“The leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path”

As I reflect upon this statement, I realize the truth of it. If a leader isn’t willing to travel on an unexplored path, they really aren’t leading…they just simply follow in other people’s footsteps. A leader needs to know which path to choose, and confidently lead their group down it, ready to confront obstacles, make split second decisions, and help carry along anyone who is struggling behind.

Is that the way you lead, or are you afraid to try new ideas?

This in my opinion is such a key principle to follow, and really does a very succinct job at explaining why using the outdoors and adventure for leadership development and training is so effective. Teaching people to confront fears and feel comfortable when faced with new risks and challenges can be done outdoors better than anywhere else.

• Optimism has been correlated with better immune systems in healthy people who have been subjected to stress.
• Both lab research and survey research indicate that positive emotions help people who were previously under stress relax back to their physiological baseline.
• Positive emotions that come from optimism broaden one’s awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions.   Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds skills and resources

The method for change is on the principles of what Positive Psychology calls “ABCDE” for Adversity, Beliefs, Consequences, Disputation and Distraction, and Energization.  In the next entry we will explore these tools.

- Author: Danny McCracken (dmccracken@ascentadventure.com)

Now I’m trying to theorize why this topic has all of a sudden jumped in popularity. About 1 month ago, I started weekly posts on how the Climbing Experience applies to all of life. Then articles started appearing all over the place. Of course I’d like to think that people saw me as the trend setter! But, for a more realistic theory, I’d say that it’s because we’re in the middle of this recession and people are making big life decisions, people are feeling stressed out, and also because we’re halfway through the summer and people are really wishing they were outdoors on some adventure.

I’d love to hear people’s comments on why you think this topic has gained such momentum as of late. Comment below!

This article and the formulas will help any outdoor enthusiast to improve their Leave No Trace (LNT) practices.

Check out the article in full: Sustainability and Leave No Trace

1. Keep my own coffee mug in the car. That way when I stop at Starbucks to get coffee, they can use my mug, and not use their paper cups.

2. Use Google Maps on my cell phone. Almost every cell phone has the ability to either download a Google Maps app or connect to Google Maps. Use your phone to get Google Maps directions to your destination rather that printing out all the directions and maps. It saves a ton of paper!

3. Bring an empty reusable water bottle to the airport. You can’t bring water through security, but you can bring an empty bottle! That way when you get into the terminal, you can fill your bottle up at the water fountain and save having to buy and use a plastic bottle of water at one of the airport stores!

Nothing fancy about it, but every little bit counts!

Happy Adventuring!

Brandon Hensinger

Ascent Adventure Consultants- Bringing Adventure to Life

Stuart Brown is a proponent of making sure that everyone, adults especially, take time to “play” and do things that are enjoyable and invigorating for them. Without doing this, it doesn’t just lead to boredom, but rather depression and discontentment.

Getting away from cell phones and computers and enjoying the outdoors is the best way to do this. Of course, leisure activities such as video game playing is still relaxing, but until you take action to get away from all things that can distract you, you won’t truly be refreshed.

I often find that when I get away from all the daily responsibilities and demands of running my company, I come back with a renewed vision and determination for Ascent Adventure Consultants success. Often, it can be easy to think, “There’s no way that I can get away….I will miss opportunities.” However, the opposite is true. If you don’t get away every once in a while, you will miss opportunities because you will get burnt out and discouraged.

This coincides with some of the postings we have done last year: Escaping the Normal Routine of Life

Visit our website today to: Take time to play and enjoy life! We only get one life…so make the most of it! Climb some cliffs, hike some mountains, or whatever else you may enjoy!

We began the approach to Mount Washington at Pinkham Notch  early Friday morning, at 6:00am. Apparently, it was the coldest and windiest day they had all year on the Mountain. -5 Farenheit, with 80 MPH gusts at the summit. It made it about a -40 degree windchill! We broke trail that day…no one else was in front of us. After a few hours of hiking and climbing, we passed tree line, where the wind slammed us and made conditions almost impassable. The group was actively checking in on each other, making sure that everyone was feeling ok and staying warm. We had an emergency and had to go back down, and most likely wouldn’t have made the summit that day anyways due to the forecast calling for worse weather later in the day. When we returned to Pinkham Notch Lodge, we saw the weather report for Saturday was for partly cloudy skies and slightly warmer weather.

Saturday morning we woke up at 4:00am and headed out to Mount Washington. What a beautiful day! According to the weather observatory, it was “an unusually glorious day” on Mount Washington. Here is a picture so you can see what I mean:

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 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!

In it, Rick discusses how through involvement with the University that houses his program, he and his student leadership team spent months making their business and their operations more sustainable. The things they did included establishing better re-use habits when on the trail, establishing better recycling programs in their day to day use of resources, and analyzing what type of equipment they purchase, where it comes from, what it is made of and the manufacturing process, just to name a few. All in all, they developed a more sustainable program, which ultimately will contribute to the health of the environment and the effectiveness of their program. 

As I reflected on this, I began to think about how Ascent Adventure Consultants could become a more sustainable program, as well as how Ascent Adventure Consultants could be more involved in the community to help the community as a whole become more sustainable. What an honor it would be to be involved in making our community a better place to live. I would love to hear your opinions and thoughts on ways we can do this together as a community.

To give you some ideas of what we will be doing as a company, you can refer to the Princeton University Sustainability Manual.