Sometimes, the journey isn’t as hard as you think it will be

So, my husband and I purchased some property two years ago with the intention of building a cabin. After realizing how much work and money that would be, we downgraded our plans to purchasing a destination trailer instead. The only issue was, how would we drive it to our property?

We are on top of a mountain and it is a mile of four wheeling on a twisty-turning, steep road along the edge of a drop-off all the way to the top. The view is spectacular and well worth the difficult ascent and our Jeep Wrangler can handle it, no problem. But how were we gonna cart this huge-ass trailer up there?

I have stressed myself half to death about this for the last four months. Had perpetual nightmares about this thirty-thousand dollar investment tumbling over the side of the cliff. We over prepared. Bought traction boards to make it over the deep ruts due water run off. We bought a pole saw to cut limbs overhead so this fourteen foot high trailer could pass through. And gave me a crash course on driving in 4Lo up this mountain.

When we pulled up to the private property gate to where our road begins, I wanted to call it quits. I was so terrified. I’m a chicken. Terrified of heights, looking over the edge of a cliff makes me so dizzy it’s unreal. So ya. I am not the girl for this job.

We started the drive. We took it slow. Cut overhanging branches a handful of times. My hands were sweating as I gripped the wheel, refusing to look out the driver’s side window down into the valley below. Every sharp, steep twist I was sure we would get high centered, mired on the soft shoulder, or blow the transmission in our Dodge Ram. But to my absolute astonishment, we made it to our property without a single issue.

This experience has taught me a very important lesson. To quote Ministry’s fourth album, “The mind is a terrible thing to taste.”

Things are rarely as difficult and frightening as they are made out to be by our brains. I am a natural pessimist and struggle against a perpetual doom-and-gloom perspective on life. But I think this journey has changed me. I am not gonna look at obstacles the same way ever again. Never in my life have I been more surprised by an outcome than when we pulled onto our property unscathed. If I can succeed at this, then I can succeed at a whole lot more.

I think it’s important to remember how our minds developed in order to keep us alive. We are naturally predisposed to anticipating the worst scenarios because we have been doing so for thousands of years. But we no longer run from wild animals to survive. And, for the most part, we no longer need fear to govern our emotions.

So, that’s my life lesson for the year. From now on, I’m gonna take a fresh approach to everything I do. From developing and sharing my novels to working as a technical writer. Nothing is too big and no obstacle is too daunting. If you take the time to control your mindset, you can make anything happen!