Lessons from Trekking

Trekking can teach us a thing or two, totally worthwhile and applicable everywhere.

Prep is crucial: meticulous preparation is a critical aspect of any trek, how and what you prepare determines your attitude and the seriousness of the endeavor you are undertaking. Food, water, gear, clothes, and medications, from collecting all important and necessary things to cleverly packing them requires you to be articulate, intelligent, and have an attitude for attention to detail.

If you begin each day with this attitude and prep for the better or worse, the day will end leaving you inspired and ready with the energy to cope with any kind of challenges.

Awareness: all your senses need to be active while trekking, there is no scope for distraction, and each step needs to be taken with complete focus. Conscious observation on the trail and paying attention to precious details can teach us how we look at the world around us.

Art of Listening: Your team lead will give out precious information about the conditions of the trail, techniques, navigation, and direction. Pay attention by listening not hearing. You must soak in every drop of the information being given as it would be a lifesaver when going gets tough. Villagers, shepherds, local people, and monks on the way in the Himalayas can provide you with life stories and lessons, experiences that can define life-changing moments.

What we learn by listening to knowledge banks around us can help us solve problems in life by accessing that memory and applying that critical knowledge when the need arises.

No turning back: there is no quitting here, once the trek is underway it would be impossible to turn back alone, it would be rather sensible to keep trudging with the team and complete it rather than go back alone.

Sometimes we make some choices in life that determine if and how we can fulfill our dreams and aspirations, whether we want to take risks to reach where we want to or make the mistake of quitting under pressure and stress.

Acceptance and Endurance: Your expectations may not come true always on the trek, known/unknown whatever the trek throws at you, you will have to embrace and keep moving. There is no time for dejection, “keep moving ahead” is the mantra here, cold, heat, rain, storm, stones, mud, raging rivers, rickety bridges, ascend, descend, snow, sand, rocks, as long as you keep walking, you’re getting somewhere and you will get there.

Life is also a trek, a journey full of barriers and shortcomings, as long as we keep moving and believe in what we want to achieve.

Team: A good team can help you trudge through a hard trail, a sense of camaraderie has great power to motivate. It is the same with life, it is a journey and the people whom we choose to walk with and let into our inner circle can make a big impact on how soon and with how much difficulty we make it to the destination.

I believe if you want to know people – their character and attitude, take them on a trek.

Soul satisfaction & Humility: An arduous trek is the best medicine to clear your head, deflate that ego balloon, and realize that money cannot buy everything. You will be grounded to planet earth, in your most real form, with the least expectations, and humbly surrendering to the facilities around you and making the most of them. On the winning side, you will get to experience the soul-satisfying luxury of a sky full of stars, awe-inspiring nature, the simplest but most cherished food, and the solitude that can touch your soul. Sometimes, in life, we need that break to re-think, re-consider, and seek some redemption.