My fingers are struggling to type these words because I just went climbing with Will Green.
I last went climbing when I was 16. Whatever level of skill I attained during that one session back then had predictably worn off over the 12 years since.
Still, I really enjoyed it. But as with most things in life there was one thing about it I liked more than anything else. And it was this:
You get up on the wall, hands somewhere, feet somewhere. You look for where either your hands or feet need to move to next. An easy option doesn’t obviously present itself. A voice in your head says “Well, that’s it, it’s impossible.” A moment later, you realise it is possible, and you do it.
This happened over and over again today and I wanted to tell you about it. There is an evil voice inside your head and mine that has a kneejerk defeatist reaction to everything. It comes first, and it makes its point loudly, but that doesn’t stop it from being a lie.
Whenever you find yourself thinking something – big or small – is impossible and that’s there’s nothing to be done about it, give yourself a moment. Ask yourself if you really believe this to be true. If the impossibility holds up under closer scrutiny, then fine. But if not, then you just unlocked a piece of life that was previously hidden to you.
You just glimpsed reality, which is a much better place to play than kneejerk defeatism.