#468: Staring at a Monster

There is a giant of GIANTS who lives in California’s Yosemite National Park.

He’s a granite mountain named…Half Dome.

Half Dome reaches 8,839 towering feet into the sky. To climb the final 400-crazy feet to the top, one is forced to inch up the mountain by using hand cables that have been hammered into the slick granite surface. The intimidating incline is a scary 45-60 degrees.

“Holy Sh*t! I’m going up…THAT?!”

But before you reach the mountain’s base, the cables and the final 400-foot climb, you have to first finish a 7.2 mile hike that rises 4,500 feet in elevation. That’s how you arrive at Half Dome. There’s no bus to drop you off. No giant parking lot in front of the mountain. Your legs brought you here…and your heart will take you up.

I’ve gone up twice…and its as daunting an adventure as I’ve ever ventured.

On my second trip up, I led a group of four. I wanted to climb the mountain again, and I found three others who wanted to do it with me.

With legs quivering after our 7.2 uphill miles to reach the base, we stared up at what we came to do. Ominous. Personally, I didn’t want to wait too long before going UP because the more I stare at a “monster” the scarier the monster gets.

Half Dome needs no extra help in getting scarier.

I made the move to start going up the cables first.

With no one in front of me, all I could see was UP. All I could see was the steep, terrifying, slippery, granite monster. Those following me barely registered on my awareness meter. The mountain was all I saw. And it was psyching me out.

I was psyching me out.

I pulled myself up the first 20 feet. The energy THAT took seemed to be more than I could handle. I began to feel the mountain’s crazy-ass steepness more than ever. My legs were extra wobbly. My arms felt weak on the cables already. Seeing how far and HIGH I had to go became overwhelming.

My brain hit the brakes.

“Holy Sh*t! I can’t do…THIS!”

Total HUGE freakin’…OVERWHELM.

I couldn’t go up first.
I needed to follow someone.
I needed to create race horse blinders.

Doug stepped forward.
I stared at his back as he led.
I never let him get more than a few feet ahead of me.

All four of us made it up.

Some challenges are tougher than others.
Here’s two ideas I use to handle my tough ones:

1. I block out my OVERWHELM. I focus on the 3 feet in front of me and not on the 400 feet I still have to climb.
2. If I start to feel I can’t succeed, “turning back” is not my next option. Finding a strong partner and letting his/her energy pull me is.

Overwhelming goals, bad weeks, difficult personal challenges…
they don’t stop us from climbing the giant of our GIANTS.

Unless we agree to let them.

PS: The right side of the mountain at the top of this page? Yep.