When the only thing you got on your to-do list in a day is walking, you start thinking differently. Three days of walking and sleeping in nature is not enough to have big breakthroughs, but a great start to some realizations. These I want to share with you right now.
Luxury is relative.
In a life like this, tramping life, what matters the most is having enough water, having a place to sleep, being warm at night, having enough food and good people around you. Once you have that, you have everything. All the other things above that are luxuries. Unless you experience not having a place to sleep, you can’t understand the privilege we have. We take it as a standard and forget to be grateful. Now, in the evening, when I lie into my warm bed with a satisfied belly, I quietly thank for the comfort I am given.
Living in luxury, being rich or happy are all relative. Whether you live any of those things depends on your mindset formed by past experiences, current state and your ability to reflect and be grateful.
Collision of expectations. ( flexibility vs. goal achieving and team vs. friends.)
When you don’t unite the expectations and goal with your team, you are facing a risk of their collision. And that is an unpleasant situation because it is no one’s fault, but everyone’s. If not handled well, it can lead to loss of motivation and trust.
Yes, it happened to us, but let’s take it as a learning opportunity.
Example: A team plans to do a 5day hike. This hike is part of their bigger goal to go on 3 trips together. There is no specific goal or shared expectations for this specific trip. Majority of the group wants to go home after 3 days, but few people feel like the team is giving up. What should the team do? (Also, they are tired and cold)
Our resolution: We talked about it, everyone said how they feel and what outcome they prefer. (depressing phase) In the morning the majority has decided, and we all went home. Me, a person that wanted to stay, has concluded, that I want to stay with the team – meaning I am going home, despite my different expectations. I was sad and disappointed and needed to talk about it. I needed to understand their motives and change my point of view otherwise, if not talked about it, my emotions would turn to grudge.
What have I learned: Sometimes the goal is not set or set unrealistically, and the team needs to be flexible and consider the situations of all members. In this case, all of us had different comfort zones and pushing someone too far out would make more damage. In a situation like this, when few people have different expectations that are not fulfilled, it is important to talk with the people, about how the feel. Make them heard and get everyone back on the same boat. Because before we are a team, we are people. We are not machines and we need to take care of each other to be able to "together achieve more." Sometimes, it is not about the specific goal we set, but putting aside our egos and understanding, what is best for us as people.
This learning circus was a great preparation for our Final Trip. It made me realize it will not be as easy as we think. We saw each other’s behaviors in difficult situation and know now, what we need to work on to make it run as smoothly as we can. I believe our team will have an amazing trip together, because behind all the difficulties lie good friendships that bind us together. Friendship that were formed by all of our experiences together!
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