Last week over at Transforming Stress we talked about “mountain-top” experiences, where our viewpoint suddenly expanded and we looked at life differently. Mike commented that his memories of real mountains were more vivid. In particular he remembers the cold, the wind and the exhilaration. In fact, my experiences with hiking are vivid too. And even though the views added to the experience, the exhilaration came more from the exercise involved in the climb.
I love to walk uphill, and if a good hiking place isn’t available I’ll walk up stairs or on my inclined NordicTrack treadmill. It always gives me a high and I can’t understand why people need alcohol or drugs to elevate their moods.
I feel the same way about projects. It’s fun to have a goal to aim for, but that’s really just an excuse for making the effort. It’s the small steps that excite me, not the ultimate goal. When I achieve the goal I’ll just have to set a new one, so what’s the big deal?
Does anyone else ever feel this way?
Karen and I both like to hike, and, naturally, prefer to do it in the mountains. Sometimes, though, we don’t take the opportunity to do it as often as we should.
So far as projects and setting goals, all too often a project will take on a life of it’s own and, when it’s done, look little like what I started out to accomplish. We’re doing one of those in the front yard, which, unfortunately, has been interrupted by the weather. So, as I’m lousy about setting goals, we often end up with some interesting, unplanned results.
Mikes last blog post..Another new photo gallery – Mammoth Cave National Park
Mike,
I love it when a project takes on a life of its own. Setting tentative goals is great for getting us started, but it’s a lot more fun when they’re not set in concrete.
From your posts it sounds as if you’ve had some spectacular weather. Hope things are getting back to normal.
It sounds like I’m much more goal oriented than you folks – although the goals I set are usually about things I want to do (so it gets a bit complicated).
I love mountains as long as no vehicles are involved. But I prefer beaches for mountains anyday!
And I have to agree with you, I love my job for the exact same reason. Its not only the end result in a particular case that makes the job exciting, but the preparations for it. The little by little research, the reading between the lines, drafting the actual documents, etc. Once all thats done, its simply a matter of time. I mean the beauty of the journey is over. Then begins the search for more destinations.
Ashoks last blog post..Heartbreak chronicles
Jean, metaphorically and physically, my days of climbing mountains are over and done with. Now I reminisce and blog about those that climbed only to find there were more. No thank you, not any more for me. I however like taking those small steps, again both metaphorically and physically. Not quite to climb mountains, but to just keep myself busy!
rummusers last blog post..A Great Opportunity For India And All Countries Interested In Fighting Terror.
Jean, the weather has cleared and, yes, it looks like it is returning to normal. Normal, for us, at this time of year is moving into hot and humid days with little or no wind. Fortunately, we live in the country so the heat is not compounded by the urban heat island effect and we live about 1000 feet or so above the valley so it’s a little cooler during the day.
We will be spending much of today cutting firewood from the downed limbs and moving debris.
Mikes last blog post..Another new photo gallery – Mammoth Cave National Park
All my life I loved climbing hills or scrambling over rocks. Alas, it is off the menu at the moment as I await permission to have my hip replaced.
Needlework was always a a great hobby of mine. It took me years to realise that when I had a project in mind I could see the finished article in 3D. I would then plan every detail on paper, purchase fabrics, threads and all that I needed. At that stage I would freeze, perhaps for a few hours but sometimes a whole week before taking the scissors to the fabric. Once I made the first cut it was all systems go and I never looked back.
Grannymars last blog post..Food Monday ~ Chorizo Wrapped Chicken Breasts
How convenient–climbing mountains. I just this minute sent a limerick to the “Limerick Guy” who sent one about going up a mountain ( a hill to us) in Virginia.
If you like an accent very steep.
Pull up by your fingernails as up you creep.
Los Alamos is the place to be
If you don’t believe me come & see.
Hi SuZan,
I’ve tried to add this to your comments about your father correcting your Enghish, using my identification http://cheerfulmonk.com/bikehikebabe. Couldn’t get it to work. I’ll put the comment here:
I want to stand up for wrongly used as an adverb. Shakespeare used it. It is wrong to kill. Here wrong is used rightly. Used as an adverb—He sliced the tomato wrongly. Or he killed wrongly; he should have killed when no one was looking. Sorry I couldn’t think of a more pleasant sentence.
Jean, thirty years ago, I was seduced into moving to the San Francisco Bay area by a company that showed us pictures of the Sierras and implied that we would be climbing a mountain every weekend. Sadly, I was tied up in personal ambition for many years, only to see the promised riches of the Silicon Valley rat race vanish as they came near.
Now I set my goals back to smaller ones – and it is hard to let a week go by without reaching the top of a mountain.
Looneys last blog post..
Evan,
I think a lot of people motivate themselves with goals. I’ve done my fair share of that. My guess is we’re at different stages of life. Plus it depends on what the project is. If you’re doing something creative you don’t always know what the end product will be like.
I think a lot of self-help literature/workshops don’t understand that. I went to one once where we were supposed to visualize the final product and how we would feel when we were successful. I said I didn’t want that, I wanted to write and my main goal was to enjoy the process. The leader was upset because that wasn’t a valid thing to be aiming for. So we went our separate ways.
Ashok,
You’re a kindred spirit!
rummuser,
We agree on loving the small steps, but I wouldn’t say I do it to “keep busy”. I do it to feel fully alive and engaged in life. For me the term “busy” doesn’t capture the joy.
Mike,
I’m glad you’re recovering well from the storm. 1000 feet does make a difference in the heat, as does being away from urban centers.
