Hey everybody! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!

Ascent Adventure Consultants has some REALLY exciting things planned for 2009. One of them is the plan for the blog. We will be following a weekly schedule, having each day be dedicated to a different topic. What are those topics, you ask? Here they are:

1. Mondays- Trip Reports
2. Tuesdays- Fitness and Training Tips
3. Wednesdays- Business and Corporate Training Advice
4. Thursday- Climbing Techniques and Tools
5. Friday- Environmental Issues and Advice
6. Saturdays- Miscellaneous Items that We Want to Write About!

So make sure to check back to read what interests you!

In the final part of the mini-series on Escaping the Global Village, I wanted to review what we have discussed so far. The Global Village that we are a part of is a result of technology and transportation bringing this world so close together, that it’s almost as if the entire world lives in one village. Everyone is accessible to everyone, and we are expected to always be available. This indeed is a wonderful thing, as it provides opportunties for business, relationship building, friendships, learning, and many things that never existed before. However, it also has several downfalls. As a result of this global village, it makes it hard for us to have a work life balance, and causes others to place undo expectations on us. Our lives, as a result, become stressful and dominated by work, and the more we continue in this pattern, the worse it becomes. We simply must do something about it. 

In this final part, I wanted to discuss some practical ways that you can break free from the normal routine of life and get the refreshment and restoration that is needed. Following are 5 practical, easy things you can do to make retreats from the daily routine a part of your life.

1. Be an organized person. One of the things that technology affords us is the ability to be an organized person. You may be thinking….wait a second….I’m supposed to use technology to get away from the stress it causes? Well…yes. I recommend developing a good organizational system, such as the one developed by David Allen in his book  “Getting Things Done.” Read the book, work hard at developing an organizational system, and you will be TRULY AMAZED at how much stress is removed from your life. The idea is, if everything that you are keeping track of in your mind is organized on paper or electronically, then you no longer have to think about it. Let’s say I’m trying to keep track of 20 things that have to get done over the next week. If I don’t organize them in some form, I will be doomed to dwell on them all week and have an incredible amount of stress. However, if I organize them, I don’t have to worry about forgetting what has to be done, and I can think about other things, knowing that I have organized my “action items.” I strongly recommend doing this because it will free up your mind to think about non-work related things. Give it a shot. Buy the book and make the effort. I also recommend, for Mac users, that you purchase the program called OmniFocus.
2. Be a Disciplined Person. Do you want to have a better work life balance? Be disciplined and do NOT allow yourself to work or think about work all the time. Schedule time for yourself every day where you do something that you enjoy, even if it’s just for 30 minutes.
3. Be a Hard Worker. When you are at work, WORK HARD. Not working hard and being lazy at work will cause you great anxiety and stress. Read this Proverb (26:14) “As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.”
4. Aerobic Outdoor Exercise. Taking time to care for yourself by exercising greatly reduces stress and forces you to get outside and enjoy the creation. Listen to music as well. It will help keep your mind off of work.
5. Be an adventurous person. Nothing breaks the bonds of the daily grind like outdoor adventure can. Pushing yourself to confront fears, getting that rush of adrenaline, doing something you never thought possible…what a delight it can be. I know for me personally, nothing brings restoration, focus, and perspective like being outdoors away from the normal routine.

I hope that you all found this mini series to be helpful. I hope it can impact your life and make you enjoy your life to an even greater extent!

Over at the “Facilitator’s Corner Blog” at OutdoorEd.com, Jim Grout of High 5 Adventure wrote an posting about how the outdoor adventure and experiential education industry has more and more regulations imposed upon it every year. He was encouraging professionals in the industry to remember “that the essence of what we do as adventure educators is to provide people with a powerful learning experience that is engaging, challenging, thought provoking, and fun.”

It is so important to remember that the reason Ascent Adventure Consultants exists is to provide this very type of experience for all of our participants on adventures and training courses. As soon as we lose this focus, our courses will be less meaningful and effective. Our commitment to all of our clients is to continue to provide engaging, challenging, thought provoking, and fun adventures and training programs. It is through this type of adventure and guiding that lives are changed.