I appreciate every visit and comment to my blog. Recently this blog outgrew it’s memory for a free blog and I had a few options;
a) quit and start over,
b) pay and get rid of the ads that I had no control over.
I have been blogging for awhile now and my first goal was simply to try, and learn a new skill. Once that goal was accomplished, I realized I was hooked, I wanted to continue.
I was hooked by the kind comments and encouraging readers. Now and then someone out of the blue would say “Hey I read your blog”. It made me light up inside that they liked it enough to mention it.
If they read it occasionally it must not be totally bad, eh?
I couldn’t stop because I would miss you guys, and so I continue posting. Not every day, but I hope often enough you don’t lose interest and I hope not too often that you tire of visiting.
All of this preamble to say; Thanks for reading and keeping this blog alive! ♥ So far 845 posts since 2010 and few different categories for those who want to explore past posts.
Fill your boots and read along.♥♥
TAKING THE LONG WAY
The Okanagan valley where I live is a typical valley. It has mountain ridges on two sides and a string of different lakes stretch in a line like children on a playground holding hands.
The mountain ridge to the west of Penticton is steep. I remember years ago when a small plane taking off from Penticton and heading west to Vancouver crashed and landed in the forests west.
A good friend of mine once showed me just how steep the western side of the valley is. He took me up in his plane and we travelled north up the valley gradually gaining altitude. I knew our destination, Apex Mountain, was only a few miles west of Penticton but we kept going north, and kept gaining altitude.
Finally, he turned the plane and we continued to climb but now going south and west. Our plane had wound it’s way up and then back down the valley in order to climb to the necessary altitude safely.
We circled the ski hill and then he offered to take me back to Penticton direct. He would demonstrate the steep mountain slope by safely flying DOWN that angle of slope instead of UP. There would be no risk of stalling the plane heading down.
I felt like I was leaning heavily forward in this tiny two-seated plane. The trip to the mountain, up and then back down the valley had taken 30 minutes in his swift plane, but the trip direct, down the dizzying angle felt like 60 seconds even though I am sure it was more like ten minutes.
We finally leveled off and I breathed easier, no longer feeling like the plane was in a diving angle.
Definitely I knew I did not want to be in a plane that tried to fly UP that direct rate of angle – unless it was an F-18.
The short cut was a direct route to disaster, the way to success was to Take the Long Way.
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Oftentimes I have tried to go the direct route to my goals.
For example I wanted to run a ten kilometre race and was following a proven schedule of gradual increases of walking vs running. I felt like I could jump ahead and so I didn’t follow the graduated plan.
I skipped ahead a few weeks when training for a ten kilometre run, instead of following the well laid out plan. My enthusiasm, and impatience simply lead to injury and weeks of not training at all. I had to start at the beginning again.
But I did learn. I learned to follow the wisdom of a proven plan and being impatient was something I had to learn not to be.
By following the plan I learned I was actually following the best way, the safe way and that the short cut was actually the direction of failure and foolish when it came to training for my running goal.
I learned the hard way not to take the direct route because it was an illusion.
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David’s note – I have shared these two examples but I have many more, and you probably can think of situations yourself when taking a “shortcut” turned out to be a “learning experience” as we often describe it when we fail.
But failure is not a bad thing. I am not a critic of failing.
I admire people who are always trying new things, and challenging themselves. They are the ones doing exciting things and learning exciting things.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
_Eleanor Roosevelt, former 1st lady of the United State
As long as we can fail without permanent repercussions but better we learn from other’s failures. Maybe wisdom is not learning from our mistakes, better that we learn from the mistakes of others.
Have goals,
Have visions,
Have a plan and don’t worry if you Need to Take the Long Way to achievement.
- Thanks again for your time and your visit! ♥ David
Life and Random Thinking 