Hiking As A Metaphor For Life

"The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination." ~ Lao Tzu. When hiking, and in life, I feel like fulfillment is found between the balance of destination and the love for walking. Having a goal, or a destination, in mind can help be a guiding focus to see whether you are taking actions that get you closer or further from where you would like to be. "That which is measured improves" ~ Pearson's Law by Karl Pearson, an English mathematician from the 1850s. That being said, making everything about the outcome leaves little room for creativity and you often lose the present as a sacrifice for the focus on the future. A proposed solution? Use the destination as a guide and relinquish the outcome passed doing the work day in and day out towards achieving that desired goal.

The Start

As in life, the best hikes tend to begin the night before. When I recount some of my best hikes, they likely look something like this: Mindlessly scrolling Instagram Shorts or YouTube Reels or researching hikes on Google Maps and finding a new, interesting destination for the next morning that is not easily accessible within my area (usually 2-3 hours away from where I start before actually getting into the hike). The thought that runs through my head shares a sentiment similar to this: "That looks really pretty, how far away is it? 3 hours away? Doing it."

The next morning then starts anywhere from 5:00am to 7:00am depending on how far away the hiking spot is and I pack minimum essentials. Mind you, I could also benefit from a bit more preparation when getting ready for my hikes, however, this is simply how I have started most of my hikes historically.

The Climb

The climb starts either as a drive to the trail or, in my case in Japan, a long walk (roughly 2-3 hours just to get to the trailhead). This seems to be when my excitement is the highest: the anticipation of a new destination and challenge, a long walk typically in the mountains, no cell service, and a clear schedule to allow me to get to my destination any way I see fit without the guilt or concern of other life events. For the entirety of that day, I am present in my physical location for anything less could result in a dangerous situation.

Now it appears to me that hiking can be more than just a physical trial but also an emotional and spiritual trial. The climb up to the trailhead can sometimes be more difficult than the hike itself. For example, the drive or walk to the trailhead can be a dirt road where it is washed out, muddy, has potholes, fallen trees, tight paths, etc. The point being that I identify the start of the climb prior to beginning your hike on the actual trail because of unpredictable experiences that you will encounter before reaching the trailhead.

After reaching the trailhead, the work begins: hikes, and life, generally start uphill. For the first 20-30 minutes, you feel EVERYTHING. Every ache in your body, every joint getting warmed up...you are not fully in the game. But you started and there is no turning back. While excited, my mind is not fully in the experience just yet and can be all over the place. When discussing flow state (i.e. a focused and forward moving state of mind), my understanding is it takes roughly 20 minutes to get into flow. In the time between establishing flow and getting started, there is often a lot of uncertainty that would be easy to let overwhelm you when you first start hiking: the fear of the unknown, lack of certainty on whether or not the path is the right path, dangers of unknown or unseen wildlife, whether you packed enough gear or the right gear for the climate, etc. In these moments, you have two options: turn around and give up or keep putting one foot in front of the other and tread forward no matter the pain, no matter the path, and hoping you get where you want to go (as long as you determine you can do so while safely managing additional risk).

The Hike

After I have gotten into a flow state and my mindset is focused on the present, I tend to begin to enjoy the hike a bit more. My joints, ligaments, and tendons are warmed up and I no longer feel the physical pain of walking upwards. I like to stop and appreciate some of the views in the mountains and take a ton of pictures on the way. Seeing the different angles of the sun, how over time the angles add shadows or lighten other areas that I may not have been able to see before. I appreciate the little moments at this time; the silence, tranquility, and peace associated with being alone in the mountains with nowhere to be and nothing to do but see what there is around on each path. 

It is important to mention that at this stage, I often am uncertain whether or not I am going the right way, especially when I have no signal and Google Maps or the satellite maps do not list the trail I am on. So I rely heavily on other hikers (if there are any around) and signs that point me towards the name of the destination I am in pursuit of. However, while looking for those signs, I may travel off the beaten path a bit to go see something that caught my attention or climb a few rocks just because it looks fun rather than staying rigidly on the path. I use that as a guide to ensure I am going in the relative direction of the goal and then see what else the mountains hold while on the hike. With this approach, it is easy to get lost so paying attention to landmarks (such as a specific terrain, signs, paths, or even marking the trees with a rope or tape can help you remember the path and direction you came from. *Remember to take this with you when returning to avoid disrupting the environment, ecosystem, and wildlife).

Hiking, as in life, can be a maze when you get in the mountains. There is always this sense that you are not going the right way or whether you will see the destination that encouraged you to choose this path over others. This is where the balance of loving walking and the destination comes into play. If you are only there for the destination, and you do not see it, this could discourage you from hiking since your enjoyment was solely dependent on seeing something that you are not even sure is real at this point. However, if you use the destination as a loose goal, enjoy each step towards the destination, and are present in the hike, regardless of whether you find that destination, the odds of you feeling fulfilled are much higher. The odds of satisfaction are higher because your expectations and emotions were set to enjoy the hike as opposed to seeing the destination. To relate this to life, if you are only focused on achieving that one goal or that one outcome, if it is never realized or it is not realized in the way you expected it to be, your level of satisfaction is likely not going to be high. However, if your aim is to reach that destination and then forget about it (outside of using it as a measurement tool to gauge whether or not you are going in the right direction), regardless of where you end up, you can appreciate the journey and recognize how it changed you, even if it did not turn out as expected. This is what I like to refer to as the maze of life; there are many paths and many outcomes. It can be hard to realize exactly what you want to come true or how the path may look, so oftentimes adjusting our expectations can be the difference between fulfillment and disappointment. The most important thing appears to be choosing a path and starting to walk.

