Finding My ‘Nemo’

I went for a short walk recently which ended up being 7.5km. I learnt some lessons from the walk, which I found applicable to life in general.

At the back of my mind, I had a location, my ‘Nemo’, that I was looking for, but it wasn’t focused enough for me to consider getting directions. So a part of me was in an exploring mindset while hoping to ‘magically’ stumble on the place.

I discovered a lot of new places, went off tangent, eventually had to get directions, finally found the place I had been looking for, realised I was so close many times but derailed by wrong turns and paid a price for not planning my walk.

As I pondered on the walk, I saw how much it was a reflection of life in general so here are some of my lessons in a bit more detail.

Start with a clear goal

Even though I could have started my walk with a clear goal, I chose to treat my goal as an optional one that I hoped would pan out. The cost to this approach was having to walk an extra 4kms.

The cost in this scenario wasn’t a big deal because I was out to get some air and exercise. In life the cost can be more significant. You can’t afford to be vague about the goals that really matter. Be clear, stay focused and follow through.

Have checkpoints and use them

These are times when you pause and reflect on your progress, check your direction of travel and take needed corrective actions to get back on course.

If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have realised that I had taken a wrong turn which was actually taking me further in the opposite direction with the cost increasing with every step.

Know when to ask for help

Many of us are not wired to ask for help because we grew up believing we had to be strong, not appear weak and allowed many fears to hold us back from asking for help. This could be fear of what people will think or how they might see us in the future.

I asked Google for directions when I realised I was no longer willing to keep going mindlessly or enjoying the walk. It is important that we ask for help on time and this requires us to be honest with ourselves very early in the game.

Take the small wins

During my walk, I discovered places that I found exciting, took in new sites and made notes of places I wanted to revisit.

I actually enjoyed many moments during the walk so even though it took longer because of wrong turns, it wasn’t all bad. In life we must realise that things are not always all bad, there are and will be small wins that we can enjoy.

Don’t let the bad overtake the good parts

Just because things didn’t work out perfectly it doesn’t mean we have to discard the whole experience.

Towards the end of my walk, my focus was on the fact that I had taken a wrong turn and I was at a risk of forgetting all the wonderful places that I discovered earlier on.

Don’t live in regret

During my walk, I realised there were moments when I was so close to finding the location but I turned in the opposite direction.

I can look back over these wrong turns without much regret because the cost wasn’t significant. But what if the cost was more significant? How would I handle the resulting regret?

We have to watch out for this especially when the mistakes we make come at a huge cost. The tendency to be overwhelmed and crippled by regret is high and we have to stop this from happening.

We have to learn to put our mistakes in the right perspectives, learn from them and move forward.

There is a price

We pay a price for every choice, every action and every word. If we are fortunate, the price is low but sometimes the price is huge.

At the start of every decision, goal, plan or action, we must learn to consider the potential price of getting it wrong. The higher the price, the more careful we need to be upfront.

I hope you find these lessons useful. Thanks for reading and sharing this post with others. See you next week.