Hiking Log – It’s always worth it
This is part 28 of excerpts from the trail log which was located on a New York portion of the Appalachian trail. For the post which explains this series, click here. You can read all the previous hiking posts by clicking here.
Each new edition includes a quote from a hiker, along with this writer’s insight into what the person might have meant. Your interpretation may be different!
Following is my selection of this week’s thoughts of a hiker.
7-7-18
It’s always worth it. May your efforts be rewarded with growth and wisdom. Do hard things.
This time I feel drawn to the end of this writer’s comments first. “Do hard things.” It’s a fact that many of us tend to gravitate towards easy things. For example, we might always choose the well-known and comfortable method to get something done. Day after day it’s smooth sailing. Or we might always drive the same route to our office or home. Perhaps we are in a relationship or job that isn’t quite working for us, but quitting that relationship or job would be hard, so we just stay. Maybe we would love to learn a new skill but we’d have to register for classes, take the time out of our lives to get to class, pay attention, practice, or do whatever else might be required to learn that new thing. It’s easier just to dream about it than to actually do it. So in my mind, the most important words in this hiker’s note are to do hard things.
And the second most important are “May your efforts be rewarded with growth and wisdom.” Doesn’t that just make perfect sense? If we do something we haven’t done before – especially a hard thing – we will without a doubt learn something, making us wiser. If we do that hard thing and succeed, we will grow in self-confidence and happiness with our life. If we do that same thing and fail, we’ll have to come up with another way to get where we want to be, thus growing and learning more. And learning how to fail and get back up and try again, is one of the greatest life-changing things we can do.
The hiker’s quote started with the following words which I think make more sense as an ending, “It’s always worth it.”
Taking control of our life by making decisions to do hard things is always worth it. Anything we do, especially if it’s something we thought we couldn’t, is a huge confidence booster. And whether we succeed or fail, we grow in some way. We might learn we have strengths and talents we never knew we had. So yes, hiker, it’s always worth it.
Thank you hiker, for sharing your encouraging thoughts. And until next time, happy trails!