The Climax

You did it; you reached the desired destination! All of the positive emotions flood your brain and you can get a brief moment to relax and appreciate that your efforts over the past few hours were not in vain. Whether it is the top of the mountain, seeing that lake or waterfall, a promotion at work, or the accomplishment of a lifelong goal, you get a sense of pride from reaching this point. You take your pictures to say you did it and recount the awesome journey and destination that you hiked to that may or may not have many visitors. But now what? The feeling of excitement and satisfaction seems to be fleeting and fades far quicker than the time it took to reach it. Finally, this is where the realization sets in that you now have to hike back to where you started. The sun could be setting, temperatures could be dropping, and now the sole focus is to get home.

The Return to Start, The Downhill Hike

My experience tends to be that I hike back to where I started quicker than when I hiked to it. In my most recent hike, this was something that I wanted to try to understand more clearly why I felt like I returned to the start in a fraction of the time that it took me to reach my destination. I did not take shortcuts and I did not increase my pace, so what could it be...?

It seems to me that it is far too easy to get caught up in the story of the climb, but we often neglect the story of the return. We want to tell the story of the climb because we can recount all of the initial excitement, pull up our photos, and tell of all of the challenges we faced to reach this beautiful, unseen destination. You have likely heard of this in the entrepreneur space as "glorifying the grind" on social media where everybody wants to grind and say they put in the work, but few actually do.

The grind is not often referred to as a pretty experience and I have heard it described in many ways: hard, grueling, boring, etc, yet we still hear the stories about the grind and feel positive emotion. Even when stories of the grind are told, we get the story of the climb to success. By my understanding, success is something that can only be measured in the present, and once attained, success in the future seems inevitable. What does that leave us with? The story of how; in this manner, our HOW, and maybe even our WHY, is defined in the climb and can only be learned or realized in the downhill climb, when we reflect on our experiences. When we are trying to recount success and share these lessons with others, it can be more entertaining and potentially more beneficial, to tell of all of the things you did to reach the desired destination and everything you faced and felt in the climb. This energy is what keeps the climb engaging, but if stories are only told from the perspective of the climb, what does the return have to offer?

It appears to me that the return's purpose is to ground you, remember the lessons you did not have before the hike, engage in a moment of gratitude, finish what you started, and prepare yourself for the next hike. In one word, the downhill hike is best for reflection. Without the return, there are no stories of overcoming fallen down trees or lack of resources. Without the return, there are no insights or lessons that you learned from the hike because they are lost somewhere in the hike. 

It is often said that hindsight is 20/20 or that hindsight creates clarity for the present. That life gives the test before the lesson. During the climb, it is nothing but tests. Over time, the more climbs (tests) you take, the more clarity and resources you have for your next hike. However, there is always something new to learn on each hike, and in this respect, in life. Therefore, it is just as important to appreciate the downhill hike as this will give you the resources and skills to prepare you for your next adventure. Documenting the return can be just as important as the climb, if not more important than the climb. When telling the stories of the climb, the clarity of what was learned often seems to come from the return where you were numb to the beginning pains, your mind is blank, and you are focused on one thing: returning home no matter what.

The Hunt

Andrew Huberman has said that research suggests that dopamine is not released when you reach your goal but rather it is released when you are at the highest likelihood that your desired outcome is going to be achieved. Dopamine, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is one of four brain chemicals and is responsible for all of the positive emotions you receive. When you eat your favorite food, pursue a goal, or scroll social media, dopamine is released.

If dopamine is not actually released when you reach a goal and is actually released during the climb, this could explain why the return feels lackluster or not worth sharing. This would also explain why the stories are always told from the perspective of the climb rather than the climax or the return. This would mean that most, if not all, of the positive emotion related to our hike relies solely on the pursuit of the desired destination and the journey of what it takes to get there as opposed to actually achieving the goal(s). This is not to discount achievement, for without some form of defined achievement, the climb does not matter and has little importance when it comes to establishing credibility, but I digress on this subject.

If you are anything like me, when I finish a hike, I immediately start looking for destinations for my next hike or someone to call to tell the stories of my hike to. I am itching to get on that next hike...just maybe not that day. The hunt for a new challenge, goal, or destination consumes my thoughts that night until I figure out the next direction well enough that I can get some sleep that night. The reality is we crave the climb more than the end goal. Reaching a destination is simply a peak within a mountain (the mountain being the journey and who you became pursuing that goal). And when I tell my hiking stories, you can bet that most of the story is referring to the climb. That being said, maybe next time I tell my hiking story, I will add more focus on the return and clarity I felt as a result of reaching that goal and recounting what I learned about myself. 

The Conclusion

So what is the lesson to learn from hiking? There will always be another peak to climb or a lake to see, but remember that who you become as a part of the hike and what you felt pursuing your goals will ultimately be what continues to keep you coming back to hiking and push you to new heights. In the same manner, there will always be another promotion to chase, house to buy, technology to acquire, or money to make. But who you become in the process of each of those pursuits, and the process of pursuing these goals in your own unique way, without the timeframe of comparison, is ultimately, what I believe, will lead to a fulfilled life. Impact > Innovation or Acquisition.

Stay credible, my friends.

Collens W.