[at-l] Developing mental toughness for LD hiking

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

--- Shane Steinkamp <shane@theplacewithnoname.com> wrote:
(Weary preceeded with:       
> I continue to think that the best way to keep hiking is to
> somehow rise above the thought that the trail is a challenge
to be achieved and think of it as an experience to be enjoyed.
Erase the idea of a long green tunnel. Learn to think about,
observe and enjoy the infinite variety of the trail.
> 
> ### I think that Weary is spot on with this.  I haven't
> personally seen too many goal oriented people do well on the
trail.  If you concentrate on the process of your experience,
the goal realizes itself.

&&& You "personally haven't seen"? Get out there, Shane. Most
people who're not goal-oriented don't make it very far. As soon
as it becomes "not any fun any more", they're gone. If you don't
have the "fire in the belly" -- the grit -- to weather a bad
patch, you ain't gonna make it. There are PLENTY of bad patches
on a throughhike. That "somehow rise above" part Weary writes of
comes by getting down/dirty with your own bad self, and doing
whatEVER it takes to get to good places (in your head) again. If
I recall the thread correctly, this is just what Ginny was
writing of.

sloetoe
(who encourages all to take a walk, to exert yourselves, to
trust in yourselves, in elllllllegance.)  

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.