“It is not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves.” – Edmund Hillary (New Zealand Mountaineer / Explorer)
Sir Edmund Perceval Hillary became the first confirmed climber to summit Mount Everest. Alongside Sherpa Tenzing Norway, they reached the summit together on May 29, 1953. Five years later in 1958, as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, he reached the South Pole, and subsequently the North Pole, becoming the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest.
In 1960, he started the Himalayan Trust, which constructed many schools and hospitals for the Nepal people. Time Magazine named him one of the most influential people of the 20th century.
Yet, in all his adventures and explorations, he came to realize the mountain wasn’t the hard part…it was conquering the space between our ears. It was learning to live with our circumstances…and being ok with it. Hillary faced unimaginable obstacles on his epic climbs, but he came to appreciate that conquering his mind was vastly more important than trudging up a mountain.
In hard times, our minds give us every conceivable reason to quit. To turn around. To stop doing what we’re doing. To return to the comfortable, the normal. But that space is not where progress is made. Progress is made in the grit, in the mess, on the path up the steep hill. It’s when everything within you hurts, is begging you to stop, is wanting to turn around…and you tell yourself no, you must keep going.
For my son, as he transitioned to becoming a teenager, I took him on a “Rite of Passage” journey where we hiked the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim. The first day was a 7-mile hike from the North Rim where it was a cool 55 degrees, down to Cottonwood Campground (less a campground, more a flat spot to roll out your 1 inch think sleeping mat). Upon arrival, everything hurt. And lest I be unclear about ‘everything’…I literally mean everything. Specifically, my entire muscular and skeletal system. That 7-mile hike descended over 4,100 feet all while carrying a 38 pound backpack. Oh, and the temperature at the bottom? A mere 110 degrees.
I. Was. Done.
I started doing math in my brain about how much I’d damage my retirement plan if I paid for a heli-vac to get Everett and I out of the Canyon. I couldn’t believe what I had done. We had trained, but flat Ohio just didn’t have the right terrain to train for the Canyon. I laid on my mat, unable to sleep, unbearable pain, wondering what kind of child abuse I was putting Everett through, let alone the abuse I was putting myself through.
Everett’s breathing revealed he had fallen asleep.
I stared at the sky.
No campfires or electricity was allowed in the Canyon, so there was no light pollution…at all.
I’d never beheld such a sight.
Stars, galaxies, planets… the majestic glory of God’s creation… all on full display.
My brain connected that I still had 3 more days of this. 3 more days of hiking and pain awaited. In that moment, the tension between the space between my ears was tangible. I wanted to stop…but I knew I couldn’t. What kind of example of a man would I be to Everett if I quit now? How would I live with myself if I escaped this hard thing?
Somewhere, in the midst of those fading thoughts, my body began to drift to sleep. My concluding thought…we will finish.
And we did.
What hard thing that is seemingly unconquerable are you facing today?
What business problem or job situation is proving difficult to overcome?
What family tension is festering on the horizon?
What discipline do you want to implement in your life, but you’re afraid of failing at it, so you’re contemplating not starting at all?
Often, it isn’t the problem that’s the problem. It’s often how you’re thinking of the problem that makes it hard. Get your mind right. Get back Above the Line. Learn to live with being uncomfortable. Be ok with doing hard things. The hard is what makes it good. Remember, we often suffer more from imagination than reality.
Get up.
Take action.
Do the work.
Conquer it.
And live on purpose today.
