Each morning I do a 45-minute walk with one of the members of my coaching group.
It's one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to know them and learn about the cool things going on in their lives. This morning on my walk, the guy I was walking with told me how he was headed to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and he knew I had previously hiked it, so we talked about my experience.
I have a million lessons I learned on that mountain, but I shared with him one that I thought I'd share with you.
It is all about mindset.
The mountain is a 6-day hike, with the first five days hiking 9-10 hours per day. Pretty basic, one step after another. But that 6th day is one you will never forget. You are towards the top now and that's the summit day. You start at 11 pm and hike all through the night. Usually, you arrive at the summit around 10:00 am the following day.
The group I went with had six military guys; three marines, two green berets, and a guy named Q who had his leg blown off in Iraq and was climbing it with one leg. Another story for another time. The other group was 10 NFL football players from the Waterboys charity and me.
The part of the climb I told him about was the night before we submitted. We were all standing around and one of the guys started asking everyone who we thought wouldn't get to the top. The group leader was immediately irritated by it and said, "What are you talking about? We are all going to the top."
This guy, one of the military guys, turned to me and said, "I think it's going to be you." I wasn't offended; it was the predictable answer. The other guys were marines, special forces, and professional athletes.
I was the realtor.
What he didn't understand at that moment was what I already knew; this hike wasn't physical... it was all mental. I smiled back and said, "Just so you know, they'll have to carry my dead ass off this mountain before I turn around."
See, I knew this mountain would be one of my life's hardest nights.
I made up my mind immediately at the beginning... I was going to the top.
The craziest part of the whole night was about 6 hours in, the guy was gone... I asked a few people what had happened and they said he wasn't feeling good, so he turned back. He ended up being the only member of our group that didn't make it to the top that night. Q made it with his one leg, and we had two 340 lb football players that pushed through and made it to the top.
So what happened?
His very line of questioning showed you his mindset.
He had made it possible that you might not reach the top.
It was an acceptable outcome to quit on the mountain.
Him trying to deflect his worries and fears on others was a mirror of what was going on inside his head and heart.
Make up your mind today before that summit night hits and the challenges come... Because you don't want to negotiate with yourself when you are in the fight, do it before, and you have already won.
