I was able to attend a team building at Outward Bound Zimbabwe (O.B.Z) in Chimanimani. It was an amazing experience and these are some of the lessons I learnt.

1. Focus on the goal and minimize distractions.
This is best described during the activities that involved heights. As you climbed to the top and you are going higher, if you looked down the distance from the ground would overwhelm you and might discourage you. So the best thing to do is focus on the goal at hand. Whether it's the platform at the top of the pole, the top of the mountain or the platform at the top of the ladder.

2. Support system (belayers)
These are the people in your life that want to see you succeed against the odds. As I climbed the pole, mountain or ladder, I always had people holding the rope for me. They pulled my rope and I felt them pull, this gave me comfort knowing that they were there and in the case, I would stumble they will be there to stop me from failing too far.

3. The people who follow will do better than the ones who came first (don't get jealous)
In some of the activities, I was one of the first people to go and I would stop a lot or get lost and stumble a lot. The people who followed would do better than I did. Being the first is not easy and requires a lot of courage to lead the way. An example was during rock climbing, I went first and took a bit of time to get to the top but I paved the way. The people who followed had a path to follow which made it easier for them.

4. Study those who come before you and optimise their ways.
Like I said before being first is not easy but you are leading the way for people to follow. As for the people who follow study those who went before you and ask yourself where you can do better. A great example is a friend who did the pole challenge fastest. He told us that he watched people that went first and meditate on ways he could do it and this resulted in him doing it quickly.

5. Trust in those who are leading but question when things seem unclear.
We had instructors during these activities and they guided us through. For upselling, we had to lean back against and decent the mountain. We had an instructor (Coach Joe) who held a rope for us and encouraged us to go. We had to trust him, that all he did to get us to the point was correct and when we were not sure we asked he explained the use of the things attached to us. This gave us the trust and made the descent less scary.

I also learnt to respect everyone, differences are strengths not weaknesses, effective communication, planning, forecasting and mostly a positive attitude can go a long way in making anything not seem as difficult as it is.

I leave you with a quote :
"There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less."
~ Kurt Hahn