What’s more important to you, the goal or what you gain on the way to it?

Looking out at the view and I can’t ignore the monolith on top of the hill calling to the curious child in me that wants to walk to it. But when it’s the morning, you’re tired and all you see is the end goal it seemed like a mammoth of a task to even work out how you would get there and if it was worth it just to see a stone pillar.

Picture this, waking up everything blurred, head in the clouds.

You stumble out of the room to the balcony on the caravan and you look out at the view.

A sea of caravans surrounding you, and in front of you, connected to the park is an airstrip with planes landing.

You look to your left further up the view, fields filled with sheep, outlined by bushes.

Slightly further up, on top of the hill, your eyes can’t ignore the single stone monolith.

What a view to wake up to on the Isle of Wight.

Your curious mind suddenly has an idea that refuses to leave.

No reception, no distractions, no excuses. We had to walk to it.

The other boys in the caravan start waking up.

So I suggest.

“Guys come on let’s go we’re not going to do anything this morning, be a fuckin sick way to start the day”

Surprisingly met with complete agreement.

So we set off, eager to find out what it is and what else is at the top.

We make it out of the park and cross over into the fields.

Decide to take the dirt road along the side of it where we find another caravan park.

In the distance, we see the caravans slowly rising on the hill towards the monolith so we change our path there.

Suddenly, we come out to this open plain.

The smell of the ocean breeze on the end of the nose.

A class of black belts practicing karate with the white cliffs as the backdrop.

Then we’re met with a fork in the road.

Do we take the normal path that we can see others taking down to the beach or do we try to take the less trodden path through bushes to where it looks like it will actually take us up?

We first test out the path everyone else is going.

It just takes us down a steep decline to the beach.

We turn around and make our way back up.

Now going up the hill and through some bushes, we make our way through a random gate and find ourselves finally onto the path that looks like it leads to the top.

A few more strides to go. Breath heavy. We reach the top and sit below the towering structure.

Phones left at home. With nothing but a beautiful view and good people.

The wind licking against the grass, the sound of the ocean waves and planes landing on the strip in the distance.

Just a few guys at the top of a hill talking about old memories and reflecting.

So simple but so needed for a busy mind like mine.

On the way back down I couldn’t help but think about what this morning trip was trying to tell me.

Even though the initial goal was to get to the monolith on the hill, what we gained along the way to it was far more valuable.

It’s the conversations and experiences on the way to the goal.

It’s nature all around waiting to be appreciated.

It’s the small details you can hone in on as you make your way up that you can’t see when you’re so zoomed out only looking at the goal.

Young Josh struggled to appreciate much outside his concrete jungle. So I ask him to put his phone down and stop focusing so much on the goal and what is next.

Get outside and enjoy what is going on all around you now. It is there you just have to be willing to look.