Plateaus

This past month I had the great opportunity to go on a hiking trek with my sons and their Boy Scout troop. It was a great opportunity to watch the boys in action. Every part of normal life required extra effort, including making dinner, cleaning up after dinner, hanging the food in bear bags, navigating the hike to coincide with water sources, etc. A lot of effort to simply hike! Yet all the boys worked together. Not a single one of our group complained, argued, or shirked from the work. The boys exhibited a great attitude about the work and the sometimes tedious aspects of hiking some rugged and strenuous trails. During some of the long, potentially boring, hikes I watched the boys talking to each other about things that were fun or that they missed from home. What great conversation! It made the time go quicker and the hike seem shorter.

I can remember one especially difficult day when our hike was to take us up 3,000 feet over a ridge line and then down 1,200 feet into a camp. We prepared the crew to expect it to be a somewhat hard day and we hiked a little extra the day before to help get us up as much of the trail as possible. The day was long and many times the trail switched back on itself in order to maintain a reasonable grade. But each time we encountered a switch back that took us in the opposite direction of our destination, it made it difficult to keep morale high. Sometimes it would look like we were nearing the crest of the ridge line only to find out there was a higher ridge just behind it. The next ridge was obscured by the close ridge due to our position and perspective. Whenever this occurs while you are hiking, it is called a false summit. Finally, after a long day of hiking the last summit, we finally reached the top of the ridge. There was no more UP. We finally reached the top! We stopped and took pictures and looked back the way we had come. It was amazing to see the amount of distance that was covered that day. It was also nice to see what we would be hiking up and over the next day.

We started our descent down towards camp with a bit more spring in our step. We had accomplished a lot that day,  and we knew that we could handle whatever we needed to do the next day.

I couldn't help but think about how our martial arts training patterns this typical day's hike. We have a plan that we know we can accomplish. We know where our destination is (black belt and beyond). We don't always know ahead of time the twists and turns that we might have to take (due to scheduling issues, injuries, job changes, etc.) . Sometimes during our training we feel like we have worked so hard to get the summit we are currently standing on and we look ahead to the next higher summit that we know we must attack next. Blue, Green, Brown and Black are each in their own way, summits preparing you for the next important summit. Take some time to enjoy the view where you are at, you earned it! But then ready yourself for the next steps. If you thought that summit was amazing, wait until you see the view from the next!

Here are some ideas of things to help make the next "climb" more enjoyable and feel less like going backwards:

If you are feeling less strong or less developed with cardio, supplement your training with biking or running to change things up a bit.

If you feel like you want to get a jump on the next set of material, schedule a private to kick start the process.

If you are feeling stressed because you put things on hold for the test you have just completed, find balance in your schedule and take care of the things that are truly important (family, school, work, etc).

If you feel bored with your material, schedule a semi-private with a friend to find more "hidden" techniques in the material you already have.

If you don't feel like coming to class, go to Class! You know you always feel better afterward!

Oh, and  while enjoying the view, look behind you.  Is there someone else struggling up the mountain you just reached that could use some encouragement? Take the  opportunities to make the hike not seem so difficult and share or help a friend along the way!

Sigung Kelly Corder