"The mind is everything. What you think you become." By Jen Wilby

Blessed is the man, indeed,
Who in this life can find;
A purpose that can fill his days,
And goals to fill his mind!

The world is filled with little men
Content with where they are;
Not knowing joys success can bring,
No will to go that far!

Yet, in this world there is a need,
For men to lead the rest
To rise above the "average" life,
By giving of their best!

Would you be one, who dares to try,
When challenged by the task;
To rise to heights you've never seen,
Or is that too much to ask?

This is your day--a world to win
Great purpose to achieve;
Accept the challenge of your goals
And in yourself, believe!

You will be proud of what you've done,
When at the close of day;
You look back on your battles won,
Content, you came this way!

Do you think you are limited by the way you think? Do you find yourself saying “I’ll try it some other time? Or I will leave it for now? During the first few years of my climbing, I progressed quite quickly, however I soon found myself in a plateau. Preferring to walk away, try things another time or just not try at all. I thought it was a laid back attitude and not caring about what I did and didn’t do. However, looking back, I was probably afraid of “failing”. In 2008 I barely climbed at all, preferring to walk away and go and do other things in life. The plateau was too hard to come out of and I wasn’t willing to work for what I thought I could do.

In 2012 I did the 12 month road trip around Europe – just to climb. During that time there were many up’s and down’s, and at points I hated climbing…however I re-kindled that love and fell in love with getting on something, it seeming impossible and then being able to do it. This opened up doors for me. However it wasn’t until year I really started to go for it, not just physically, but mentally also.

Training can be mentally challenging, pushing yourself to train, even if you have had a hard day at work and all you want to do it sit down and do nothing. That would be the easiest thing. Training for Switzerland was tough, there were times when I thought I wanted to do anything other than pull on some wood, or do more core work. However, knowing I had Switzerland in the pipeline pushed me on. 

Switzerland really unlocked my metal attitude. I switched from just trying something and walking away, to trying it, knowing I can do it and then doing it. Yes, you have to understand there are some things, you may not be able to do, but how do you know unless you try?

I ask you – how many times have you watched your mate climb something and decided not to bother getting on it? Even though before this, you liked the look of it and wanted to climb it? I suspect the answer, for most of you, will be many times. I did this a lot when I first started climbing, if my climbing partner made it look hard, I wouldn’t get on. How did I know I couldn’t d to it? Or that I would find it just as hard? I didn’t! This is key – try it, what’s the worst that can happen? Failure? Depends what you class as failure. Not doing it? The other side of the coin is you have just put some more moves into your memory bank and have more climbing knowledge than if you didn’t get on it at all. Imagine all those times you’ve walked away instead of giving it a go – put all those times together and that is probably quite a lot of time that could have been spent on the rock.

Since September I have a new focus, and I get on something, firmly believing I can do it…all its going to take is time. The first instance of this was West Side Story; I tried it until I did it. The second instance is Electrical Story at Burbage South. I got on this in April this year and could not physically do one of the moves. I came back to it this weekend, still not being able to do the move, but this time, rather than walking away, I looked at what was going wrong and what I needed to do to make it happen. Eventually I found myself at the top – all it took was an hour of work and the right mindset.

 

Electrical Storm

Next time you talk yourself out of something, catch yourself, and change that thought. Get on it and give it a go! No one cares if you fall off, and no one cares what you look like!

Since my last blog – things have changed. We rented the house down South off and have moved into my folks house up North. It was a scary decision, leaving everything we know behind, but we know it is the right one. I am super exicted to be close to St Bees, Northumberland, the Peak and North Yorkshire and to explore all the great crags Britain has to offer!

I believe that every year you should do something that gets you out of your comfort zone and points you into the direction you want to go. In 2011 I made the decision to jump in the van and go climbing in 2012. In 2013 I’ve made the decision to leave the South and head north…who knows what 2014 will bring, but I’m very excited about it!

Look back on what you’ve done, has it taken  you to where you want to be?

Happy New Year & Happy Climbing x