Grannymar,
I’m sorry that your hip is interfering. Good luck! And to you too, bikehikebabe. You went through that more than once, didn’t you rummuser?
Back to Grannymar…you’re a great visualizer! Do you enjoy parts of the process more than others? Concerning my response to Evan…clearly in projects like yours the creativity comes in the planning. Once that is done you do know what the end product will be like.
bikehikebabe,
Thanks for the limerick. 🙂
Looney,
Where exactly were you in the Bay Area? I grew up in Pinole, by the shore of San Pablo Bay, and went to college at Stanford. We left just as Silicon Valley was getting started. Sorry the bubble burst before you could reap your rewards. You’re in Fremont now if I understand it correctly from you blog.
How do you feel about your life now? Is it more rewarding or does it feel like a letdown?
Jean,
My first work out here was at Livermore labs, but that environment didn’t suit me. Eventually I moved to Orange County, then to Japan, and back to Fremont.
I actually reaped my rewards because the bubble burst. Work was my life, and solving problems and achieving one goal after another was what I lived for. God gave me my life back by taking the meaningless things away!
Looneys last blog post..
Looney,
I almost worked at Livermore. I had been interviewed while at Stanford and was impressed by the fellow…he was intelligent and enthusiastic so it sounded like a great place to work. But when I went to Livermore itself to interview more people the atmosphere seemed so stultifying that I changed my mind.
I was hoping you would say the bubble bursting was a good thing. Congratulations!
Jean,
I may see the object (an outfit, a wall-hanging or a container) in 3D at the outset but the decorative element evolves as I go along. The way a fabric changes after dying can lead down a different road of thought.
I also put off the final hours work not wanting to put away the ‘baby’!
Grannymars last blog post..Memory Lane
Hi Jean! You are SO right – there are many ways to get a “high” besides drugs and alcohol and I only wish people could experience that. Hiking for sure is wonderful, just being out in nature which, to me, is so awesome it provides a visual high, not to mention the workout. But you also mentioned projects and again I totally agree. I find myself in “bliss” and the hours zoom past when I’m involved in a painting or writing or any number of things!
All my life I’ve been the designated driver because I don’t drink (much) and yet I’m often so caught up in the frivolity of the moment, people THINK I’m drunk – but no, alas, just high on the moment!
Great post!
suzens last blog post..Thoughts on Words
Yes, Jean, I have been on the table on four occasions. Both hips have been replaced and revised. That is the major reason for the physical part of having given up climbing mountains!
rummusers last blog post..Freedom.
Grannymar,
Thanks for the clarification. For me it’s that evolution that makes the project an adventure. 🙂
suzen,
“I only wish people could experience that.” I agree! It’s such a waste.
rummuser,
I figured that. I hope they don’t bother you too much in your everyday life.
my goals right now are very short, and very precise….but they too will change on 26th at about 5.30pm when I will have gotten done with my exams and be really to swan around on a short holiday break!
exam #1 is completed….one of the questions threw me into a spin as I had never heard of the ‘art critic’….much later when I was home, after the exam I discovered him in the small print of Russia constructivism. He was not mentioned at all in our exam revision sooooooooo I wasn’t all that pleased. I just had to wing that question as the other ‘art critic’ I did know!
and basically we had only one lecture of Russian modernity and a very small sum of it on Constructivism 🙂
Cathy,
That test sounds like a bummer. 🙁 Physics tests were difficult, but at least they always seemed fair.
I know you’re up to your ears right now, but when you have time I would love to know more about your classes. What are you majoring in? Which classes do you like best? Etc., etc.
Jean, I do like the goal-oriented life, but I also like to spend life time that is its complement, life with no end in mind at all, simply savoring the moment. When I am goal-oriented, I am describing the world actively. When not goal-oriented, I am enjoying quieting the inner dialog and the external control.
Sorry for not being around for a bit, but I’ve been overwhelmed with a whole variety of goal-oriented needs. I am back, though. 🙂
Jean, I’ve missed you a lot.
Conrad,
Welcome back! I missed you.
I’m back on the ground now…Jean
I’m doing a BA at Auckland University and I’m doing a double major in Asian Studies and Art History.
Until the middle of last year I was only majoring in Asian studies and then I discovered I would be hamstrung if I chose to do Post Grad studies in that area…you have to have an Asian language & that is not something I want to even try!
I then realised I had had enough Art History papers to mean that I could do a double major….
I mostly like the Asian study papers, in fact I’m enjoying learning about those countries indepth. They come into the limelight every now and then but really the past history and now their adaption to Western world is fascinating.
I got very brassed off with my Art History paper this semester as it was sooooooooo like another I did last year; with the same lecturer! Nearly every lecture with powerpoint slides had something in it from last year. So I got bored, which didn’t particularily help.
But the exploring Japan and the Japanese made up for that….I thoroughly enjoyed that.
I think I have probably passed all my papers…maybe not with A’s but hey I don’t mind as long as I have some sort of mark from C upwards.
Next Semester which begins July 20th I’m off to China @ Mao Zedong and the cultural revolution; coming back to NZ @ Maori art; dashing off to East Asia @ Geography culture/envirnoment.
One area that opened up for at Uni…that I didn’t know I would like to investigate occured last year – Ethnomusicology which comes in under the umbrella of Anthropology….there is possibility that I could do something PG in that. I’m going to see the advisor in this area during the next Semester (he’s out of town at a conf right now)
Cathy,
Thanks for the details. Good for you!