Piggybacking off last week’s post exploring the budget minded aspect of the ECOA mission statement, this week I want to unpack the phrase, “To Educate, Encourage, and Inspire.” since it is the main part of the mission.
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| The mission of East Coast Overland Adventures is to: Educate, encourage, and inspire other adventurers in the overlanding community. What does that even mean? |
Just like building a fire with fuel, air, and spark I’ll explain how my goals to educate, encourage, and inspire work together to ignite a fire of exploration and adventure in other overlanders.
Educate
educate / ˈejəˌkāt / [verb]: give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to someone typically at a school or university; give someone training in or information on a particular field
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| Round table facilitation. Part of the ECOA mission to educate [Overland Expo West, Flagstaff, AZ 2016] |
When most people think “education” they think of a formal setting like a school. Kids sitting in desks filed into neat little rows with a teaching standing in front of them imparting them with knowledge. This usually involves reading, studying, tests, and all manner of less than pleasurable tasks like homework. However, not all education is formal education. I spent a lot of time in the education field before embracing this lifestyle full-time. I specialized in an hands-on approach to learning that was rooted in experiences rather than books. I still valued many aspects of traditional learning, but I felt there was a better way and doing so experientially was a lot more interesting, a lot more engaging, as well as a lot more rewarding.
Encourage
encourage / enˈkərij / [verb]: give support, confidence, or hope to someone; give support and advice to someone so that they will do or continue to do something; help or stimulate an activity, state, or view to develop
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| After watching him struggle on the hill and fail three time I offered him a little advice. He offered to let me show him by driving his rig. I told him I had already made it and now it was his turn. Education + Encouragement = Success The broad smile on his face after he made it was priceless. [Disconnected Offroad’s Rock the Clock II, Rausch Creek Offroad Park, PA 2016] |
Encouraging someone is a little more abstract than educating them. It can take on a few different looks depending on the situation. Ultimately my goal is to encourage people they can go on adventures even if they are on a limited budget. For a while the expedition community was pretty harsh to new enthusiasts. It wasn’t till recent years when the term “overland” became the rally cry of a new subset of vehicle based travel enthusiasts. In many ways expeditions were seen as an unobtainable fantasy by average everyday people. The term “overland” had always been out there but was abstractly defined. In many ways it still is but it has been adopted by recreational explorers and vehicle based campers as a way to separate themselves from hard-core international expeditions, and equally so from trail riders and rock crawlers. In many ways overlanding has become a blended term that’s part road-trip, part car-camping, part exploration, and usually entails multiple days in remote locations. Along with this is the desire for many people to enjoy the overland lifestyle buy may feel threatened, ill-equipped, or ill-prepared. Part of my goal, my mission, is to encourage these people that they can do it.
Inspire
inspire / inˈspīr / [verb]: fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative
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| “Camp Humble” By traveling modestly on a limited budget I hope to inspire others to use what they have to get out there and explore. [American Adventurist Appalachian Rendezvous, Uwharrie, NC 2015] |
Inspiration is the other side of the coin from encouragement. By definition the two are very similar. In some respects though it is probably the easiest thing for me to do since all I have to do is keep doing what I’m doing the way I’m doing it. They way I see it, encouragement is an action I do toward other people. So where as encouragement is direct, inspiration is a little more indirect. Inspiration is something they take from me just from me doing what I’m doing. This is why I pay particular attention to the DIY projects and plan both my builds and my trips on a more modest budget. I want to inspire people through what I’m doing that you don’t need deep pockets to get out there and see the world. With that in mind it’s also the hardest part of my mission to wrap my head around. The way I look at it is there are people who inspire me. People I enjoy watching on video or reading articles they wrote. I see what they are doing, how they are doing it, and I want to do it. I won’t say who, but there are a small handful of people who inspired me to just get out there and do it. That’s what I’m trying to do now.
Conclusion
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| Fuel + Air + Spark = Fire Education + Encouragement + Inspiration = The ECOA Mission |
