Enjoying the journey towards achieving your goals is no joke the hardest thing ever.

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

Exposed day 9 — What fun analogies can you come up with to show people that time is much more approachable than they think?

Creating the successful business and life you’ve always dreamed of is like taking a hike. It doesn’t even have to be a huge mountain or a long 20-miler ordeal, even though it often feels like it.

Want to know how much they have in common? Keep reading.

• There needs to be some kind of deeper reason, motivation, or accountability to get your ass off the couch to the trailhead. Things like another human with a similar deeper reason or because your eyes and brain hurt from staring at a computer screen for way too long.
• You need to be prepared with water, and snacks that fill you up AND you like to eat depending on how long you’re going for, it’s a non-negotiable. Just like finding the right time management strategies and tools, they help replenish you and help you get to the finish line.
• Once you get going, you ask the people around you if they checked out a map before heading out. Nope? Cool.
• You keep wishing you downloaded or even looked at a map, then you realize you might still have service to google the trail you’re on. Heck yes! Still a bar. So you google and can’t find a great answer quickly.
• Your nervous system is a bit on overdrive. You haven’t seen another human in a while, and you can’t stop thinking about a bear being around the next corner. Adrenaline keeps pumping through your whole system with every heartbeat. Your brain keeps telling you to TURN AROUND!
• A quarter of the way through, you start to forget about the bears for three reasons. You’re starting to enjoy yourself, a little bit. You’re also getting pretty dang tired and can’t stop wondering why the hell you even like hiking. And you keep telling yourself, “honestly what are the chances of seeing a bear?”
• You start to get into some sort of flow of the hike, but you continue to alternate from hugging trees in gratitude with a huge grin across your face, grunting with frustration from stubbing your toe on a rock, and feeling a bit bored with every new breath and step. Until you see the sunshine through the treetops, and you smile again. It’s all a part of the journey.
• Not knowing where the end of the trail feels sorta fun and mystical and kinda, sorta de-motivating. Our brain really likes finishing things, that sense of accomplishment, or getting someplace. (we need to define where this someplace is if we ever want to enjoy the journey).
• Because you didn’t think the journey would take that long or much energy, you didn’t bring your water and snacks, and you’re starting to really regret it now. Your mouth is dry as a bone, and the bouts of gratitude and excitement begin happening less often. You start thinking, “when is this gonna end? when am I finally going to be there?”
• Taking a break feels like defeat, so you search for a rock to sit on. None in sight, you stand there breathing for a bit. You start to feel better. But the moment you start to move again, the achy muscles and exhaustion comes right back.
• You see someone else in front of you and you get super excited. You want to ask them how long the hike is, if they made it to the top, or if they just wanna be your new friend.
• When you see the end of the trail, you get so excited, and then realize that it keeps going around that next corner. So at that moment, you get to decide if you want to keep going to see if you can finish it, or turn around because you forgot your water and it’s getting dark.

It’s your choice.

Do you want to turn around or keep going? See if you can make it to the end?

You’re parched, and so you tell yourself it’s not about making it to the end of the trail. It’s about getting outside and moving. It’s about enjoying time with your partner. It’s about feeling alive.

You start retracing your steps and start to feel more comfortable with your decision knowing in your body and soul that is the truth, and that in a few days you’ll be back out there.

It’s about getting yourself started, having the right tools to keep you going until YOU say you want to pivot.

It’s about being present on the journey because at some point the hike will end and you’re going to wish it wasn’t over yet.

Maybe the hike never ends.