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Sometimes you gotta go down a gear in order to go up a hill

note: I'm still not really sure about my understanding of gears

The first time I rode an ATV was on a beach in Mexico. Me and a couple friends were going through a mapped out terrain, following a guide. It was a fun experience. I didn't experience any hiccups until I reached the end of the journey. At the end point, there was a hill that I needed to go up. Since this was my first time on an manual ATV and I didn't know how gears worked, I went up the hill on a high gear. My intuition at the time was higher gear = faster + more power. While it does go faster, it doesn't necessarily gain more power. Me being naive, when my ATV wasn't getting up the hill, I shifted to a higher gear. I was stuck. I wasn't moving and my wheels were spinning out. After a minute or two, the guide came by and, to my confusion, told me to go down a gear. Once I did that, I got up the hill with ease. After during further research, I realize that lower gear = slower + more power and higher gear = faster, less power. On flat terrain, faster + less power is great, but on hills, more power is needed.

Similarly in life, sometimes you got to slow down and be more purposeful in order to overcome a challenging situation. We're often on high gear, trying to get to a destination as fast as possible. The problem with that is life is not a clear, straight path to success. There will be little bumps and steep hills, some so large they might as well be mountains. When you get to these points, you will not be able to simply go full blast ahead. You will find yourself stuck. In order to make it through these hills, you must go down a gear; whether that be slowing down, reflecting, or simply being more purposeful.