By Larry Wilson And Hersch
Wilson
A few years ago I went on a
four-day adventure in the High Country wilderness of the
Sangre de
Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe. We were divided into essentially
two types of people. There were the “outdoor”
enthusiasts who exulted in being in the mountains, and then there were
the rest of us—grumpy city dwellers. As soon as we hit the
trail and began moving up into forest, the city dwellers were hit by
the realization that it was going to be uncomfortable—cold,
rainy, and wild. In front of us were the Truchas peaks, which we
intended to climb. It had sounded like a great idea a month ago, but
now they were shrouded in clouds and the rumble of thunder. They looked
foreboding and unapproachable. We asked ourselves, “Why are
we doing this? It’s going to be uncomfortable and even
dangerous—why don’t we just turn back now and admit
defeat?”
But
encouraged and kept in good spirits by the outdoor folks, up we
marched, farther and farther from the comforts of home. We arrived at
our camp—a meadow under the sheer pitches of the Truchas
Mountains. It was stunning...but our “home” was
four makeshift tarps.
We
soon discovered that in the mountains the weather rules and it is
completely unpredictable. In our four days, it rained, snowed, hailed,
we had winds that blew out the tarps . . . and we had a couple hours of
sun.
Beyond
the unpredictability of the weather—now it was sunny, boom,
then it was hailing—were the reactions of the people. The
city folks, myself included, got mad and complained loudly and bitterly
about the event of the weather—the damp, the cold, and the
“Oh, my God, it’s snowing!” We had
expected sunny weather, darn it! And we were mad that it
wasn’t happening! We eventually found a bottle of tequila and
retired to the driest tarp to commiserate.
The
outdoors folks were quite different.
When it rained, they put on ponchos; when it got cold and snowed, they
put on more layers. When the sun came out, they stripped down to
T-shirts and shorts and enjoyed the warmth on their bodies. The
difference was that they were prepared, by training and experience, for
anything.
What hit me was this: There is no such thing as bad weather, just
unprepared people. The weather just happens; it is neither bad nor
good, cruel nor pleasant; it just is. We interpret it as bad or good
because of how it affects us, but in reality, weather is just weather.
All we can really do is be prepared.
On
our little wilderness adventure, the prepared people handled the
weather with much more calm and creativity than the rest of us did.
They were ready for almost anything. They didn’t remain upset
when all of a sudden the tarps blew over; they solved the problem and
got on with it. It was all an adventure to them. What would they learn
this time? How far would their limits be pushed? What would they see?
What would they experience?
And
that is the clue. In the adventure of our lives, good things happen,
bad things happen, and—boom—terrible things happen.
In our lives we will each face choices that will determine who we will
become. We will all face the crises of living: pain, loss, death. The
individuals with the best probability of responding with courage and
creativity are those who are best prepared emotionally and spiritually.
Prepared people can handle all kinds of weather; deeply prepared people
see the weather as a challenge and as an opportunity to grow.
With
work and thinking, we too can become deeply prepared for the rest of
our lives. We can become so thoroughly prepared that we begin to
positively influence what happens to us; we begin to create our own
weather.
Think about it. Once we understand that we are here for a
reason—that we are spiritual beings on a human
path—then we can start making choices that lead us deeper and
deeper into our true selves. We strike out on our own, we make those
courageous choices that lead us in directions that we would never
before have taken had we settled for just playing not to lose all our
lives. As a result, we create our own weather.
When we understand that there is much
less to avoid, much less to fear,
when we see life as an opportunity to grow, we attempt more, we face
more challenges, and we grow. As a result, we get emotionally and
spiritually stronger and more like those experienced outdoors folks:
prepared for almost anything, exulting in our lives, and creating our
own weather
Larry
Wilson, founder of Pecos River Learning Center wrote the book Play to
win for Rath & Strong/Aon Management Consulting.
Founded in 1935, Rath & Strong/Aon Management Consulting is the
global leader of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma Solutions. Building on
Rath & Strong's pioneering role in Lean and Six Sigma, our
offering builds on over 65 years of history in helping our clients,
such as Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase and Siemens, achieve
lasting performance improvements. Our suite of services and products
for Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma includes Introduction to Six Sigma and
Lean Six Sigma with our 'famous' Courier Simulation, Green Belt, Black
Belt and Master Black Belt training, Leadership training and Value
Stream Mapping workshops. Rath & Strong is also the author of
the WALL STREET JOURNAL'S Best Selling Rath & Strong's Six
Sigma Pocket Guide (Rath & Strong, 2000). For more information
about Rath & Strong - Lean Six Sigma Solutions visit our web
site, http://www.rathstrong.com/rs/
or call 781.861.1700.
If
you would like additional information on this topic or others,
please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting
Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica,
CA
90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com
& our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.
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development, team building, interpersonal & communication
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