Mindset #11 – Where’s your next checkpoint?
It’s hour 18 of my 30 hour hike and All I can think about is the uncertainty of the situation.
Where are we going? I’ve never hiked these mountains before. Shit i’ve never hiked before but now I find myself on the highest mountain in New Hampshire with 3 more mountain peaks to summit.
My Focus is on how tired I am and what happens if I am so exhausted that I won’t be able to finish the hike.
My focus is on worst case scenario thinking. What if I get hurt? What if I pass out, get left stranded and die?
I decided to sit down on a nearby rock. Pause. Take a big breath. Take in the scene. Forced Smile and remind myself, “Where is my focus right now”?
Of course I feel low energy, fearful and stressed out because all I did over the last 30 minutes was focus on it. I wondered what if i’m just freaking myself out? I was looking at the last mountain from a distance because as high up as I was you can see the last peak.
I then realized that I was making myself feel overwhelmed because I was looking at these huge mountains (quite literally) and getting discouraged at the sheer distance, time and energy it would take to get there.
I remembered the saying “1 step at a time”. I thought no way this applies here but it was worth a shot. I had to change my strategy. I was fed up.
So I changed my strategy from focusing on overwhelm of the hike and how long it was going to take and hard it was going to be… to
Where’s my next checkpoint.
Let’s set one up. I’m at the top of the mountain and I am going to have to trek down about 45 minutes before trekking back up. My next checkpoint will be the bottom mile marker at the base of the mountain.
All i’m going to do is focus on getting to that mile marker, then after that I can worry and go back to feeling overwhelmed.
So I make the promise with myself and accept and go.
After about 20 minutes of focusing on 1 step at a time and my next checkpoint. I entered this deep zone and the enjoyment actually began to creep back in. before i Knew it i was at the bottom of mountain.
This strategy works. Ok so where’s my next checkpoint. Top of mountain now. 45 minutes later im there.
Wow, same result. My confidence started to grow I found a checkpoint system to manage my anxiety and worry about the overwhelm of completing the hike.
I continued to use this same checkpoint system throughout the remaining hike. When I got done the hike. I realized what a learning moment that was… I wonder where else in my life I have been using that same “overwhelm strategy” and how I can replace it with the “checkpoint strategy”
Mindset #11 – Where’s your next checkpoint?
Are you feeling low energy?
Are you feeling overwhelmed?
Are you feeling stressed?
Check your focus.
Are you focused on what’s going wrong with you?
Are you focused on how you compare to others?
Are you focused on worst case scenarios?
Reframe.
Redirect whats going wrong with a solution to get it right.
Redirect others how you compare to others with how you compared to your previous self 3 months ago.
Redirect the worst case scenario with 1 small action step that will help solve the worst case scenario.