In the origins of rock climbing, after much trial and error, techniques were perfected and rules were created.
With those rules came the words always and never.
“Always do this.”
“Never do that.”
And as climbing has continued to evolve (including the gear and style) never and alway has changed.
Hard and fast rules maybe out the door in an alpine style. A 40 hour push to the summit with a storm coming in.
By contrast, going climbing with students in the Wasatch, in a more tame setting, you bet there are rules we don’t break.
The difference is in what kind of time is available, what are the conditions, what are the consequences. In other words, is it worth the risk?
Risk is different for everyone.
If you were to ask Alex Honnold, the greatest free soloist of all time, about his thoughts of climbing without a rope. He doesn’t think it is that big of a risk.
Far from how I view climbing. But I don’t free solo. Almost never. And when I do, it isn’t near as technical. I certainly don’t put our students in the kind of danger either.
The perception of risk is what we pursue at Pivot Adventure. The video below captures our philosophy.
You will always find those who think they know what your duty is better than you do.
Emerson said that.
It was true then and it is even more true today.
In our highly polarized world, everyone thinks they know better. That they are informed and don’t get fooled by fake news. No one thinks they have blind spots.
What we can do is chase an equilibrium of understanding. That with any argument there is an equal force for counter argument.
No need to throw away what you know just because there are holes in your position.
We just need evaluation. Constantly.
What if I am wrong?
What don’t I know?
Where are the blind spots?
You have to pick an axiom to start your line of thinking. With that are assumptions. With assumptions come holes. An endless pursuit of truth and progression is the journey we can embark on but without a destination to land.
Search out information to disprove what you believe. And if it turns out that your position holds water then you just strengthened it.
Creating something is hard work. It requires taking risks, uncertainty and emotional exposure.
At times, it can be a slog. Like this blog. Publishing one blog post per day. Day after day. It’s an ultra-marathon.
Truth be told, there are days I’m not in the mood to write. But I write anyway. Producing the best I can. The ironic thing is when I do create something I am proud of, I am more fueled to do it again.
So, what gives? When does practice all of sudden become work?
Lots of reasons. For one, we know when money is exchanged, you are now working. While no money is ever exchanged on this blog, there are many days it can feel like work. Motivation is a huge factor. It can wane simply because we didn’t get enough sleep the night before. If we didn’t do things we weren’t in the mood to do though, we wouldn’t make our bed in the morning. (Motivation is for amateurs for a reason.)
If we are going to pick a practice, liking being vegan or a grand chest master or religious, there is work involved.
The practice is work. The work is practice.
There is no blurry line between the two. Only how we are feeling.
I’ve never done it. But I have been told that the instructor you jump with doesn’t stand at the door and wait. When you start walking, you are jumping.
Why?
Everyone has second thoughts about jumping out of an airplane.
The longer you stand on the edge, the more time for doubt to creep in. Decide before you board the plane if you are going to jump.
I am saddened to hear that world renowned piano player, Keith Jarrett, won’t be able to play in concert anymore after suffering from two strokes.
After 50 years of playing in concerts all over the world (and producing the greatest selling piano album of all time), Keith is going through every piano players worst nightmare of not having the use of his left hand.
So, what’s next for the piano player who can’t play anymore?
I don’t know. I can’t imagine the blow this is. But Keith isn’t just a piano player. He is an artist. And when an artist can’t pick up her pen anymore, she tells her story in a new way. The medium doesn’t matter. He has more to say and the story is not over.
And neither is any of yours for that matter. Despite the blows that may come. The bad things that happen, they may change us but it doesn’t have to define us.
The country is far less divided than what we think it is. The problem is our perception doesn’t match reality.
Take for instance, this typical cartogram above; it is littered with irradiation, which causes bright colors to be larger and bolder than darker colors.
Another problem is that the space we occupy doesn’t vote. So, why on earth would we color in places like Death Valley? No one lives there and yet, it can appear that these places are occupied by respected parties.
Cartographers have worked to change how we view these maps. By simply changing the colors, it changed the perception of division.
In the middle of a pandemic, we also have an election, protests, riots all happening simultaneously. Needless to say, there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds. With that uncertainty comes fear.
