Go Hiking Archives - Stay on Offense Climb Mountains
What could be more natural. You get to the top of a mountain and give yourself a high five! Why if I don’t have a mirror with me you say? High five your shadow!
Wait, what if it is raining? Then high five the air in front of you as you imagine looking at yourself. It took a lot to get to the top of that mountain so you deserve a high five.
Of course if you read my summary of Mel Robbins book, “The High Five Habit,” https://www.stayonoffense.com/2021/10/10/bookish-weapon-number-sixty/you already know you are supposed to have high fives yourself that morning in the mirror while setting the intention of climbing to the top of the mountain you are on now.
The high five habit was created for mountain climbers even if Mel Robbins didn’t think that would be one of the outcomes of her new book. Hikers need more reasons to high five themselves.
Yes, you are sitting there even though you get to the trailhead fifteen minutes ago. Why?
Well, when you are sitting in your car at the trailhead and it is raining or snowing and you don’t want to get out of the car, high five yourself in your rear view mirror. Set your intention again and open that door! See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now you’re on your way.
The high five habit is a “bookish weapon” against obstacles that pop up, like rain or snow or wind. What if the trail gets steep and you have never climbed this particular mountain? I say put one hand in front of you and high five yourself. It will keep you going!
Then you slip on the snow and go down. Get back up and high five yourself! Keep going. The high five habit will keep you on the game and on the mountain. Now go hiking!
If Jack Reacher were climbing a mountain my guess is he would be sure he never climbed the same one again. That might be a good philosophy for some, but I am against it.
Going up the same mountain over and over has some real advantages. You get to know the trail well which helps me a lot because I hike in the dark. Then I can pick a mountain that is safe in the snow and not prone to avalanches.
However, Jack Reacher walks a lot and doesn’t seem to mind it much. He could certainly handle climbing a mountain. When you are big it is a little more difficult because you are carrying so much weight. A former NFL friend of mine told me each one of his legs weight 100 pounds. So that might be tough on Reacher, but I think he would like the scenery.
Most likely he would find something that didn’t look quite right on the trail and soon and himself involved in some kind of crime. It would probably involve all of the mountains in the area so he would have to climb them. Otherwise I don’t think he would.
A Mountain In Every Book
You could say that solving whatever crime or nefarious plot is kind of like climbing a mountain. Of course there are so many things in life that are like climbing a mountain.
Reacher needs to climb these mental mountains his his stories. Just like real mountains, sometimes they are average size and sometimes they are huge. Sometimes they require no technical ability and sometimes they do. You need to be prepared.
It is probably best not to try to be a Jack Reacher on a mountain. You will enjoy yourself more if you just be yourself. Don’t try to be like your hero, even if he or she are not Jack Reacher. I really don’t think Jack would be much of a mountain climber.
If you are yourself in life and on mountains you learn from your mistakes and not be trying to figure out why something didn’t work out after you copied exactly what someone else did.