Morocco

During a hike, I went through a very difficult moment. It was hot, I was exhausted, and a little voice in my head kept repeating:

“What am I doing here? Why didn’t I stay home? How am I ever going to finish this hike? I have no energy left, no strength left…”

Then, almost instinctively, I stopped thinking about the distance that still lay ahead. Instead, I focused only on the step I was taking at that very moment.

I told myself: “I don’t know if I can walk the next ten kilometers. But I can take this step. And I can take the next one too.”

So I kept moving forward, one step at a time.

Little by little, something changed. The fatigue was still there, but it no longer overwhelmed me. By becoming completely absorbed in the present moment, I experienced a sense of clarity, calm, and even well-being. I finished the hike without any particular difficulty.

That experience taught me a valuable lesson: in life, we often suffer more from what we imagine than from what we are actually experiencing. We anticipate obstacles, challenges, and future efforts, and those projections exhaust us before we have even begun.

Walking taught me that it is not always necessary to know how you will reach the summit. Sometimes, all you need to do is take the next step.

And more often than not, that is how the greatest things are accomplished: one step at a time, fully present to what is.

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