You may be a new hiker looking to take your first steps into the great outdoors, or maybe you’re an avid hiker about to embark on a challenge, like the ones I discuss in my Balsam Lake Mountain Post. Wherever you are on your journey, perseverance will come into play.
Perseverance Definition:
Before we discuss how persistence relates to hiking we must first define it.
According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, “Perseverance is the persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”
This word is closely tied with the act of hiking.
Perseverance and Hiking:
You may think it’s that looming mountain or elevation gain or mileage staring at you from the downloaded trail map that’s the hardest about hiking. But anyone who has hiked, knows those first steps out of bed are usually the hardest. Why? Because we know it’s the first step on the journey. They’re the first obstacle to put you out of your comfort.
What do we do then to get out of bed and move forward? To drive, bike, take the train, or carpool to that trail without sinking back under the covers or deciding to go past it and instead grab a coffee and decide maybe tomorrow will be a better day? We persevere.
Perseverance – A Promise to Yourself:
Think of Perseverance as a promise to yourself. When you decide, “I will do my first hike tomorrow,” or “I will start that hiking challenge and finish it by this date,” you’ve made a promise to yourself. And just like a promise made to someone else wouldn’t you be hurting them by not fulfilling your promise? The same is for you, being persistent in your hiking goal or hiking promise is the same thing, fulfill it and you are being kind to yourself, break it and you hurt yourself like you would anyone else.
Perseverance on the Trail:
When you make it out of bed and onto the trail, which I know you will, you’ll still need to perservere. It doesn’t matter how many hikes you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if this will be your first one or your 1,000th one, sooner or later, especially if you’re challenging yourself to push past your expectations and through that comfort zone, you’ll hear a little voice whisper, “Let’s go back.”
Control the Voice in your Head:
This is when a break comes in handy, or a self talk as you keep trucking along, in which you say to yourself, “No. I promised to do this and I will be persistent.” A mantra works great too.
Now I don’t mean to push through an injury or to make yourself sick to the point of injuring yourself. No, that would be counter intuitive to the reason we were hiking in the first place. But, if it is that feeling when you are testing your threshold or going the extra mile, then by all means, without harming yourself, push through!
If you need to visualize to push through, think of the rewards.
The Rewards of Perseverance:
So, we are getting uncomfortable by getting out of bed early, or by adding those extra miles/ elevation to our hike, or attempting to complete that hike challenge in record time, but what is our reward?
By being persistent or having perseverance, your first reward is that view at the summit and/or that healthy feeling when the sweat has excreted the toxins from your body The next reward is that sense of completion. And the third is fulfilling the promise to yourself, this reward will hold the most value and can be called upon for your next adventure when things get tough.
Conclusion:
Perseverance on the trail is not easy. Hiking isn’t easy. But the rewards from both are plentiful. If you can be persistent, if you can fulfill your promise to yourself, if you continue up that mountain, I can tell you the views are worth it all.