Goals are an imperative part of life. They allow us to track our progress towards our ultimate goal: happiness. In an effort to accomplish these smaller goals, there are always obstacles that people face, both big and small. In my life and in the books Guts by Gary Paulsen and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, this occurred. While obstacles can be very annoying and impede us from achieving goals, there are usually ways to overcome the obstacles such as {guts example}, {into the wild example}, and {life example}. In the long run, encountering obstacles and overcoming them helps us to become more resilient in all aspects of life and brings focus to our goals. One example of this is in Guts, where although Gary was faced with the obstacle of moose
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In his book, he talks about a wide range of things, from being an EMT, to watching a plane crash into the ocean. Throughout his book he tells stories about his times hunting and enjoying nature. In all his stories, there are many obstacles that he speaks of, from mosquitoes attacking relentlessly to the sadness of killing and animal whilst hunting. One of the biggest obstacles that he talked about was the moose attacks that he encountered. Gary described the charging of a moose as “death coming at [him].” (35) On one occasion, a moose even cracked one of his ribs and broke two of his back teeth after attacking him and his dogs for what “seemed hours” (49) while he was training for an Iditarod. The encounter probably made him terrified at the prospect of returning to the wilderness, but instead of giving up on hunting and going into the woods, he returned. It took an immense amount of power to return and overcome it, but he did not let fear stop him from reaching his goal: enjoying nature. In the end, he had to think and prepare himself mentally before returning to the wilderness, which is the first way in my opinion to overcome …show more content…
An example that stands out to me is how each year, I set certain goals for myself for how I would like to perform in competitions in ski racing. One example of this is last year, when I set a goal to not put my weight backwards while skiing and to always make sure that I was above the gate, to ensure I followed a fast path without losing speed in order to make each turn. At each race, you inspect the course before actually racing, planning a path for yourself that you think you can do without crashing. During a race last year that stands out to me, I was inspecting the course as usual, when I found something that seemed strange: a delay gate that was out of place where the steep section of the slope met with a flat area. When this happens, it means one thing: many people will either crash or lose all of their speed here due to having to make a sharp turn after gaining a lot of speed. When gaining speed, it becomes harder and harder to make sharp turns, so I knew that this gate would determine the winner of the race. To avoid crashing at a gate like this, you have to always put your weight forward as it gives you control over how your skis bend and ultimately, the grace and precision of your turns despite human nature which makes you want to put your weight backwards when given speed. Seeing this, I was sure to take a mental note to avoid crashing or losing speed. Later, while
In his book, he talks about a wide range of things, from being an EMT, to watching a plane crash into the ocean. Throughout his book he tells stories about his times hunting and enjoying nature. In all his stories, there are many obstacles that he speaks of, from mosquitoes attacking relentlessly to the sadness of killing and animal whilst hunting. One of the biggest obstacles that he talked about was the moose attacks that he encountered. Gary described the charging of a moose as “death coming at [him].” (35) On one occasion, a moose even cracked one of his ribs and broke two of his back teeth after attacking him and his dogs for what “seemed hours” (49) while he was training for an Iditarod. The encounter probably made him terrified at the prospect of returning to the wilderness, but instead of giving up on hunting and going into the woods, he returned. It took an immense amount of power to return and overcome it, but he did not let fear stop him from reaching his goal: enjoying nature. In the end, he had to think and prepare himself mentally before returning to the wilderness, which is the first way in my opinion to overcome …show more content…
An example that stands out to me is how each year, I set certain goals for myself for how I would like to perform in competitions in ski racing. One example of this is last year, when I set a goal to not put my weight backwards while skiing and to always make sure that I was above the gate, to ensure I followed a fast path without losing speed in order to make each turn. At each race, you inspect the course before actually racing, planning a path for yourself that you think you can do without crashing. During a race last year that stands out to me, I was inspecting the course as usual, when I found something that seemed strange: a delay gate that was out of place where the steep section of the slope met with a flat area. When this happens, it means one thing: many people will either crash or lose all of their speed here due to having to make a sharp turn after gaining a lot of speed. When gaining speed, it becomes harder and harder to make sharp turns, so I knew that this gate would determine the winner of the race. To avoid crashing at a gate like this, you have to always put your weight forward as it gives you control over how your skis bend and ultimately, the grace and precision of your turns despite human nature which makes you want to put your weight backwards when given speed. Seeing this, I was sure to take a mental note to avoid crashing or losing speed. Later, while