Getting ready to climb that mountain

A roadmap for success, with hints of personalization along the way

Fitness for success

You need vision, a plan, grit, and belief. Vision to see the success, a plan to get there one step at a time, grit to keep you on the path, belief to bind it all together. And if you don’t yet believe, then what’s the alternative? Use that to steady your aim. You could go back down to where it’s safe: lame. You could pack up and go home, taking your ball. Or, you could do the work to continuously show up ready to play. The work to be fit and ready. So that when the opportunity presents itself, you pounce and make a meal of it.

The arena: a colosseum of contrast

You have no hope whilst outside the arena. Which is fine, and fun, by the way (it’s where the tailgating and spectator revelry happens). It’s mostly safe, and comfortable. The grand privilege of our time, experienced by many folks, is resting on the laurels of those who’ve come before us. Enough civilization has been made for everyone to coast. And if your standards aren’t too high, you’ll be happy with what the world has to offer in a minimalist light. But, if you’re human, you might not be. You might instinctively want more, to grow, to improve to stretch your wings (hang on — wrong species). If you want more, you need to get up off your ass and step into the arena. That colosseum of contrast is hard to work in because it requires pushing on the edges of our known reality.

The fight and climb

If you’re in the arena, looking to grow, you’re likely looking to pick a fight. With norms and conventions at least, and maybe even companies and industries, at least with yourself. The first fight is kicking your own ass into gear and showing up. Then you have the auspicious battle ahead of you, and lengthy climb to the top.

Focus: stick to the plan

But you steady yourself, looking through the hazy valley to see the sunshine at the summit. You realize it’s only one step after another, repeated ten thousand times. You steel yourself, clenching your fists and remembering there is no acceptable alternative. And you move, one wobbly step after another, because you must, because you believe it all.

Resolve

Deep down you know you can do this, despite what your head and the logic of experience say. In your gut, in your heart and in the fibres of your being, you know you will make it to the top.