When I have a dream, vision or a project that’s on my heart, I now look at it in a different light. Let me tell you why.
Honestly, my wife keeps me on track. Meaning she knows when it’s time to stop and call family movie night. I think I could speak for most of us that we live pretty hectic lives. Because of that, we need to take a break, rest and give ourselves some down time.
I love to start projects, business adventures, physical challenges, anything that seems a bit out of reach for what I think I'm capable of. I love to dream! I enjoy turning my dreams into reality and prove to myself what is possible. I consider this LIVING. I work to continually challenge myself mentally, I aim to learn something new daily and stretch my mind.
I say all this because life is short and were only promised one life here on earth. As a husband and a dad, I try to take every opportunity I have to really live my life, serve my family and my community. So, movie night. We sit down to relax and my wife chose "Free Solo." If you haven't watched it, you should. This is a movie about Alex Honnald who climbed El Capitan with no ropes. Stop and think about this.
El Capitan is a 3000-foot vertical mass of rock from base to summit.
That’s a 300-story building! Try climbing a 300-story building with no ropes, hooks, ladder or anything to help you up or for protection in case of a slip or fall.
For perspective, others have done this feat with ropes and it’s taken days, even weeks. Alex scaled this mass of rock in 3 hours and 56 minutes. That’s amazing!
Here's a man with an enormous dream! I couldn’t help but to want to know more. How did he accomplish this? What was running through his mind? I'm sure others told him he was crazy and that his goal would be impossible.
After watching the documentary, I watched Alex on TED Talks. He got a bit more in depth on his mindset and how he planned this adventure. Although this is a short list, I believe he made some powerful points that I want to share. I believe that you can apply these to any dream or anything in your life that you think is impossible. Let me add, he actually said "this seems impossible." How many of us have dreams (big or small), desires and thoughts for our lives and we say, "that’s impossible."
I believe the thing that Alex did that we can all do is he took a lot of small steps to establish a massive forward momentum toward his goal.
Alex memorized every foot hold on this huge 3000' rock wall
Alex trained on this wall for 7 years. He needed it to be automatic!
Alex stayed calm and visualized the positive outcome
Alex fought all the what if’s.
He climbed just as he practiced and visualized.
At the top of the mountain he said, "This was the best day of my life."
Think about your life today and what would lead you to say, "This is the best day of my life."
The outcome of what Alex accomplished began with a thought, then a step, then a climb and it developed slowly as a string of habits put together to accomplish a massive goal. It happened over a seven-year span. I think this is important to draw attention to because it works the exact same for us. When we want to accomplish something, we just have to have the end in mind and start.
We don’t have to know every step before we begin. The steps come naturally as our mindset evolves, we practice, get better, stronger and learn new things along the way. I work with clients on the transtheoretical model of change. If you look it up, you will see that there are five phases. My clients typically start working with me in the contemplation phase. They know they need a change and want to evolve to the best version of themselves, but they don’t have a clear vision as to what that is or where to start.
The end of the year is coming up and most of us have a physical goal that we want to accomplish in the new year. Let me help you gain a clear vision and get you to a starting point. CLICK HERE to schedule a 20-minute coaching call. I’d love to discuss the number one challenge you are facing right now in achieving it.
Comments