When I was preparing for the April Norwegian Foot March (NFM), I was telling my son about the training and the event. He asked a question that quite a few people have asked me – both about the NFM and the Basic Parachuting Course – “why?”
At the time, I just said, “because they give you a pin,” and moved on. I guess it was both a deflection and the real answer.
The Deflection
If I’m being honest, there was a real desire to avoid the much harder answer to that question. I’m at a point in my career where I’m riding out the last years to retirement in an administrative job. I hate administrative jobs. Going into a windowless office for 8 hours a day to stare at a computer is a slow death. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a comfortable job in a lot of ways. It’s good pay and good hours. It’s just not a demanding or challenging job. It’s stagnant.
Being stagnant is not something to which I react well. When I get stagnant and don’t have an outlet for my internal drive I have two choices: I can either let it fester or I can find/make an outlet. Letting it fester always ends badly. Always – no exceptions. It leads to depressive feelings and acting out like a teenager trying to find his place in the world. I’ve tried it, that’s how I know it doesn’t work. So finding or making an outlet is the better choice every time.
The Pin (the real answer)
I need things that can challenge me both mentally and physically. When I say mentally challenging, I don’t mean on the order of magnitude of solving world hunger. But I like to learn things. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether it’s a deep dive into a subject I already have knowledge of or whether it’s learning something completely new. I just need it to be something useful. That’s why you’ve seen my posts about learning drones. It is both a fun skill to learn and a very useful skill for the job market, disaster response, search and rescue, and many other fields. I’ve also read leadership, philosophy, religion, and lifestyle books and tried to glean from them what I can.
When I say physically challenging, I like to seek out organized challenges. Yes, I could always go out and hike 18 miles by myself. But I like the structure of having a set of independent standards administered by someone else who can help me hold myself accountable. I can rationalize to myself. Event coordinators don’t care. You either meet the standard or you don’t. Events like GORUCK, the Norwegian Foot March, and the Basic Parachuting Course, or even a local 5K or 10K give me that opportunity. And like I told my son – you get a pin.
The pin (or patch, or whatever) is a physical reminder of your achievement. On days when you’re feeling stagnant, you can look back and remember accomplishments and use those memories to drive yourself forward to plan your next achievement. Additionally, if you have a friend group, those reminders can serve as ways to bond over shared memories or challenge each other to push further.
Conclusion
So, yeah, I think it’s important to push myself to do hard things. It’s a way to get outside my comfort zone – to grow. It’s a way to help both feed and regulate that drive to learn and accomplish. It’s a way to meet new people who share my goals and values. And it’s a way to build a life of experiences that I can remember with fondness for years to come.
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