
- Everett Ruess, 1934
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- Everett Ruess, 1934 As all of us who have spent time outdoors know quite well, immersing yourself in natural beauty can have a tremendous ability to calm the mind and enable clearer thinking. I know it works for me! And those of you who have ever been lost on a hike, or faced inclement weather on a backpacking trip, or had a run in with a bear, know that wilderness adventures can pose mental challenges and require conflict resolution skills. Perhaps that is why so many business leaders find that spending time in the wilderness makes them better at their desk jobs – they know how to remain calm in a crisis, have the humility to realize that actual skills matter more than titles or degrees, and problems get solved when people can look past the imminent danger and plan a resolution. Perhaps all high school students should be required to spend a week in a wilderness survival school? There is so much to learn from being outdoors in the wilderness – not just how to read a map or survive in a worst-case scenario, but skills that can be translated to the rest of our lives…teamwork, communication, delegation, planning, backup planning, and even more backup planning! I’ve made some of my closest friends by spending time with them on backpacking trips, and we’ve all learned how to be better people because of these trips. I’m off to enjoy the natural world around us and take a nice sunset hike in the local hills. I’ll be thinking about my next backpacking adventure… Have you taken an outdoor course such as the NOLS course referred to in the Harvard Business Review article? What did you think?
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” -John Lubbock, British archaeologist and biologist, 19th century
“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” - Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest
While I am a novice mountaineer and love climbing mountain peaks, I have yet to attempt to break time records. For me, it is about enjoying the scenery and taking my time to connect with nature. For others, it is a matter of setting personal records. One of the most famous mountaineers with a stop watch is Ueli Steck, also known as the Swiss Machine. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, his impressive climb (run!) up Mt. Eiger is an amazing video. In my view, individuals should have the right to pursue their goals, whether it is to get to a mountain top in a certain amount of time, or enjoying nature and finding their own way to fulfillment. What do you think? |
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