Taking Steps in the Jungle

When hiking in the Amazon Rainforest, you keep your hands in your pockets while taking steps forward. You don’t want to grab onto anything surprising when you fall—and it’s almost guaranteed that at some point, you will fall.

The local guide clears the path with a machete, as there are no paved roads to where you’re headed. As you’re taking steps, your boots may get stuck in the mud, and you may feel like you are quickly sinking into quicksand.

It catches you by surprise, and as you feel yourself being swallowed by the earth; you literally freeze, unable to take a step forward.

You slowly sense the mud and water sloshing inside your boots as two tribespeople effortlessly lift you out of the mess you got yourself into.

While you’re covered in protective gear from head to toe, the guides wear very little. They move to the front, swinging their machetes. One stays with you to help you align your pace with the natural rhythm of the jungle.

You are learning to focus more on what’s in front of you than dealing with the fear of the unknown in your mind.

Taking Small Steps Forward Means Letting Go

When you’re ready to explore what is possible, you can take charge and choose a direction that captures your imagination. If you choose to walk backwards or stay stuck in the quicksand, it is almost impossible to navigate.

Taking steps forward and letting go helps us gain perspective. In each step, you get to determine and create your own heaven or hell based on how you see the world and the conditions you are in. The past is an incredible teacher and allows you to break patterns. But don’t stay stuck there.

Why? Because as Paulo Coelho writes in Manuscript Found in Accra, “No one can go back, but everyone can go forward. And tomorrow, when the sun rises, all you have to say to yourselves is: I am going to think of this day as the first day of my life.”