Trial and Error

It is fun to day dream and plan out scenarios in your head. I often play out scenarios as I see them possibly happening ranging from the hilarious to the extreme. For the funny example, what would happen if this guy with the crazy mullet could hear my thoughts and turned to confront me. Would my joke be so witty that he laughed and got a hair cut or get pissed off and try to punch me? For the extreme example, sitting in my car and playing out a scenario of getting car jacked. Would I be able to draw my gun while removing the seat belt? Should I just let him take it? Etc.

Reality is so much tougher than your imagination. Most of the time, unless you are thinking about what could go wrong, you are thinking things through as if they were to happen smoothly. It is not until you actually try and do what you have been thinking about that you realize that A: you can't do it or B: you need a lot of practice or C: you are too out of shape to get it done.

This weekend I went out to the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona with three friends. We decided to punch our man cards and see if we could survive over night with just our Survival Bags. We were not stupid and brought some extra emergency gear just in case.

Here is what we learned:

-Starting a fire with two sticks is hard and not at all pleasant. We did not succeed. Bring extra matches and lighters.

-We are all way out of shape. I believe this caused the lack of patience in trying to start a fire with two sticks.

-No matter how much you plan you are going to forget something. The good thing is that you increase the odds of the group having at least one of something when everyone is supposed to bring the same thing. Example: Four guys = One first aid kit (luckily we did not need one) Four guys = One roll of toilet paper (this was number one on my packing list)

-Gloves make handling a fire arm difficult. The warmer the gloves; the harder it is to handle the weapon.

-Spam is good.

-Nine hours in a sack on the ground is equivalent to 1 hour in your bed at home.

-Snow is cold, it is wet, and it comes down very quickly.

These are just a few of the lessons learned and only from my perspective. I am sure the others have lessons of their own. The biggest lesson is that no matter how much you think things through, plan things out, or research a product, you never know how you or the product will perform or react in the field.

You also might surprise yourself and fair a lot better than you expected.

The key is to not get discouraged and to learn from your experience. Didn't succeed this time? Figure out why and work out the problem. Get back out there and do it right.

There is always more to learn and once something is learned you then have to master it. So stop day dreaming and start actually doing it.