Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 336 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

8 Life Lessons from Hiking Tough Trails

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 336 of our trek, and yesterday we explored how to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. Today we will hike on a difficult trail where we will use 8 analogies of hiking and how they apply to our trek of life.

Thank you so much for coming along with me on our daily trek through life where our boots hit the trail with every step. Although some days may be difficult to navigate, we can use those days to help us grow in our wisdom, insight, and understanding. While some of our daily treks span multiple days, you can join us at any time and start along with us from that point on. If you would like to listen to any of the past episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeart Radio, and Google Play, so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns as our trail is sometimes obscured with obstacles that we did not anticipate. I seem to face this on a weekly basis. So, today our trek will cover…

8 Life Lessons from Hiking Tough Trails

As one of ten kids growing up on the farm, my siblings and I would invest many hours exploring the wooded hills, playing in the creek, and fishing at the pond which were located on the “lower 40 acres.” It was part of our life and fostered my love for being outside in the woods and hiking through God’s beautiful creation. With more years and maturity on my horizon, I have learned many lessons from hiking, both while I am on the trail and their analogy to lessons that I have learned in life. Today we will look at 8 of those lessons.

1. Move slowly. Don’t rush through or you could get hurt.

I have been known as someone who is a fast walker when I am heading anywhere in life, especially when I have a destination in mind. While hiking, I have come to realize that it is not wise to rush along the trail, especially difficult ones.

Injuries and nasty bruises will result if the pace is too fast.  A wise lesson to learn is to take things slowly.

This is especially true when going downhill. It’s imperative to move at a comfortable pace, making sure your footing is stable, and your body doesn’t push itself too hard. When you rush and misstep, those hiking with you might see your body roll down the side of the mountain. It’s not worth the injury, so be careful and take every step with care.

2. Don’t focus on the end destination; enjoy the journey.

You may forget that the majority of a hike isn’t glamorous at all. Even so, I find just about any trail interesting to observe with its own beauty, but usually you can only see a very limited distance in front of you. The pictures of people standing in front of open landscapes with grand mountains in the background are beautiful, but it’s a lot of hard work to get there. When you’re rushing through a trail in order to get to the checkpoints, you miss out on a majority of the hike. There are many interesting things to look for, and the conversation of those with you to enjoy.

3. You have no choice but to keep going.

If you have ever been on a very long or strenuous hike, you know there may be times that you feel you can’t go on or finish to the next stopping point. When you choose to work out on a treadmill, you have the option to press the red stop button, walk off the fatigue, and go fetch some water.