A Daily Dose of Do-Overs

The trail does not care what we want it to be

Have you ever had it rain for eight days on your week off? 

Or sat in an airplane on the tarmac for hours, grounded because of a strike or civil strife and watched your planned holiday evaporate before your eyes?

Or maybe you’ve been attacked by some bug – whether a virus or actual creepy crawlies – that stopped you quite literally in your tracks?

Yup, had ‘em all!

In my recent TEDx talk I shared one of the most important lessons I have learned while walking long trails. 

The trail doesn’t really care what we want it to be. 

The trail is like life. It simply is what it is. 

Daily Dose of Do-Overs

As we approach a new year, I like to think about how to process the past year – the good, the bad and the ugly – and how I can use all of it to help me grow and reach my goals.

For most of us, we’re dealt both the good and the bad, and it’s how step forward holding those cards that makes the difference in our lives. 

That’s because every day we’re offered a choice, what I like to call a “Daily Dose of Do-Overs.” 

We get to choose how we deal with that reality. 

And that’s its own kind of bliss-seeking – when we search for solid ground in spite of life’s inexplicable randomness.

This is not to make light of life’s losses and how hard it can be to grieve them properly. If we’re human beings on this earth, we’ve all endured loss, failure, rejection, missing the mark, cosmic U-turns. 

It’s important to acknowledge and properly mourn when things go wrong – when our life’s trail has become impassable and impossible. 

But every ending is a beginning. Rather than haunt us, our losses can become a catalyst for change. 

Faith and Empowerment

This past Sunday, the preacher said something that really resonated. No matter your belief system or religion, his words really make sense: “Your belief is the answer.”

The trail offers another lesson. The physical act of moving forward with each step is a kind of faith that there is more beyond where we are. As we take each small tentative step, we also move our minds and hearts forward too. 

So rather than ask “Why me?” when everything seems to go against us, a more powerful question is “What’s next?” 

That question offers hope – and faith that another door will open.

Life isn’t fair and bad things sometimes just happen. The trail is muddy or blocked by a blowdown.

Life offers sorrow but also bliss, in equal measure. 

So if we want the transformative, the wondrous, the extraordinary – if we want to be resilient – we have to ignore that question “why me?” and keep putting ourselves on the path and moving forward.