Yesterday I had another long walk scheduled.
More precisely, I mapped out a nice relaxing route, mostly through parks and the occasional forest where I live. The total length was 30 kilometers—that’s about 18.5 miles or around 16,745 refrigerators for the hamburger people—and would take me about 7 hours to complete, including the occasional eating or toilet break.
And so I went on my way in the early afternoon.
It all started well. Amazing scenery, great weather, no prediction of rain at all that day, sunny and warm, but not too warm that I was sweating all the time. Everything was just right.
An hour into my walk I ended up in one of those small forests.
I looked at my phone to figure out my directions, and Google Maps told me to turn right, over the bridge to cross the river, and continue walking in the same direction.
Except…
There wasn’t a bridge in sight.
I went back and forth a few times, thinking I must have passed it somewhere and it might be hidden in between some bushes. But no luck.
Luckily, the river was small enough for me to consider just jumping over it. It was a big enough river to make it a challenging jump, but the ground were I was walking was also a bit higher than the ground on the other side, so I had some luck there.
After a (rather short) bit of thinking it over, I decided to just go for it and jump over. With all the sports and physical activity I do, a little jump over the river shouldn’t hold me back, should it?
Anyway.
I got ready, took a step back to get myself a running start, and just went for it, not thinking about the consequences at all.
Luckily I made it over the river, all in one piece, and without getting wet.
Except, I now found myself a foot deep in what apparently turned out to be a wet and barely solid underground of mud (which wasn’t clear just by looking at it). So much so that I actually lost my shoe right after I jumped and tried to continue walking.
So there I was, happy that I made it and didn’t get wet, yet my feet, shoes, and bottom of my trousers were covered in mud.
Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from jumping over rivers—I’d happily do it again. But this experience did bring up a good point… No matter how much you prepare, or how well you plan everything out, there will always be stuff you didn’t (or couldn’t) account for that’ll mess up your plan and alter the course you’ll have to take.
Luckily, as the great Matt Furey used to say “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer”.
Read it again and think about why that might be the case—powerful stuff.
And that’s why I’ll highly recommend you to check out Email Valhalla so you can learn how to write better emails that’ll get you paid (and so nothing bad will ever happen to you).
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