Climb Your Mountain: Three Questions that will determine if you summit

When you look at this picture, what does it say to you? Does it inspire you? Maybe it is a metaphorical reminder of that big goal, the dream, or aspiration that you want to accomplish? Can you see yourself in the picture, victoriously looking over the terrain you climbed and traversed to get to the top?

And what is the mountain? Is it a career goal? A physical goal? Maybe it’s a financial goal? There are numerous mountains to climb. Some are a little higher than foothills, easily scaled. However, there are those dreams and desires that tower above like a Mount Everest, beckoning you, daring you to climb.

I did a little digging to find more information about Mount Everest. It’s the highest mountain in the world, towering at 29,029 feet tall. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest. Did you know that as of 2016, there had been just over 4,000 successful climbers to summit Mount Everest? More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit.

Climbing Mount Everest is not just an activity; you make the decision, go, and do. So it is with the life-changing mountain(s) that you want to climb. There may have been many who have attempted it in the past, but failed. However, there are those few who know the life-changing experience of breathing rare air on the summit.

So if you have that mountain in your mind (career, finance, relationship, health), here are three questions to answer to determine if you have it in you to summit.

1. What are you willing to pay?
Nothing of value is free. To summit, your mountain will require a price to be paid. Freelance journalist Anusha Subramanian, in her article Why the only thing tougher than climbing Mount Everest is raising the fund for it, shares excellent information about the cost of having the opportunity to summit Mount Everest. The training alone can cost a minimum of $8,000. The equipment required to scale Everest can range between $25,000 and $75,000, sometimes as high as $100,000. It all depends on the creature comforts a person desires along the trek. Finally, there is the “sherpa” or guide. Subramanian says that the typical cost starts at $20,000.

Well, those numbers disqualify a lot of people from even thinking about summiting Everest. But what about your metaphorical Everest? Have you considered the cost that you are willing to pay? It may not be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it SHOULD cost you. If not, maybe you should question if it’s a mountain worth climbing.

Here are some expenses to consider. Ask yourself, “How much am I spending or are am I willing to spend to get to the summit?” Books, Seminars, Conferences, Coaching, training experiences, health equipment, gym memberships all cost money. What are you willing to invest in your dream?

To be transparent, I personally spend, on average, around $300 to $400 per month on my continual climb of personal development. I purchase a lot of books, I have a membership to GiANT TV, an online learning platform, I don’t have a gym membership. But I do have a bike (cha-ching!)

2. What are you willing to give?
Not only will summiting your mountain cost you financially, but it will also require you to give yourself physically, emotionally, and even relationally.

Training is hard. Back in 2015, I heard Dr. John Maxwell say, “Everything worthwhile in life is uphill!” As people, we have a natural tendency to resist anything difficult or uncomfortable.

Let’s face it, the idea of going to the gym and being physically cut, or running a half or full marathon, tough mutter or Spartan race, or losing that stubborn twenty or thirty pounds that have accumulated over the years, or being a leader of leaders is each a really good idea.

However, when you think about getting up early to go to the gym, or putting on running shoes to trudge out in the heat (I live in South Florida where it is always hot) or cold, or saying no to the food that tastes so good, or doing the hard work of self-awareness and self-management to be the leader of leaders, they each lose a bit of their luster.

Summiting your mountain, your goal, your dream will require much of you. Jeff Olsen, in his book The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness, wrote, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” And, I would add, they do it consistently day after day.

Here is one more thought to consider as you wrestle with the question of what you are willing to give. Reaching the summit is not necessarily one big climb, instead it is a series of shorter climbs done numerous times. Michael Bungay Stanier in his book The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever writes,

“Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay didn’t just arrive at base camp and then zip up Mount Everest the next day. They went back and forth, up and down, for seven weeks making some progress, acclimating, establishing a new norm, retreating a little to gain strength, pushing forward to the next camp, and so on. If you add them up, they had over forty phases from their first day on the mountain until they summited.”

Too many people start the climb and abandon the mountain because they are not willing to give what it takes. As Austin Kleon puts it in Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, “Lot’s of people want the noun without doing the verb.” They want the title, success, accomplishment without doing the work. You can’t be a “marathon runner” without doing the running. Kleon encourages us to forget the noun, do the verb.

What does that mean for you? Is it giving up that extra hour of sleep to get up early to read, giving your body permission to hurt by pushing your self to new limits in exercise, doing the additional research and work to eat healthily and consistently saying no to the desert? Only you can determine what you are willing to give to summit.

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay

3. Who will help you summit?
Edmund Hillary was not able to climb Everest on his own ability and training. He needed a Sherpa. Sherpa is an ethnic group that lives in the most mountainous regions of Nepal and the Himalayas. Sherpas are regarded as expert mountaineers. Today, the term “sherpa” is used for almost any guide or climbing supporter hired for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, regardless of their ethnicity. It also is a word given to practically any kind of guide or mentor in non-mountain climbing endeavors. Sherpas’ exceptional climbing ability is the result of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes. They are acclimated to the altitude.

If you are going to summit your mountain, you will need someone to help you. Someone, who like a Sherpa can calibrate support and challenge to keep you moving upward. Find someone who had already summited the mountain you want to climb.

A Sherpa can not and will not do the work for you, but they can help you, challenge you, and encourage you along the journey. They will lend you expertise and guidance all the way to the top.

As a side, if what you are trying to accomplish is a bit like hiking the Blue Ridge mountains, you can probably find all the support and help you need on Google. But if the mountain you are wanting to climb is so big that just the process of climbing it will be life-changing, you need to find yourself a Sherpa, even if there is a price to pay.

I think this statement by Anusha Subramanian is fitting to close, “Climbing the Everest is the dream of most climbers until they realize the price that has to be paid — monetarily, physically and mentally. Not all can afford to climb the Everest.”

Are you ready to climb?