Me sulking nature, views…post an amazing & hard climbing day in Spain over 1.5 years ago.

I have sucked in my attempts for tiny tid-bits moments of reflection week to week.  I am a scientific, picky, technical writer by trade, but fully expressive and fun at blogging.  I sometimes miss sight of this, and procrastinate so I can sit down and write that super long story about something super inspiring. But the truth of the matter is, something truly inspirational comes from within, there is no need for research, or thousands of words later, just tiny thoughts and lessons learned later can just be enough to write a solid inspirational piece.

Me, pre-injury, no fear, and no climbing unless its pushing beyond my limits.

So….I sat down and jotted a few (or more!) topics that have really inspired or impacted me this year.  And each week I will again, attempt to write my life, my journey, and reflect.  I will continue to interview, review and write longer articles, but the cover will continue to be reflective and short and not twice a year, but rather more!

I often talk about my finger injury I was challenged with for some time now, because I have learned so much as a result from it this year. Thus, I will continue to add a few reflection lessons learned kind of entries based on this.  One important lesson has taken me back to a simple question I have asked myself recently: What do I value in my climbing?

Prior to injury – That I finally could send some awesome, harder graded climbs.

Post injury – I am happy to climb on beautiful rock, with beautiful views, while building precious moments with heartfelt climbing friends. 

Me sulking nature, views…post injury, after a day where every climb beat me up with endless Bruce Lee karate chops.

Even though I have never been a climbing snob, I did at some point get carried away with grade chasing and put more value in that than I really needed to.  After my injury, I started to lap 5.5 birthday laps and had to be happy with it or I could just sit it out for ½ a year and not climb at all.  Kind of like a kid who is crawling….then when they start walking, they see the same world, yet in a totally different way.  That happened to me with climbing those 5.5 birthday laps.   Having been taken back  what seems like 100 steps backwards allowed me to re-discover what I value in climbing again.

In no way am I saying there is no value in achieving a huge goal that happens to be a harder grade. But I have learned in my personal climbing journey the importance to take that 100 mental and psychological steps back and reflect on the simples things. One of the many important things I now like to reflect on is how to continuously figure out along my journey finding the perfect balance between what is really important to value while also trying to challenge myself.

Me sulking nature, views…post a stronger and new climbing me.

I am committed to trying my best to take that ‘100 steps back’ from time to time, to keep grounded, keep humble and keep climbing happy.