Supervising DofE in the Rain....
I’ve been supervising a lot of Duke of Edinburgh expeditions recently. Some have been blessed with wall to wall sunshine, while others have been subjected to torrential downpours and waterlogged campsites (see my earlier post about the watery death of my phone and the resulting break from technology)
What has struck me with surprise is the way that groups have reacted to bad weather – they often perform better, both individually and as a team!
When everything is sunny, groups walk slowly. They take long breaks in the sunshine, and often seem to use this time to complain about how hard it is, how their feet hurt, how their rucksack is bruising their shoulders. With multiple and frequent rests, the day drags on and can feel really long.
Compare this to groups walking in bad weather. I often observe a kind of heads-down, grim determination, a dogged aim to get to the finish at all costs. Breaks are far less frequent – taken only when necessary to eat, drink or adjust clothing. The team often support each other better, encouraging each other and helping each other in the interests of the whole team completing quicker.
This made me reflect on how this is true in other parts of life. Could it be true that when things are feeling really tough for you, that perhaps this will enable you to perform better? That a bit of discomfort can, in fact, trigger determination and commitment to reach an outcome quickly? That when you are needing to do a task that outwardly seems pretty rubbish, that this will in fact encourage you to do it in the quickest, most efficient way possible?
Maybe one to think about next time you’ve got to face your accounts, or sitting down to write blog posts (my nemesis) or cleaning the house……
Resilience can only be built by testing yourself, by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone into something more challenging, be that bad weather, or something you’ve not done before, or something that scares you. Each time you do this, you expand your comfort zone a tiny bit, so that next time you do a similar thing, it doesn’t feel so bad - you can cope better.
If you’re working towards a goal, or want to stretch your comfort zone or get out of a period of discomfort and need some help in finding the way (whether you want to take the long sunny route, or the short rainy route) – contact me for more information about coaching. You can email me on cat@reachthepeak.co.uk, phone me on 07757 542956, or find more information at www.reachthepeak.co.uk/individual-coaching
What has struck me with surprise is the way that groups have reacted to bad weather – they often perform better, both individually and as a team!
When everything is sunny, groups walk slowly. They take long breaks in the sunshine, and often seem to use this time to complain about how hard it is, how their feet hurt, how their rucksack is bruising their shoulders. With multiple and frequent rests, the day drags on and can feel really long.
Compare this to groups walking in bad weather. I often observe a kind of heads-down, grim determination, a dogged aim to get to the finish at all costs. Breaks are far less frequent – taken only when necessary to eat, drink or adjust clothing. The team often support each other better, encouraging each other and helping each other in the interests of the whole team completing quicker.
This made me reflect on how this is true in other parts of life. Could it be true that when things are feeling really tough for you, that perhaps this will enable you to perform better? That a bit of discomfort can, in fact, trigger determination and commitment to reach an outcome quickly? That when you are needing to do a task that outwardly seems pretty rubbish, that this will in fact encourage you to do it in the quickest, most efficient way possible?
Maybe one to think about next time you’ve got to face your accounts, or sitting down to write blog posts (my nemesis) or cleaning the house……
Resilience can only be built by testing yourself, by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone into something more challenging, be that bad weather, or something you’ve not done before, or something that scares you. Each time you do this, you expand your comfort zone a tiny bit, so that next time you do a similar thing, it doesn’t feel so bad - you can cope better.
If you’re working towards a goal, or want to stretch your comfort zone or get out of a period of discomfort and need some help in finding the way (whether you want to take the long sunny route, or the short rainy route) – contact me for more information about coaching. You can email me on cat@reachthepeak.co.uk, phone me on 07757 542956, or find more information at www.reachthepeak.co.uk/individual-coaching
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