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Looking at my charts, the heart doctor said “It says here that you have a severe sprained ankle, so how did you end up here with me talking about your 4.6 cm aneurysm of the ascending aorta.”  My reply was, ‘it’s because of the wrong choice I made based on the options available at the time.  You see…’

I went hiking on January 1^st, 2024 and coming down an ice-covered trail, I chose the Option to not put on traction, because I didn’t want to take the time to put them on. So, I ended up falling, getting a severe sprain (read: a ligament tears off and takes part of the bone with it).  A week later the right calf starts swelling up like a water melon and Arlene says it time to go to Urgent Care.  Getting there, the PA on staff says their Ultra Sound tech. has left for the day, but just looking at it, I can tell you have a blood clot in your leg, GO TO ER NOW.  Getting to ER, they take one look and say I don’t have a blood clot, but we want run some tests to understand why your blood pressure is high, but your pulse is low. That last one is easy I said, “My blood pressure is high because I was told an hour ago, I have a blood clot.” Then the tests start: ankle x-ray confirms torn ligament, ultra sound on the calf confirms no blood clot, and CAT Scan shows no blood clot, but surprise, surprise, they do fine a 4.6 cm aneurysm of ascending aorta.  This is a thinning of the aorta artery coming out of the heart.  A 3.8 cm or smaller diameter is normal, 5.5 cm or larger is requires open hear surgery, and in my case 4.6 cm is cause to start monitoring on a regular basis, but no action is needed now.

Often, we see our “wrong choices” as events of inconvenience and humiliation.  Ain’t I the guy who is always telling people “What is less expensive? Buying traction or going to ER?”  Being in the ER room for 6 hours that Wednesday evening, I knew what the answer was going to be.  Buying traction is one thing, wearing it is another.

We look at events taking place in our lives and don’t stop enough along the way to consider the options and cost of them   Often I’m looking for the fast and easy option, even though I hear the small voice in my head saying “Is that really the best option for you.”  And when I do make a mistake, do I wallow in my self-pity or do I do an evaluation of my situation and relook at the options that lay before me.

In hiking, do I stop to consider my options when I see road blocks ahead, or do I press on and risk getting hurt.  I’ve been a quarter mile from the top of the highest mountain in Colorado, and having to make the choice continuing on or turning back with the approach of a lightning storm. In my personal life, do I see do see the options that lay ahead of me and consider them even when they seem like huge mountains?  In my work life, how do I react when my career doesn’t go the way I thought it would? Do I stay stuck in self-pity or do I become open to new industry options.  Which in this case, has taken me from Telcom to various roles in the government sector.

We all want the ability to chose the easy options on the trails of life.  But are those options the best ones for your life?  Choosing hard options can open up whole new trails in your life.  In my life: they have included a move to Colorado, writing a book, and discovering an aneurysm on my main blood vein; which I know I need to monitor for the rest of my life.  What are the options you are facing on the trails of your life and who is helping you make those decisions.

This and other “Trail Tips” can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredandersen and www.alandersen.co

Also, a collection of my first 101 tips have been published in a book and is available at Amazon or you can contact me to get an autographed copy of the book.

Recently I had to have a molar tooth pulled because of cracked roots with infections. Yep, you are looking at it now.  And what’s the worth of anything in life if you can’t learn a lesson and make a Trail Tip out of it…  For me, my story with the tooth was: I had some minor/dull pain with it for a few months, but it was never really bad and hey, the tooth looked fine to the naked eye.  But it was the hidden part of the tooth that was causing the problem for me and I didn’t want to address it.  And it’s the hidden part of our lives; things below the surface; that will cause problems in our lives if we don’t address them.

In hiking, for me it’s the over confidence I get when hiking and thinking I am experienced enough to do new hikes by myself; this is the place where we can lose judgement and can get into problems.  Recently I did the Spruce Mountain and Spruce Meadow trail.  A total of 18 miles.  Toward the end, I became in a hurry to get back sooner, so seeing Spruce Mountain in the distance, I went off trail and cut across the open range.  While I made it safely; later I thought this is a great area for rattle snakes, and what would have happened if I would have gotten bit.  Like my tooth, the path looks good on the outside, but am I really aware of the potential problems below the surface.

In our personal life, I think of anger and secrets that we hide on the inside that gnaw away at our heart and can destroy us over time. Like a tooth infection that can eat away the bones in our jaw, anger and secrets can infect our whole body as well.  The solution for the tooth is an extraction, but it doesn’t stop there.  The void left by the tooth must be filled in with a bone graft to build a strong foundation, allowed to heal for 6 months, and then have a screw inserted for a tooth implant for complete healing.  With anger and secrets, we need to expose them as well and replace the void with love, acceptance, and gratitude of others.  Like the tooth process, this is something that also takes time and will have pain along the way, as healing takes place.

In work, we also have pain along the way.  Project frustration, conflicts with co-workers, balance of work/home balance; all come into play at different times.  We can let them foster and tear us down from the inside or we can look for ways to express and let out the pressure in positive ways.  For me, I’ve found that one on one lunch meetings or going on hikes with a few co-workers can do wonders.  As it’s been said “what said on the trail, stays on the trail.”  And this is trust that needs to be built over time with select co-workers.

We all want things to be pretty on the outside and wish our lives were the picture we show on Facebook all the time.  But there is pain below the surface and it’s real; eating away at the fabric of our lives, just like my tooth infection was starting to eat away at my jaw bone.  What are the things causing you pain below the surface in your hiking, personal and work life?  Who are the “dentists” in your life that you are going to allow to come into your being and do the extractions, help fill in the voids, and start the recovery process?