Rock Climbing

Nearly thirty years ago, I went rock climbing for the very first time with a group in New Mexico. It sounded exciting and challenging! Following a day and a half of training, which they referred to as, “bouldering,” we had been prepared to climb! Then reality set in.

When climbing a mountain, you just can not go from the bottom to the best in five simple actions! There are obstacles and there are set backs. You also make mistakes. And, even although I was tied to a rope, and could not fall off the mountain, at times it was scary.

Anybody who has ever climbed knows that you can easily end up where there is no place to go, or so it appears. You are stuck. But quitting is not an selection.

You cannot just stand there and feel sorry for your self. It is pointless to wonder what you did wrong that got you into such a predicament. You cannot go back down, so you are forced to grow to be remedy minded. In other words, you uncover a way to get to the top. You figure out a way to succeed.

I held on for dear life that day, on my very first climb, stuck about three quarters of the way to the leading. It seemed that there was no location to go, and nowhere to put my hands or feet so that I could continue upward. But after a couple of minutes had passed and I realized that I had to do one thing, I began to look once again for a solution.

I then noticed a rock sticking out, that I may well be able to grab with my hands and pull myself up to where I could have a modest foothold. I called to the instructor at the top and asked him if that rock would hold my weight if I pulled myself up. I can nonetheless keep in mind his answer, “I do not know. Why do not you try it and see?”

]]>

In life we a lot of times really feel, “stuck.” We wonder how we got into the situation that we are presently in. It is in those times that we require to be careful about how we define it. Have we failed, or, is it just a setback?

W. Clement Stone once stated, “Defeat is in no way the exact same as failure unless and until it has been interpreted as such.”

Setbacks, adversity, or becoming stuck are in no way an indication that you are a failure unless you choose that those points define your life as a failure. For folks looking for an excuse to be a failure, there are usually plenty to choose from.

But if you want your life to be successful, setbacks, adversity and becoming stuck are simply stepping-stones to your good results. Success minded men and women accept those kinds of factors for what they really are. They know that for them, they are only temporary.

There are countless stories of males and females who faced setbacks and became extremely productive. Possibly one of the most known is that of Abraham Lincoln. A number of “lists” that you can find on the internet are exaggerated, and some of the items are misleading and untrue. But Abe did indeed face a quantity of difficult times and setbacks. Here are a couple of that I have located to be accurate.

His mother died when he was nine. He was co-owner of a common store in Illinois that went out of business. The girl he loved and wanted to marry, Ann Rutledge, died.

He failed in his first attempt to obtain political office for the Illinois state legislature. He did not get the land officer position that he wanted.

In two separate election years, he did not get elected to the United States Senate. He did not get enough votes to be his party’s nomination for Vice-President of the United States.

But, he was elected president of the United States in 1860 and in 1864.

It doesn’t matter what others feel or say about you. How you define your own life and circumstances each day is quite important. Define all your setbacks as merely temporary and refuse to even use the word “failure.”

By the way, I did grab onto that rock, and when I did, it moved, just a small! I then decided to grab it again. I realized that the worst that could happen was that it would come out and it might bang me up a little. I knew I couldn’t fall off the mountain because of the rope, so I pulled on that rock again!

It moved, just a little, but it held me as I pulled myself to the subsequent foothold. Several minutes later, I was at the top. I informed the instructor that the rock sticking out a number of feet below us was loose. “Yes,” he mentioned quietly, “I noticed that on my way up earlier.”