First thing, let me tell you what that picture does not mean.
You probably think it’s a seductively poppy pic posted to entice you to read some clatter about confronting your fears, about doing something that scares you everyday so you can wake the sleeping warrior inside, and manifest some marvelous metamorphosis that will rocket you out of the mundane mess we call the day-to-day 9 to 5, which we all know is really from the time you wake to the time you pass out, and suddenly become the better (insert gender of choice here) you were destined to be.
Nope.
It isn’t. All that confront your fears stuff is valid – and future narrative fodder – but truthfully most of us employed Americans probably couldn’t find something in our daily drudge that would scare us short of a naked saunter across a morning commute freeway. Sorry, but it’s true and you know it.
So, why the climbing picture?
Simple.
It’s to remind me, and perhaps you, about being present.
It is a pinch on my mental backside so I don’t forget that I can’t really be present if I’m not (able to be) myself.
It is about showing up.
It is about being an authentic human, always.
For years, guiding climbing expeditions was my vocation, a vocation that allowed me to visit some of the most austere and sporty places on our planet and work a job that is legitimately terrifying — at times. Few ‘jobs’ require pure presence like guiding a climb. The same holds for those participating in the climb. The guide is the leader, the essential equivalent of corporate leadership in our traditional work environments. Participants are commonly considered to be clients. I never saw it that way.
Now stretch that analogy with me, will ya, stretch, but do not break.
To me, climbing clients are team members, more akin to teammates, to mission driven employees, than clients. Yes, the transactional dynamic – the who pays whom for what – does not hold as purely as it does for the boss-employee paradigm (is that paradigm valid in 2024?) but the underlying idea is the same.
Boss <-> Employee
Client <->Guide
Success on a climb is clearly defined and can be sorted into 3 baskets, a Tipitaka1 of truth, if you will: (1) summit and live, (2) not summit and live, (3) summit/not summit and die. Of the three choices, the latter is way less preferred.
Success in the office may seem a bit more nebulous, but it really isn’t: (1) keep your job and advance, (2) keep your job and never advance (3) lose your job, your lover, your money, your kids, your home, your insurance, your self respect and end up living in your soon-to-be repossessed car. Here again, the latter is far less favorable than the former two.
The CRUX:
In my experience, be it in harness or office chair, boardroom or bunkhouse, the surest way to find yourself in the flailing flimsy floof of choice #threes, waiting for the moment of your certain demise, is to show up as any thing other than the authentic you.
But we do.
We wax to cover where we waned. We patch the CV, the skill set, the holes, and fresh paint the resume walls so the cracks don’t show, and it works sometimes for along time. Sometimes not.
Being present is more than a state of physical presence; it is the encapsulation of profound mental and emotional awareness, a willful intention to be your authentic self in the immediate now. Presence means consciously engaging with the current moment. It requires us to stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, and instead, to focus completely on what is happening. It requires the authentic self.
Being present is also about cultivating a deeper understanding of ourselves. When we are fully present, we are more attuned to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. This self-awareness not only helps us navigate life’s challenges more effectively but also enables us to savor moments of joy and fulfillment more intensely.
Further, being present is crucial for personal growth and fulfillment. It empowers us to make conscious choices aligned with our values and aspirations, rather than simply reacting to external pressures or internal anxieties. By embracing the present moment, we take ownership of our lives and shape our own narrative.
On a climb, the paint peels quickly, reveling a rutty patina as thin as a frost covered crevasse and equally as deadly — which takes us back to the pic, dear reader, for moments after that image was snapped the ‘leader’ stepped across a meter wide snow-bridge below which waited a chasm of pure terror, if not injury or death.
In the office, it may take more time than a leg-crushing free-fall into a gaping crevasse, and the terror chasms might be less easily identified than hidden frozen ice fissures (or not). Regardless, your demise is no less certain.
You ain’t present if you ain’t you.
Here’s the rescue rub: it doesn’t have to be that way.
If you’re in a work environment that has seduced you into creating an unauthentic persona, perhaps to please a boss, bring coworkers closer, make your numbers, maintain the always safe, but rarely fun, ‘business as usual’ or to improve your chances of reaching the next level, stop. Stop now.
Show up, but show up as yourself, the true you. Be it in relationships or the office or on that crevassed glacier, just show up as you. The rest will take care of itself. Yep, you still might fall. Shi*e happens, and the best laid plans of mouse and man, and gravity is a constant 9.8m/s2 and we all F-up, but your chance of success is better when you are the true you. 9 out of 10 times, the authentic you will be accepted, and you will thrive. If it is not, then your choice is clear: it is time to move on.
1 The Tipitaka (Pali (ti, ‘three’) + pitaka ‘baskets’)) is the collection of primary texts that form the foundation Theravada Buddhism.
