Lessons learned in a land called Hanalei

1.) Any expedition undertaken by a group through unfamiliar territory will generally be longer and more difficult than is indicated by any map or plan.
2.) Each member's expectations are unique.
3.) Each member's response to adverse conditions is unique.
4.) The group's goal or destination may be clearly stated, but each member's evaluation of achieving that goal is unique.
5.) One particular member, i.e. Jackie Paper, may exhibit zeal for the goal and abundant energy to achieve its accomplishment.
6.) Another member, i.e. Puff, may carry less motivation for reaching the group's goal or destination, and thereby allow him/herself to be delayed by adverse conditions.
7.) Jackie Paper's exuberant surge forward and Puff's dragging of feet will probably result in a distance between them.
8.) Other group members may be suspended between those two in indecision about achieving group goals or tending to individual needs.
9.) If cell phone service is not available, the dilemma presented to compassionate members by lesson #8 could reach critical proportions.
10.) The group's success in reaching the stated goal or destination may be in peril.
11.) Jackie Paper may surge ahead anyway.
12.) Puff may cease making any forward progress, possibly abandoning his/her contribution toward the group's destination altogether. Or, Puff may be persuaded to endure through the adverse conditions toward the mission's completion This lesson will require more time, and may call into question the group's allotted time frame, i.e. who wants to be slogging through steep, muddy trails in the dark while in a state of exhaustion?
13.) If the group goal or destination is achieved, the reward for that success may not actually satisfy the group's expectations. i.e. The panoramic view obtained by the group's overcoming adverse conditions may be totally occluded by the mists of the land called Hanalei, thus preventing any view whatsoever of the magical valley below.
14.) Have a little laugh and talk about it anyway.
15.) If all group members survive the expedition and get back to the hotel and live to tell about it, success is achieved and lessons are learned.
16.) Life is not about what happens to us; it's about how we respond to what happens. That's the Glass half-Full.