Life, some may call it a circle, a timeline or even a river, flowing from place to place in an ever continuing current with many different paths to take. All of these are correct to some extent, but there will never be a perfect analogy for life. However, if I were to use an analogy for life, I would call it a one way road trip. This is because we all are born or start the trip or journey, and we all die eventually, inevitably, which is where the journey ends. But, the road trip is not about the beginning or the end, it is about the journey, the events along the way, the people, locations, and deeds you have done before getting to the end. Every choice you make can be seen as an exit, a turn, branch or a fork in the road,
Most people, alone or in a team, (or following my analogy would a lone car or a convoy) wish to achieve or get things greater than what they currently have, such as wealth, skills, abilities, or intellect while on this long road trip called life. Leaders or the lead vehicles in the convoy must go through a lot of planning to decide on what paths to go on. To decide and plan to go on specific pathways and roads of life are all considered goals in some way shape or form. Goals are objectives individuals and groups with to accomplish or gain. Whether these goals or objectives are long term or short term, they require much planning and motivation, as well as the courage to act upon and execute the plans to be successful, allowing the team members to reach their objective.
Goals, whether it be setting them or wanting to achieve them, is part of our human nature and it is impossible for the average human being to avoid. Due to that feeling of “want” people have, having these goals and having the abilities to plan and set these goals are important for leaders and followers alike as they give them a direction and purpose to work towards. These goals can be big or small, but all these goals are potential achievements that someone can learn from and take pride in while working towards them or in the future, looking back upon it.
For the last twenty eight on this Trans-Canada 2013 Arctic expedition, we have had many objectives and goals that we wished to succeed in. Goals that we have achieved, goals that we have reached, goals that we have successfully completed, as well as goals that we have failed to pull off. But through the good and bad, the thick and thin, the rough back roads and the smooth paved highways of life, we have learned, grown and matured from these experiences, as a great man and great leader once said, “Good days, good memories, bad days, good lectures”.
From day one, July 14th, 2013, there were hiccups, we were unprepared for the tasks that were given to us, and when we thought our planning was working, it failed, causing our trip to be delayed for another day, thus we failed our goal for that day. But, we learned from that experience and we were able to successfully complete our planning on the following day as well as our preparation and load up, allowing for us to leave early on the following morning.. On the first day on the road, July 16th, 2013, or day three of this expedition, we went camping at Pancake Bay provincial park. The ground was rocky and hard, the campgrounds were swarmed with insects with a passion for human blood, the students were inexperienced with the tents, and worse of all, there was a massive thunderstorm at night, causing the pack up on the following day to be chaos, further delaying our already day late schedule. However, from that ordeal we learned the importance of teamwork and communication, as time carried on, we learned more and more, through both successes and failures alike.
While going along these road ways of life, planning, setting, achieving or even failing goals will put strain on both the body and the mind. Back to the road trip analogy, the driver of the car is like your mind and the car it’s self is like your body. As you may have noticed on the blogs, majority of the damage is received on rough roads such as the Dempster highway rather on smoother highways such as the Trans-Canada highway. Damage and strain on both the drivers and the Sprinters. On the road trip the driver or the mind may not get much rest, may not have the chance to stop for proper accommodations, and will end up stressed and tired. While the vehicle or the body is put through majority of the physical damage, with mud, dirt and blown out tires. But, with the proper care, cleaning, and fixing up the damaged can become as good as new again, with even more experience than before which you can learn from and apply to problems you have in the future.
As we learn from problems, situations and events, we learn how to deal with similar ones in the future. Similar to the stepping stones across the glacier streams at Tombstone Mountain which we encountered on July 29th, 2013 or day sixteen of our expedition. As we began walking and taking steps we learned to watch for unstable rocks, slippery rocks, and potential paths to take as well as who was the best at finding those previous conditions and should lead the group. The further we walked, and the longer we walked, we were able to use recent knowledge to plan each and every following step. Each step, once again is a choice and like life, we learned from each and every one. Through the successful steps we took taught us what we should do to reach our goal with the minimal number of mistakes. While through the failures such as the slips and falls, we learned what not to do and what we should avoid while planning our pathway to reach our goal. From these mistakes, these slips and falls, we also learned an essential part of life; it doesn’t matter how hard you can take the hit, it just matters if you can move on afterwards. As when we fell down, simply needed to pick ourselves up and keep going, even though we were wet, and dirty we continued towards our goals.
As we remain moving towards our goals, a leader must decide on how to tackle and reach certain goals. Either using his or her man power as a bullet, concentrated with force, or as fireworks, scattered, spread out tackling many parts of a problem or situation at once.
Similar to the fireworks display we saw on August 7th, 2013, or day twenty five of this expedition, a great leader must aim or set a goal like an artwork, such as a musical masterpiece. The leader acts like a musical conductor. The conductor may not be the best piano player, violin player or drummer, but the conductor must be able to control and utilize the skills of all his or her musicians and know when they should play and when they should rest. Simply put, the leader of a group must be able to utilize the man power available and the skill sets that they bring to the table to the highest degree of efficiency to reach the goal that they have set, lesson that every leader should know and follow, now and forever, after this trip.
As our trip comes to an end and as we work towards our goals in the future, we should never lose sight of what we went through to get there, keeping an eye on the rear view mirror, if you will, as it is where you come from, what you have done and what life you choose to live that defines a person. We will always remember our successful goals, such as climbing Mt. Edith, making it passed the blistering cold Arctic Circle, watching the midnight sun. But we should never forget the failures we have had, and the lessons which we have learned from them. As we continue down the roads of life, we will meet others, affect their lives in some way or another. All we need to remember is that our goals that we meet, reach, and achieve will influence others in the world, some will journey on after your journey has ended but your legacy in some way shape or form will continue indefinitely as the goals, what you’ve done along the way on your road trip of life will contain others which will in turn learn from you or with you and pass that knowledge down for we are forever students, followers, teachers and leaders at the same time, but a great teacher and a great leader’s legacy is infinite.
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