You have planned out in your mind’s eye everywhere that you want to go in your life. You have put into place everything you can think of to allow you to go there. You believe with all your heart that your efforts will prove successful. Then, plop, you walk straight into a brick wall, a foot thick and ten feet high. Frustration starts seeping into every part of you. What the hell happened?! Well, it may not necessarily mean that everything that you did before hitting the wall was dead wrong. You may just need to make an adjustment and/or get an objective second set of eyes on the entire situation.
The Overnight Hike
In what seems like, at the same time, a thousand years ago and just last month, when I was in my mid-twenties, I was working in a large office in Newark, NJ. One day, during a conversation with a co-worker, the subject turned to backpacking. He was an avid hiker and he suggested an overnight backpack hike in the Adirondack Mountains. He was an experienced backpacker and was familiar with the various trails. I had never backpacked before. My brother and I had plans to do so but he died before we got the chance. I told my co-worker that I was game for it and we made plans for the hike. I drove to his house on Saturday morning and we drove up to the Adirondacks in his vehicle. I had all the proper gear — backback, tent, sleeping bag, canteen, provisions, etc., which I would be carrying on my back. The plan was to hike to the midway point of the trail he had chosen, camp there overnite, then finish up the hike back to the parking area on Sunday.
We set off on the hike with “all systems go”. The weather was perfect. The trail was clearly marked. The scenery was outstanding. After about an hour or so, I started feeling a little bit of pain in my shoulders. I just shrugged it off as something to be expected as a newbie backpacker. After another hour, the pain was not so little anymore. Not wanting to look like a wuss to my fellow hiker, I continued to trudge on. After the third hour, the pain was excruciating. I had finally had enough and told him to hold up a minute. I then told him that I was experiencing a great deal of pain in my shoulders and that we would unfortunately have to turn around and head back to the parking area. At first he just thought it was because I was a novice backpacker. He told me that my body would adjust as I went on. When I insisted that I could not go on, he changed his tune. He looked at me closely and asked me to turn around. He then said, “Let me try something.” He proceeded to make an adjustment to the belt portion of my backpack. All of a sudden (cue the angelic choir singing and sunbeam shining down on me) the weight of the world was now off my shoulders. All the weight of the backpack was now squarely centered on my hips which were infinitely better suited to carry the burden than my shoulders were. I thanked him and we proceeded with our hike. The soreness of the shoulders receded and the overnite hike was a success.
Step Back And Take Another Look
Sometimes, you are on the right track but it all still seems to be going all wrong. You have taken the necessary steps to plan and achieve success in your chosen goal. You have chosen the winning mindset. Yet you are still losing. I have been in that place a number of times. You take a step back, look at the situation and say to yourself, “F**k — What am I doing wrong here?” At this point, an uninformed observer may just throw platitudes at you and merely urge you to push onward. If I had done that with the backpack situation, I may have ended up doing serious harm to my shoulders and spinal column. I was on the right track but an adjustment was definitely required. I needed an experienced and knowledgeable second set of eyes to help me out. When the adjustment was made, my goal was subsequently achieved.
Many times we do not have another experienced and knowledgeable human being nearby that we are able to ask for help. If I had asked someone who was as much a novice as me, it would have been a case of the blind leading the blind. In those situations where you are floundering and have nobody to turn to — go within. Stop. Take a deep breath. Take two or three. Center yourself. Ask for and quietly claim the answer that you need from Universal Supreme Intelligence. Refrain from begging for it. Ask for it with peaceful confidence that you will receive it. You will you know, unless you start doubting. Doubt always throws up a curtain over the solution and causes you not to see it. Be quiet. Ask. Seek. Knock. Listen. When you receive the answer, implement the solution in faith and proceed to bring success to yourself.