Security vs. Discovery Thinking and Zip Lines

Picture this; it’s a Monday morning, after a snowy and cold weekend, in the dead of Connecticut winter. You are securely tucked away in bed, donning your favorite pajamas, embraced by your warmest comforter. So comfortable, so warm… then, the alarm goes off. A TOTAL shock to our “system”. We have a decision to make – stay wrapped up in the security and warmth of our bed, or pull off the blanket and place our feet on the floor and begin our day!

Let’s face the hard reality here; staying in the friendly confines of our bed is not really a viable option on a Monday morning. There is always work to be done, educational curriculum to be learned, and responsibilities to be responsible for. While it would be nice to remain cozy and comfortable, productivity and achievement will not be the end result.

Security vs. Discovery:

Security equals comfort, comfort leads to routine, routine can become mindless, and mindlessness leads to being stagnant. Nothing great was ever achieved through mindless stagnancy.

Whereas, Discovery (i.e. getting out of bed and “discovering” how cold it is after pulling off your blanket), while it may be uncomfortable, leads to opportunities for development.

Using the example above, we wake up, deal with the initial impact of “cold Winter day” and then start a day full of opportunities to accomplish, learn, and be productive.

Growing Together

We often like to reflect on the tremendous “Discovery Opportunities” our team and our adventures have presented to our guests. There are a ton of great moments of discovery and accomplishment experienced this year; check out a note from Kyra, a participant who visited Empower Leadership with Amherst LEADS – a leadership training program for athletes at Amherst College:

“Seeing other groups do the back-hand zip line pull, I thought to myself ‘wow, I’m not even sure if I can get all the way to the tree’. My first time, I was surprised to make it all the way. Then, I realized I had to go again, and I thought ‘I don’t know if I can do another one’. I thought that the third time and fourth time too, but every single time I made it up that line to the tree, even as it grew increasingly tiring and tough. I walked away from that event with increased confidence in myself and my ability to push through adversity, and I know that is something I will carry with me through my season and my life.”

Kyra’s story provides a great example of the benefits to Discovery Thinking and how using ziplines helped her face those challenges. More-so, her increased sense of self-confidence and ability to persevere through adversity are a direct product of her willingness to venture out of her comfort zone by pushing herself both physically and mentally, and discovering her ability to accomplish what at first may have seemed impossible!

Why Empower Leadership?

Not only do we use ziplines and our adventure locations to facilitate personal growth (and fun!) at Empower Leadership, we also have a variety of ground-based team building programs to help groups of all ages, sizes, and areas of interest grow together.  Contact us for more information today!

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