Mark Agnew
Eileen and I cram into the Qamutik.
How to enjoy hard things
On July 1, 2023, exactly a year ago today, I climbed into a traditional Inuit sledge called a Qamutiik. I was crammed in with four other people and we endured a hellish and hilarious eight hours being towed across the frozen ocean to an empty cabin in the Arctic by a skidoo.
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We felt each jarring bump.
West Hansen, Jeff Wueste, Eileen Visser and I were about to attempt to kayak the Northwest Passage. Tom McQuire was along for the ride as our trusty shore manager who would be providing us with weather and our information.
If we achieved our goal, we would be the first people ever to kayak the Northwest Passage and the first people to do it under human power, no motors or sails, in one go.
As the sea ice melted, pools of water formed on the surface. Each pool was an intense turquoise. They looked deep but they were only a few inches deep. As we sped across them, we could have been a boat in the middle of the ocean, not a sledge on the ice.
The next 103 days was the best experience of my life. Spoiler alert, we did achieve our goals.
Here's (just some of) what I learned about enjoying hard things:
Survive or thrive - perspective
There are two ways to enjoy something that's hard - retrospectively or in the moment: Glad you did it, or glad you're doing it.
The bouncy and difficult sledge ride could have been endured or enjoyed. We enjoyed it. The five of us were all laughing at ourselves and each other.
It set the tone.
We didn't just survive, we thrived.
Of course, there were times of tension. That's inevitable in a high stress environment. Ironically, that tension disappeared when things got toughest.
It was the ambiguity that was a struggle to deal with, but when times were tough they were also simple.
We enjoyed it in the moment, not just when it was done.
How to enjoy hard things - Don't focus on the outcome
If the outcome was my only goal, then it would be the only bit I enjoyed.
The secret to enjoying hard things is to make the "things" the goal, not the outcome.
The "things" were the journey, being immersed in nature and the shared effort.
(From left): West, Eileen, Mark and Jeff
So, when it was tough, that was part of the shared effort. That was the "thing" I was looking for. It was one of my core goals. Therefore, I enjoyed it. It wasn't an obstacle to the real goal (finishing). It was the goal itself.
Therefore, we thrived when it was difficult.
Every day for the next 103 days will mark an anniversary of some sort for me - one year since this or that moment on the Arctic. I can't wait to reminisce about the hardest ones.