In a race, now they have those little timing chips.
See the race is A to B – a set path.
The timing chips provide “splits,” but really they also keep people on track (or else someone could just cut out an entire lap).
Usually when there’s a set destination, and you want to get there as fast as possible, it makes sense to conserve energy, or to exploit the given system in front of you, because you can only go one way. Squeeze it for everything you can.
We see the race mentality everywhere – at work, in training, with kids… Try to go faster on the given path.
What if the rules have changed though?
In the Tour Divide, a 4418km cycling race from Canada to New Mexico, there’s just a start point and an end, somewhere way… far… away…
You can explore, choose your route, stop to rest.
Yes, it’s kind of a race still (for some at the front), but it’s really more like an expedition, with urgency.
The expedition framework rewards that little bit of curiosity, of patience and exploration.
In what is an incredibly abundant and fortunate setting for most of us today, it turns out that the typical race model may not always be a fit.
We have possibility, or options, and often an exploratory approach can prove to be the most powerful.
It is interesting how far the expedition mindset can take us across many life domains.
