Opinion – É Logo Ali: Work is not an excuse to settle down

If you still think that hiking is just for those who have a lot of free time and few responsibilities to manage, come on, think again. You are completely wrong! An increasing number of executives, those who have a fuller schedule than Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, have discovered that not only is it good to dedicate a few hours, or days, to nature, but it is also an activity that helps to take care of the professional side.

People like Camila Braga, 40, from Paraná, Marketing coordinator at Banco Bari, who discovered her passion for the bush as a result of the races she practices, both urban and cross country, that is, for trails in rustic areas.

“Because nature is something unpredictable, you don’t know if it’s going to rain or if the climb is bigger than you imagined, walking along trails in the middle of the bush helps me a lot to deal with the unexpected of everyday life and have a different view of how face things when they don’t go the way we wanted,” she says.

The fact that, on a trail, the practitioner often has to respect the limits of the rest of the group, who do not always go at the same pace or have the same ease on the route, is also an element that, for Camila, brings a greater understanding to the work routine. “You are part of a team, both on the trail and at work, and the activity helps to strengthen the perception that it is important to respect others, but it also forces us to show our own vulnerability, limits, knowing that we can and should ask help when needed”, he explains.

The economist from Rio Grande do Sul, Country Manager at Intrum Brasil, Ulisses Rodrigues, 56, confirms Camila’s perspective. Working on a day-to-day basis in the management of portfolios in the areas of credit, collection and business development, she began to make trails at the end of 2006, he says, to “disconnect from the corporate world”.

“We finish college and dive headfirst into our careers”, he says, “at some point you have to stop to disconnect from everything”. For him, the similarities between the trails and the corporate world are numerous: “In both there are challenges, the need to share, to develop empathy, to depend on the group that, in turn, depends on you. more aggressive, with interests that are often exclusively individual, in nature it is nature that sets the limits and cannot leave the interests of the group aside”.

Both Camila and Ulisses are emphatic in recommending walking as a complement to a busy routine. “When someone tells me that they don’t think it’s going to work, that they don’t know what to wear, if they’re going to make it, I always say: ‘Just go, feel how unique it is to be away from everything, even if it’s a short trail, a walk along the street, 10 minutes to start,'” says Camila.

And Ulisses adds: “We live a routine that limits our ability to learn and we learn a lot from the unknown, from the lessons of nature and from living with people who are not part of our corporate world. to the rain, to the cold, is always different and forces us to develop and amplify empathy, to live and live with the unknown”.

So, are you going to sit on that couch?