We notice when the weather changes quickly that we may need to change our actions. When something changes internally, we often brush it off or ignore it and just work harder. There may be no problem with that or there may be a severe consequence. Last Tuesday, I was hiking down a steep rocky path near Parker Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Almost to the bottom of the path I looked up to see how far and tripped, falling on my chin. Blood was spitting everywhere as I called for Paul to come back and grabbed a tissue to staunch the bleeding. It didn’t stop.
2 mile hike down, 40 minute ride to Mammoth Hospital Emergency room, catscan of my head, a lot of digging the dirt and splinters out, and 7 stitches later, I was on my way. My ego is hurt, but I’ll be fine. I’m reviewing what I should have done differently. Maybe, I should have gone slower and been more careful as I was getting tired. Why didn’t I? I said my ego was hurt. What is that about? I set a goal and don’t give up easily. That has been a big factor in my “success in life”. Oy, that runs up against my low score in flexibility from the EQ test I did a few weeks ago. Life just keeps on serving me up opportunities to improve.
This isn’t just me. I read an article last night about a expert hiker in Norway lost for over 6 days. Luckily he was rescued. He had a lot of time to think about the mistakes he made.
We are all facing new challenges with AI, tariffs, economic and political uncertainty. We cannot skip blithely down the path. Let’s check our assumptions together and prepare for the difficult path ahead.
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