Techniques. 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.