Step Three – To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

Yeah I stole that one from some movie that is like world-famous and I’m hoping I don’t get sued for using it.  I thought about this one time when I was running a familiar trail up Tongue River Canyon outside Dayton WY and I got to this milestone rock (we all call it Karen’s Rock after the founder of the Bighorn Wild and Scenic Trail Run) and I thought I heard this waterfall off to my left or south of me.  Of course with my hearing it could have been west, north, east or south, you can never really tell for certain with hearing loss.  Anyway I was going to go up to the top of the ridge which was about another 5 miles and then turn around and kick the downhill in the rear when I suddenly just stopped and said to myself “Boldly go where no man has gone before”.  It’s not like nobody else has ever wandered off in search of this waterfall but I wanted to go exploring so I did.  I began bushwhacking my way south and still hadn’t come up on the waterfall that I knew I was hearing so kept going.  I ended up in the most incredible place I had ever seen.  It was a canyon and there were multiple waterfalls coming down as the river tumbled down into my very familiar Tongue River Canyon.  As I stood there just soaking up the beauty I thought what a joy it is to get off the beaten path and discover such incredible beauty.

We can do this in our every day life also.  For instance I try to constantly think outside the box at work.  Instead of concentrating on all the books I have read about growing territory and profitability and leadership I try to think about each individual project I am working on, each individual customer, each cost center and each employee as if I am approaching them for the very first time and not just apply all the time-worn solutions to every challenge that is facing me.  “See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:19.  To boldly go where no man has gone before means that you absorb all the wisdom of those who have gone before you but you look for the new thing, the new path and you apply that wisdom in a new way instead of the tried and true way.

Living an ultra life means that as you run your own race you apply the wisdom from others but look for the new path.

Author: MikeHornerUltra

I am a husband, a Jesus follower, a businessman and an ultra marathoner, not necessarily in that order. I believe life is best lived when we live it to the ultra or the fullest.