Enough Lilliputian arrows will eventually fell Gulliver just as a phalanx of tiny details can deflate a vision. It is important to establish and protect the vision, to build anticipation and excitement that will motivate Scouts to work their way through to its realization.
On one of our first Canoe Trips to Canada we sat around our campfire the first night after getting to our hard-won campsite. A long day of paddling and portaging and a frustrating search for a camp site (during which we became separated) had me pretty wrung out. I was lamenting over a couple of mistakes I made that day to one of my fellow adult leaders who looked up from the fire where our dinner was cooking and said; "Well, here we are camped out on a lake in Canada and I am just about to enjoy a steak dinner!". He had maintained the vision and I was bogged down in details.
Getting our first Troop based high adventure trip off the ground first required helping my Scouts envision it as a real possibility. I was surprised by their initial skepticism, it all seemed either too good to be true or too logistically challenging to launch. The adults in the Troop also required a bit of convincing. Some questioned if we were allowed to do such things, some were concerned about the cost, some about safety and some about all three. But they did, finally, get hold of the idea and we were able to bring it into reality.
Establishing the vision, fanning the flames, motivating Scouts to maintain their resolve through a forest of details is equally important as the details themselves.
Tomorrow we'll discuss how to figure out what detailed preparation looks like.
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