“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”

-Barry Finlay

It’s early morning and the only companions outside with you are the bald eagles flying overhead, the bounding deer up the hillside, and your trusty pup in the co-pilot seat of your car. The windows are down and the warm air is blowing through your hair while your car stereo busts out your favorite tunes. You find yourself giddy and nervous, eager and scared for the journey that lays ahead.

For today you have signed yourself up to climb a mountain and you know what awaits you will be challenging, but you think and hope it will be worth it. So here you go, on your way to put one foot in front of the other, over and over and over, hoping that you not only reach the top but along the way you become a better human as well. Now, whether that’s a real mountain or a metaphorical one for business or life, the lessons learned while climbing any type of mountain can be useful in all areas of your life. So read on to hear some valuable lessons about climbing mountains in life and business.  

The Climb
Before you can begin climbing your mountain, you must first find out what mountain to climb. This in itself is a huge challenge but well worth it in the end. So I encourage you to take some time to figure out what mountains you are wanting to climb in life and then take some time to figure out WHY you want to climb those mountains. You’ll need the Why on your journey up. And if you need help figuring out what mountains to climb or why to climb them, please reach out to me! From real mountains to life ones (business, cancer, relationships, etc.) I LOVE talking to people about this! 

Your Thoughts are not Real
You’ve thought about climbing this mountain (or starting this business) for a while now and the time is here. You wake up and are excited but nervous, eager but hesitant. Your brain is bouncing between the thoughts of all the cool things you’re about to experience to also being filled with doubt. Your mind is going to try to convince you to not go. Even if you do this all the time you’re still going to have some thoughts and feelings trying to convince you to stay home, it’s self preservation happening as the mind is protecting you from the challenges ahead. 

Some of my thoughts on a recent morning climb of a real mountain (Kelly Mountain in Riggins) were: 

• I’m so excited!!!! I get to go hike with just my pup for a few hours, yay!! 
• Did I choose the right mountain to climb today? Is it going to be worth it and cool or should I just do the other one I did last year that I loved? No, I’m doing it and it will be fine and great. It will actually be awesome!
• This is going to hurt, but this will be a good hurt and worth it. Bring on the type two fun.  
• It’s going to be really hot today. There are snakes in this area. There have been a lot of ticks lately. Is the breakfast I eat every day going to sit right for this adventure? Maybe this is a bad idea. It’s Mother’s Day, I should be at home with my kids. I’m a bad mom. 
• No, Tony said I should go and get some me time. This will be good for me, I’ll be a better mom by doing this. I have a great podcast I can listen to and think about life and my business which is like me working, so it’s okay, I shouldn’t feel guilty because I’m being productive. 
• Will I have enough water, maybe I shouldn’t do the entire thing.  

And so on! All morning. Is this just my brain doing this or does your brain bounce back and forth like this during challenging times? Whether I’m flying solo on this one or not, I work through it by remembering: 

• You are not your thoughts.
• Just because you have those thoughts doesn’t make them REAL.
• Turn them off and start climbing. 

Just Keep Climbing
So you’ve pushed through the worry of doubt, the mind trying to convince you to stay home and you are on the trail. Yay!! It’s so exciting! A little scary, but you’re doing it. And then you come around the corner and look up and that’s when you see it, you see the mountain with your challenging journey ahead of you and you may think, holy crap, I have to climb that! 

At this exact moment on my hike in Riggins I was deep in thoughts about my current business. I’d had some challenging times recently and I was thinking about the road ahead of me and felt a little despair of how hard that road was going to be.  At that exact moment as my head was down and I was just climbing away, I realized the trail I was on disappeared. Great. Lovely. Then I looked up and saw Kelly Mountain, the mountain I had set out to climb and I thought to myself, “holy shit, this is the mountain I’m climbing today? It’s literally towering over me right now, like how is that even physically possible?” And to top it off, as I was trying to find the trail, I instead found some animal bones at my feet.  All I could do was laugh about the metaphor of the thoughts in my head of my business feeling in despair and the now new thoughts of despair for my current predicament of climbing this mountain.

Yes, I considered turning around and going to sit by the beach for a few hours. 🙂 

Instead, I took a moment, looked at my map, made a plan and put one foot in front of the other to just start climbing. 
Why?