Fear will never go away. It is in our nature to worry about what’s coming around the corner that may be the end of everything.
This election will come and go. And after today, you can check that off our list of things we have to worry about (for at least four more years). And yet, there is always something else on the list. When we solve one fear, we replace it with two more. Always trying to get to this homeostasis of safety, where there is nothing to worry about. Except that isn’t how things work.
You can’t ever finish your check list of things we are afraid of. The best thing we can do is untangle it, one strand at a time. We don’t have to overload ourselves in the face of 2020 uncertainties, we can separate them. Look at them independently. Instead of seeing the gigantic monster, we can properly assess each of them for what they are.
Unfortunately, the world isn’t a fairy tale. As much as we want for things to work in our favor and go back to “normal”, they don’t always do. In fact, they won’t. 2020 has changed us and we can’t go back to the status quo. Knowing that we don’t have to be married to any outcome but take it for what it is, we can change the narrative of what fear looks like. Not something that we can get rid of but somehow learn to make a home with.
The one we live and the unlived life. In between stands Resistance.
Resistance shows up everytime we stand up to do something important.
And the more important that thing is we are trying to accomplish, the more Resistance we will have to face.
If you want to become a doctor, you have to go through med school. That means ten years of schooling including bio-chem, massive amounts of debt, the MCATs in order to accomplish a lofty goal. No other way around it. You have to go through this Resistance to become a doctor.
So, if we know that this Resistance shows up every time we step into the unknown, we can use it as a compass. Our true north. When we are not sure what to do, where to go, we can look to Resistance and understand that this is the path that we need to take.
Here’s the thing, there is nothing you can read from this blog that you don’t already know.
Thanks to Google and the internet, there is more information than any person can digest. There is nothing out there you can’t find. There are no secrets.
The question isn’t what is it that I need to learn but what do I need to be reminded of?
If I want to quit smoking, I know need to stop smoking. Simple, right? Of course, if you ask anyone that has tried to quit they will tell you that it isn’t that easy.
What helps a reminder of why I want to live a life tobacco free. Sometimes constantly we need that reminder of why I am saying no in the short run and why this will benefit me in the long run.
Indeed, we are not only blinded to the obvious but we are also blind to our own blindness.
Skills not talent
Make no mistake these are skills. Skills that each of us can learn. Skills that we can practice. Skills are taught and learned. These are not things you are born with. You may grow to be 6’8 and be able to dunk a basketball but not everyone is born with that genetic makeup. By contrast, saying no to the marshmallow (or to a cigarette) that’s a skill.
This is good news. Good news because we can learn the skills we need to become the person we say we want to become. We can put the 10,000 hours in to become a world class expert.
Skills change our posture.
People like us do things like this
We can adopt this posture of people like us who do stuff like this.
Who are people like us?
This is a picture of the 1927 Solvay Conference. 29 of the best physicists were there. Curie, Bohr, Einstein…you name them, they were there. Except…
Except, those invited didn’t necessarily have the accolades or the popularity to be seated at the table with someone with the likes of Einstein. And yet, after the conference was over, 17 of the antendees went on to win Nobel Prizes.
17!
You weren’t invited to the conference because you they were Nobel Prize winners; they became Nobel Prize winners because they were invited to the conference.
Never ready
It never feels like the right time to show up. To stand on center stage in front of a crowd. Overtime, it can become habit to say, “I need more practice.” We all do.
Here’s the thing, you are never ready to be a parent. You are going to have your doubts, not feel good enough. And yet, the baby comes and you have to hold your child for the first time. That changes you.
There can never be enough reassurance. Instead, you have to jump put yourself out there. Too often, we waiting thinking the light is going to shine a path from A to Z without any potholes or detours. Life doesn’t work this way. You have to have to step into the unknown and let the light follow. You don’t need it be bright, just enough to see the next step and keep going.
Creating art, making work that matters, putting on a show…that takes emotional labor. Skills you can learn. The same skills you can deploy to make a difference in the world, to become the person you were born to be. To look Resistance square in the eye and push it out of the way.
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