"How Much Do You Want This....."

Nietzsche, an accomplished philosopher, poet, and mountaineer wrote: "He who has a why can endure any how...".

Nietzsche was one of many who espoused musings on meaning and purpose in life... He was often troubled himself yet affirmed the importance of pondering such meanings, and what it is we want from our experiences, from our existence... and just as importantly what we may be prepared to do in order to attain these...

Many of us find that quotes like these help us journey closer to clarifying our own images of the adventure ideas going through our minds each season...

How much do you 'want'... whatever that want might be in your adventure planning and desires for experiences out there... Any such musings can be priceless on the path to understanding our own personal 'why'...

Sometimes we ask the same question of ourselves at a different level by inquiring about what price we are prepared to pay... in terms of effort & esteem, time & trial, discipline & sacrifice...

Then we may see more clearly why this is important for us to do; what meaning these adventures create for us...

How bad do you want this...

Can you actually see yourself on that high mountain summit... Have you visualised what the trek will be like... Will that picture on the wall signify what you wanted from your adventure... Can you feel now what the emotions will be like when out there... In your minds eye are you able to envision each step of the journey...

As an Outward Bound instructor once said to me, "It is much more effective to focus on what you do want, than to be taken off course by too much thinking about what you don't want...".

I've mused too over how it is not helpful to be so distracted by what 'seems' to be urgent, that we lose time, energy, and focus on what ends up being more truly important... Much within adventures, as in life, can be very much like that...

There can be so many other aspects that may turn out to be incidental, rather than instrumental, to your path and chosen adventure activities... We need to be careful and even protective at times of where we spend our precious energies...

Do you really want this...

Actually walking the coals of such questions can be a test of sorts... of our true selves... our real commitment... and enhance our depth of understanding about what these adventure experiences may ask of us... But what treasures we will find along the way!

Nietzsche also wrote of his own trials by trail that: "I am a wayfarer and a mountain climber... and whatever destiny and experience may now come to me, there will be wayfaring and mountain climbing in it: after all, one experiences only oneself...".

All of this is yet another internal adventure in pondering and answering for ourselves, such personal questions of how much do we each want this.....

DSD