Be a Newb

I’m New, I’m Fresh

Last Friday, all of the North American Austin Adventure guides, myself included, finished our in-classroom training for the upcoming season. Then, on the following Saturday through Tuesday, we ran our scout trips for each destination. I mean literally, we ran them.

The trip I’m on is the Montana Series, and like most of Austin’s other trips, it’s a six-day itinerary. We ran the scout in three, and it went something like this: drive from Bozeman to Beehive Basin, run up the trail, write down some interp, run back down, get in the van, drive to Yellowstone, notice the Old Faithful visitors’ center restrooms, buy an Audubon guide (or four), notice the lunch spot, think about where you would park the trailer, drive to the next trailhead, run up that one, run back down, etc. etc. for three days.

I sometimes like to hike in my Tivas, and since it was warm out, I decided to wear them for the first day of the scout, before I realized we would actually be running the trails. Beehive Basin, located in Big Sky, MT, is a muddy, snowy mess in early June, and it’s safe to say my Tivas didn’t fare too well, not did my feet as we sunk shin-deep in snow packs. My co-guides were making fun of me the whole way as my feet froze up and became caked with mud. Needless to say, I looked like a newb.

But you know what? I am a newb. And that’s okay. Of course, having the wrong footwear is not necessarily the type of mistake you want to be making as a newb, but the point is that it’s okay to make mistakes, especially when you’re launching into something you have never done before. In fact, making mistakes is not only okay, it is the only way to get better.

The founders of an Austin Adventure’s partner, T-shirt company Life is Good, swear that with anything new, the work will teach itself. I wholeheartedly believe this to be true. When you start a new job, move to a new place, or set a new goal, there is always work involved. Change is challenging. But as you begin to work, you inevitably find out–well, what works– and what doesn’t, just by trying to solve problems and observing the results of the steps you took. You might get some things to go totally smoothly on the first try, or you might find yourself totally rethinking the way you did something because it ended in a disaster. Most outcomes will initially be somewhere in between. And then the next time you tackle those same problems, they will be slightly closer to that perfectly smooth outcome, and closer and closer each time until you are truly comfortable and efficient in your role.

There is no way to avoid this process and still get better. Learning is how we grow, how we gain knowledge and skills, and we’re actually really good at it. So don’t be afraid to dive into something new and embrace your Newb Status. Everyone who is good at what they do has been there, and the ones who embrace their newness best end up at the top.

Being a newb is fun and exciting because it means you have so much ahead of you to learn. You can only go up. And you know what? Running those trails in Tivas is gonna make them a hell of a lot easier to walk in hiking boots 😉