managing trip expectations (part 1)
I'm back in Chattanooga after some traveling this holiday season. I went on a short trip to Red Rock, Las Vegas - the first time I had climbed outside of the southeast in over a year!
Since it's the season for climbing trips, I asked you all on IG what you struggle with when it comes to trips so we can talk through it in the next few newsletters.
First and foremost... managing expectations and figuring out how to spend your time during the trip.
I want to start by saying, it's a GOOD thing to have some form of expectations for your trip. Without setting any intention, the trip itself can become disorganized and muddled.. and you could very well walk away feeling unsatisfied.
I struggled with this on my recent trip because I was too stubborn to admit that there were things I wanted to accomplish in Red Rock.
Rather than being honest with myself I kept saying, "oh, I have no expectations. I've never been there before so I have no idea what I want to do."
But instead of feeling relaxed, this attitude added A LOT of stress for me - I immediately felt pressure when I got there. I finally admitted to myself that I did want to do a new V10 and maybe a few new V8s. But I hardly did any research on the climbs and had no clue of what to get on.
I was trying to pretend that I didn't care when I really did. Fortunately I was able to accomplish one of my goals, but I could have saved myself a big headache if I was honest with myself from the get go!
There is a balance, of course, and setting too high of expectations can place a lot of pressure on your performance and you could again walk away unsatisfied. It's important to push yourself while also being realistic about the limitations of being on a trip.
Your goals need to be somewhat flexible because there's a lot of unpredictability to trips. Your flight could get delayed, the weather could change, you could get a big split in your skin, etc.
Being able to adjust your expectations is an important skill when it comes to trips.
There are three main considerations for setting your expectations:
-have you been to this area before?
-how long is your trip?
-how much did you prepare?
We'll go into these in more detail next week.
Have you ever had an experience where your expectations were too high or too low for a trip?
