What is your mountain?
So, this is a bit literal, but I watched the movie Everest recently, and I kept thinking to myself something along the lines of “no disrespect, but I would neeeeeeever want to do that”. I mean, I kind of get the appeal abstractly, but that particular challenge just doesn’t call to me. (Like, y’all would have to leave me behind so early that I would probably be super embarrassed if I wasn’t so freezing freaking cold.) But it got me thinking about the proverbial mountains in all of our lives: we get to stand at the base of each of them, and decide, “can I live my whole life without seeing the view from up there?” A lot of the time, the answer is yes. And then there are the other times—when something rises up in me and it’s a deep, clear NO; “No, I can’t stop thinking about the view from up there and it’s time to start walking”.
What are the challenges that were made for you? What dreams are so in line with your soul-purpose that it is worth the risk of throwing yourself into them completely? This is what coaching is about for me. It is about defining and deepening your values, and finding your sea legs to stand in them unwaveringly. Then the process of assessing risk and alchemizing fear begins, because there are these irresistible mountains to climb, for each of us. And the question becomes: what do you care about enough to stare down all of your doubt, and fear, and stories of unworthiness? THOSE are your mountains.
And I think this is where a lot of the burn-out I sometimes see in clients stems from—many of us are out in the world climbing the mountains that other people think we should climb, or that society values, or that somebody told us we couldn’t climb. So of course it’s grueling and lonely, and of course the view isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, if we even make it all the way up there! So, think about it: what are the challenges you dream about, the ones that light a little spark in your belly and pull you into an aliveness that is almost scary? The ones that you recognize as yours, and then quickly shake off with a wide-eyed “but I could never do that…”
Because maybe you could…
(Pssst: you totally could!)