100 Days of Awesome Day 6: Follow the Directions Because You Are Not in Control

Ah, a lesson in control. Always appropriate in my world! Although Ryan chose to follow the directions of a recipe to the “T” I realized that this wouldn’t work for me for a couple of reasons. First, I’m on vacation and I won’t be cooking tonight. And second, I am an avid cook and pretty much follow the recipes specifically anyway. So the recipe angle would not present much of a challenge.

However, that is not to say that I always follow directions. Far from it! And following directions that someone else suggests (that is, a real person sitting next to me and not some anonymous person at Google Maps, for example) is definitely not my forte. I’m pretty sure the definition of “Back Seat Driver” has my picture next to it.

Today’s plans, now that the sun is finally out, are to bicycle and geocache along a rail trail from Moosup, CT to Greene, RI (approximately 23 miles round-trip). This should provide me with plenty of opportunities to relinquish control, follow directions and let someone else take charge. And since my geocaching partner and I have been known to have some nasty disagreements in thickly wooded places, that should add yet another interesting layer to this awesome day. Wish me luck!

--------------------------------------

I learned some interesting things about following directions today:

1. The directions are not always right.
2. The people who write directions tend to inject their opinions into what should be objective.
3. Doing things someone else’s way can make you crazy if that person’s mind keeps changing.

Just like everything else in life, following directions is not a 100% foolproof method.

If we’d followed the directions given by Google Maps to reach McDonald’s, we would have made an illegal left turn and driven into oncoming traffic (see #1 above).

By following the directions given in one of our caches (a hint that read: “3 feet high”), we failed to find an item that we found out later required one to climb a tree (see # 2 above). I have no explanation for that except that the person writing the directions must have been having one of those Alice-in-Wonderland moments when he wrote it.

And as for #3 … well, it would appear that “balance” is once again the operative word.
So my conclusion at the end of this awesomely confusing day is: When all else fails, read the directions.