On Being Unreasonable

It seems like this year has had a bit of a theme – that what you see along your personal path might only look reasonable to you.

I’ve seen a guy build a luxury hotel in my old town. Which is right out on the edge of the mallee, sits on about 40m of clay, is baking hot in summer and freezing in winter. I’ve heard lots of things said about Katanning in the last 40 years, but I don’t think ‘tourist destination’ was ever one of them. But Nigel could see something that not many others did. That travel is more about the journey, not the destination and that there is a yearning out there for experiences that connect to something substantial and real: to history, heritage and old stories that echo through time. He could see that people would come into the West Aussie heartland and explore, if they were given the right reasons to, and a decent place to stay.

Then I saw a bloke, this weird bloke from Queensland, decide to build a disc golf course on a property that is three hours drive from Brisbane, which is about 2 hours further than most disc golfers are prepared to drive for a round; and tell anyone who’d listen ‘I want to hold an A-tier here one day’. Most people just shook their head.

Not very reasonable Nate. But, four years later, he hosted the biggest ever Queensland championships at Granite Mountain, on a course that he and his wife Carmen had slowly hacked from the bush and that is now acknowledged as one of the best in the country. People travelled from four different states to play and the field had players from five different countries. Granite Mountain is becoming known all over the disc golf world.

I guess there’s a line there somewhere. I mean I doubt I’m ever going to be principal dancer for the London ballet now; no matter how unreasonable I get about it. But even in my own life now I’m seeing things open up that only a few years back I would have thought ‘C’mon mate. As if. Get real.’

Here’s to setting some unreasonable goals and going after them anyway.