March Trail Check-In

Sometimes the trail teaches you the most when you're forced to step off it.

After a recent car accident, I haven't been able to get back on the trail the way I usually do. At first, that was frustrating. Hiking has become my space for thinking, reflecting, and recalibrating - a place where movement and clarity tend to find each other.

But the unexpected pause created something else: time.

Time to slow down. Time to think. Time to remember what actually matters.

Leadership often emphasizes momentum; moving forward, pushing ahead, keeping pace. But March has reminded me that there's a quieter kind of leadership too: the wisdom to pause, recover, and regain perspective before continuing the climb.

And in that stillness, certain people came to mind.

It's Women's History Month, and the slower pace allowed me time to think about the strong women who inspired me, not through big actions but through the kind of strength that rarely gets named out loud. Women who held families together, carried responsibilities with grace, and kept going even when they didn't know what would happen next. Women who showed me how to be strong long before I had the words for it.

Their example is a reminder that leadership isn't always about being seen or moving quickly. Sometimes it's about having the quiet courage to keep going even when the speed changes or the trail looks different than you thought it would.

My boots haven't been on the trail this month. But the reflection has been just as important, and it pointed me back to the women who helped shape the kind of leader I’m still becoming. When I lace my boots back up, I’ll carry a deeper sense of that calm strength with me.

Next week, I’ll give that legacy a fuller spotlight.

When have you been forced to slow down, and what did it teach you about yourself or your leadership?