• Because I knew it would be worth it in the end.
• I knew nothing great comes from comfort zones.
• I knew if I chose that beach over that mountain I would regret it and always wonder what if.
• I knew I would gain so much more by doing this hard path rather than the easy path.
• And I knew, this journey today will help me with my business journey tomorrow. This journey today will help me with my life journey in the future. Because here is the thing, climbing a mountain is hard, but so is being a business owner, or fighting cancer, or raising a newborn, or many, many, many other things you’ll be asked to do in life.  Each hard challenge you face head on will only help prepare you for the next hard obstacles ahead of you.  I promise you, from my own personal experience when I was fighting cancer, I called upon those hard mountains I climbed, those exhausting days in the gym, I thought of those and how I made it through that day, I can make it through this day. 

So, up we go. 

Ignoring the Boogyeman Fears
As I ascended up and up and up, with some occasional downs, here is a recollection of the thoughts of my mind, the boogeyman fears that were still trying to bring me back to comfort: 

• I’m doing it! Look how far I’ve come, oh wow, what a pretty flower. This is so great, see I’m so glad I didn’t turn around. 
• The trail is gone again. Am I even on the right trail? Is this even the right mountain to climb? 
• This is HARD. I saw other people up here once, how did they do it? They made it look so easy.
  • It was probably just as hard (or even harder) for those people before me. If you find yourself struggling to achieve  the top of your mountain, reach out to those before you as I bet they would happily share their lessons learned and experiences to help you climb your own similar mountain.
    • Before I started Elevate TC Services I talked to another TC who owned her own company and she changed my life. That 45 minutes she spent with me inspired and motivated me to have the courage to go start my own company. I bet others would like to help you along your journeys. 
    • If you are someone who is already at the top of your mountain, make sure to help those below you. 
• I’m going to do this, I’m pretty close now so there is no turning back!
  • Wait, now it’s really windy up here and even more sun exposed. Maybe I should turn back because what if my sunscreen wore off and I’m getting burned. My legs are throbbing too, maybe this is too much for me to do today. Oh crap, why does Ember (my dog) have blood on her, see this is just a sign this is not the right day to summit, time to turn around. 

**These were all boogeyman fears**. Yes, maybe they could be real concerns that are good reasons to turn around but when I stop to truly think about them (or inspect the bleeding dog who just had a gum bleeding) I came to realize it’s still my brain trying to convince me to go back to comfort and that I shouldn’t listen to it.  I share my inner dialogue with you as I hope it helps you realize even those climbing mountains daily are having doubts and struggles too! 

The Top Isn’t That Cool
Welp, we did it, we’re here. We’re at the top of Kelly Mountain and honestly, it’s not that cool. The view isn’t that great and there is no marker to indicate this is even really the top. Huh, was that even worth it? I sat down and had some M&Ms and thought about the journey up and the let-down at the top. Here’s the thing though, in that moment I was:

• Proud & Stoked & Relieved
  • It may not be that cool but I was damn proud of working through the boogeyman fears, the physical pain, and figuring out how to get here despite the challenges.
  • And even though it was a lame summit, I had some really amazing views on the way up and I’ll have even better ones on the way down. I’m stoked to have made it and what I gained along the way (inside the head mostly). 
  • And I’m relieved it’s over and I can head down now. I’m relieved I made it as this will help me next week when I journey on an even harder mountain to climb.    

Don’t Trip on the Way Down
It’s easy to think all the work is done now that you made it to the top, but honestly, that’s typically when the hardest work can come. You’re tired from the journey behind you and you still have another journey to get out. Also, it’s easy to let your guard down and there are still challenges that may trip you up on your way down (like on my hike when I had two rattlesnakes slithering across the trail, ran out of water in the hot sun, and lost the trail multiple times again).

But just like the journey to the top, it’s important to remember to just put one foot in front of the other. Just keep going because it will be worth it in the end!  As I sat in my car on the way home I felt bliss and euphoria for the journey behind me. It was a hard day, but a good day. 

So wherever you may be in your journey, whether that’s climbing a mountain at work, home, or a real physical mountain, I hope these lessons help you get there. I also hope you someday take the time to climb real mountains (even if it’s just your local hill), because I believe it will help you for any future mountain you have to climb in life!  

What is your favorite “mountain” you have climbed in life?