OutdoorCEO

A man is trained by where he stands

Thorin is a king with a map and he still loses himself in a treasure room. Bilbo is a burglar who never wanted the job and he walks out of the mountain with his character whole. The difference is not courage — it is what each of them let the environment teach him. Cold rain corrects your estimate of yourself. Stone dark shows you what you already carry. A closed forest steals your bearings. A river teaches you that pushing is not strength. A trading town judges what you appear to deliver. Gold in a dark room will take your friends if you let it.

The charge on this wall: stand outdoors daily in an element that changes your sight, take the plan with you, and hold the treasure loosely enough to still see the people you are building for.

Bilbo does not decide to become brave. He is put outdoors — into cold rain, stone dark, closed canopy, moving water, a trading town and finally a room full of gold — and each element hands him a sight he could not have had anywhere else. That is the law of this wall: the environment changes the vision by the elements of that environment.

So do not plan your year in the same chair all year. Take the plan into the weather that can read it. Eight weathers, eight sights, and a door you come home through.

Homebody: The pantry is full and the map is unread. Next weather — Bag End & the Green Hill.