The Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming is huge. It’s bigger than 400,000 acres, full of trees, mountains and bears.
Hikers and campers come there every year — but it doesn’t allow vehicles, roads or any buildings.
With that in mind, here are a handful of actual comments that U.S. Forest Service officials have received from Bridger-Teton’s visitors:
“Trail needs to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.”
“A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed?”
“The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.”
And, finally…
“Too many rocks in the mountains.”
What do all these comments have in common? Somebody was not prepared.
Preparation is essential, not just in the wilderness but in the world of business.
At first glance, these two worlds might not seem alike.
But they are, and so are the ways people approach them. We see it all the time.
What happens when you aren’t prepared in the wilderness? Well, usually one of two things.
Either you completely freeze – we call this “give-up-itis” – or you do the exact opposite, you scream and run around panicking.
Neither of these, obviously, are ideal.
So why do people react this way? It’s pretty simple, actually.
They don’t have the proper positive mental attitude. They don’t have confidence.
To be frank, they’re worried they’ll screw up.
This is true out in the wilderness and it’s true in business, although hopefully with less screaming.
Everyone knows someone who has this lack of confidence. Someone who freezes when they need to make a decision, or runs around sweating bullets.
So how do you fix this? How do you teach people to live outside their comfort zone, to look past the low-hanging fruit?
First, teach them how to survive in the wild.
At the same time, you’ll teach them how to survive in business.
If you can build a fire, if you can build a shelter, if you can administer first aid when there’s no professional help for miles around — there’s not much you can’t do after that.
And that’s where Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School comes in.
We can teach your employees these things. Along the way we’ll teach them how to overcome their self-limiting beliefs and how to be better leaders.
Personal development, managing large challenges, overcoming what holds you back, keeping business going in a challenging economy — all of these skills have direct parallels to wilderness survival skills.
At Mountain Shepherd, we’ll teach your staff to get rid of give-up-itis.
This kind of training is more important today than ever, by the way.
Who knows what the economy will do in the next few months or few years?
You need to have people working beside you who can thrive under pressure and uncertainty.
They have to love the challenge and they have to have confidence.
We can help them get there, prepared for anything the wilderness of the business world will throw their way.