[…] michael wrote an interesting post today on The Journey to SuccessHere’s a quick excerptHilary and Tenzing didn’t just start at base camp and stroll up Everest. They took it in stages. Many stages. In fact, over the course of 6 weeks, they did it in 45 stages, back and forth to Base Camp, back and forth to camps 1 through … […]

[…] michael wrote an interesting post today on The Journey to SuccessHere’s a quick excerptWhile many of us have metaphorically climbed mountains and conquered peaks, Edmund Hilary was the first person to summit the highest peak in the world, Mt Everest. He died earlier this month and has been lauded - and quite rightly so … […]

As I push forward in my career as an adventure consultant, Hilary’s life is an inspiration. He conquered what many thought was impossible. Great point about the stages and developing strength as a team. The mention of Tenzing Norgay his sherpa is necessary. Tenzing being an expert and Hilary relied on him to guide him.
A true inspiration.
We cannot go alone on our journey, a sherpa, mentor or guide is necessary to grow as a person.

Hi

That was great …..very much motivating…..

Lest we forget what a heroic mountaineer Aleister Crowley was!

Ever since I’ve had big hurdles to climb, at 7 contracted polio, completely paralyzed then every thing came back but my left arm is paralyzed, mental & physical abuse. Overcame all that. Late in life became an artist, put myself into the rejection arena big time. My art is about my inner journey. I am grateful everyday because I know that I do GREAT art because it is a gift from God to me. Struggling is the path I had chosen for myself for the longest time but as you said about little steps lead to bigger things, I am growing to do just that.

You are so right in that when you see the whole story behind the “overnight success” stories that it usually was not an overnight success but many years of keeping on doing the next right thing. My generation (over 50 - but not too much over) has grown up with this drilled into our heads and I think most of us know that in the real world we have to earn our way and that even if we are extremely talented or gifted we still have to put in time for planning and preparation to reach our max - but what about our kids - Mine are 21 and 17. They grew up in a world of instant answers and access. How do we instill patience and the “reaping what you sow” value in them?

Not only do people not make it to the top in a single bound, but they also move up by sometimes going backward. How counterintuitive is it to go back down the mountain several times as a way to prepare yourself to reach the top? To carry the analogy over into life, steps that seem to be taking us away from our goals and dreams may in fact be exactly the preparation we need to actually achieve those goals. I guess it all depends how we view and respond to those “setbacks.”

I find this story inspiring also and I gained several insights from it. I considered the importance of the base camp and related it to having a strong foundation to fall back on when we are striving to push to the next level in life. Whether it be the next level of our career, or the next level of our spiritual development, we need to have a safe place or a place that allows us to regroup and prepare for our next push towards accomplishing our goal.

I am also reminded of the fact that retreating to regroup is not to be confused with quiting. Many times strong willed people beleive that retreat is weakness when it is, in fact, wisdom at work. We must be wise enough to know when to say timeout for reflection are reevaluation.

This article came synchronisticaly with my own personal insight this morning. I was feeling quite anxious about my lack of progress and lost as to what to do to make a difference. My message was to be as well prepared as possible, have a clear vision of the dream scenario and turn up every day to do the work. Knowing that achievements like climbing Everest took the very same path is quite reassuring.

I really like your work, very inspirational and uplifting- while also being motivating.
did you study dr. wayne dyer, and brian tracy at all? reminds me of them- like it!

Frank & Chris - I like how you’ve both framed Hillary’s story by focusing on the importance of base camp - and also by the “go forward by going back” comment. I hadn’t thought of either of those when I wrote the article, and I think they’re powerful insights

Cherise - thank you for the kind words and comparisons. I haven’t studied with Dyer and Tracy, but of course know their work. I suspect there isn’t much that’s fundamentally new in this space of self-development - but there are new ways to think about it and present that can strike an “a-ha!” chord with people

I liked it a lot, Michael — the Mt. Everest thing — and as to the stages thing, I totally agree. With me I started with a leap of faith to cut back on my day job — then gradually became a full-time musician — wrote songs and started recording CDs, started doing benefit concerts, etc. Sadly, the stage I seem to be at right now is, how do you pay the bills when money didn’t matter so much and now suddenly you have very little left. But I took a step today and asked my recording studio guy if he would work with me on a payment plan for the next CD, and he said yes! (Now to call Discmakers…) So my point would be — sometimes you reach a stage that doesn’t seem helpful, but if you think outside the box, you can find a way around that too! Hope my creditors agree! Grin.