Codie Sanchez recently told a story in an interview, which I found inspiring. Codie climbed a mountain called Mount Baker with a group of friends. This climb involves ice axes and crampons, and freezing temperatures. But she doesn’t like the cold, she doesn’t like heights and she doesn’t like camping. She did it anyway.
At the final stage of the climb, after two miserable and scary days, the group had to climb a vertical ice wall. And at this point Codie says she was about to cry, because she couldn’t think of anything she wanted to do less than this. But you can’t chicken out at this point, right? First, she wanted to tough it out. But then, she realized something…
Is this goal worthwhile? What am I trying to prove here? I am pretty happy, life is good, and I truly don’t have “Climb Mount Baker” on my bucket list. What if I do this thing that I am so scared of, just because everybody else tells me that I should? What if I fall down and break my legs – all for the sake of reaching the summit although I absolutely don’t care about the view? Doesn’t it take more courage to say No now, rather than giving into the perceived social pressure?
So, she tapped out, and walked back to the base camp.
For me, the takeaway is this: When you are exploring the unknown and you encounter challenges that need to be overcome – ask yourself if this is a mountain worth climbing. Find goals that are worthy of your sacrifices, your time and your energy.
People say, everything you want is on the other side of fear. But we should be sure that the thing on the other side is the thing that we really want. Otherwise, it’s best to tap out and go back.