Climb, fall, think, repeat, succeed

I was rock climbing out at Exit 38 near Seattle on Saturday, and had yet another "career lessons from climbing" experience (see past ones at "the two-inch principle" and "focus on what's in front of you").

The basic lesson, in case you're in a hurry, is "climb, fall, think, repeat, succeed."

The longer version is that I ended up climbing a route that was rated much harder than anything I've climbed before (it was a 5.11a). How? You guessed it. "Climb, fall, think, repeat, succeed."

It was already top-roped (where the rope is run through clips attached to chains bolted into the rock at the top of the route), so falling wasn't much of an issue.

And fall I did. Repeatedly. But a funny thing happened. Rather than getting frustrated because it was too hard, I started hanging there each time I fell and examining the route. It became a gradually unfolding puzzle.

I learned from what wasn't working, examined the rock for new possibilities that I had been missing, and tried different ways of moving my body through difficult sections (so much of climbing is about technique and balance).

The combination of the three ultimately got me to the top.

See any similarities betwen that and trying to do something amazingly cool with your career? For most people, creating a career that lights their fire is well outside the scope of their comfort zone. When they try something and it doesn't immediately work, there can be a tendency to back off and chalk it up to failure.

What if we, instead, took the puzzle approach, stepping back and saying, OK what did I learn about what's not working there? What am I missing? How could I move differently to make this happen?

By not being attached to succeeding in one fell swoop (i.e., climbing the route without falling), I didn't waste energy on being frustrated and was able to treat the falling (and subsequent pondering) as part of the process. And I was able to get to the top.

What if we did that in our careers?

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM