How To Climb That Mountain That’s Staring You in the Face

It begins with not looking down.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”

— Henry Ford

Have you been to hell and back too many times in your life? Have you felt like you were standing at the base of a mountain, your destination the other side of it, and you’ve not seen one bit of figurative climbing gear to be seen? — not one harness, not one descender, nope, not even one little crampon?

It might not be so bad if you could go around the mountain but you can’t. The only way to reach your destination is “up and over.”

So you’re standing there, staring at the top of that mountain, wondering how on earth you’re going to do this — and without any tools.

I know what it’s like to look up at the top of that mountain. You feel like you’ll never get there — but you know you have to do it; there’s no turning back. So now what?

If it’s too much to look up, turn your attention to the base of the mountain. Look at what’s right there in front of you. You’ll feel a little less pressured if you just focus on what you can achieve right now in this moment, and leave the rest to unfold as it will.

I know that sometimes when I’ve glanced up at that mountain top, I’ve felt immobilised. I’ve wanted to give up before I started.

So I grabbed onto the first bit of rock I could reach, picked up a foot and found a little step up. As long as I continued to do that, I made progress. Looking up was not an option. I could afford to look only at what was directly in front of me.

“Life is like a boxing match, defeat is declared not when you fall, but when you refuse to stand again.”

— Kristen Ashley

How Do You Begin?

Whatever it is that you’re facing, find the first rock that you can handle and take that small step. Leave the biggest, scariest rocks if you can, and get some of the smaller ones out of the way first.

The more of these you’re able to tackle, the less overwhelmed you’ll feel. Whether we’re talking about downsizing from an enormous house to a small one, or facing the numerous tasks and changes required to cope with a messy divorce or the tragic loss of a loved one, the principles are the same.

It’s helpful to begin by dealing with your emotions so you can get a handle on feeling overwhelmed.

Here are 5 steps to get you started with that:

1. Awareness: As Dr. Phil McGraw says, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.” Begin by making a list of your feelings; time to bring them out of hiding. Make sure you include the positive ones! Let’s not focus only on the parts that don’t feel great. Adding the positives will bring balance and perspective to the party.
2. Permission: Allow yourself to feel whatever comes up. There is no right or wrong. It’s better to acknowledge and release them than to keep them stuffed inside. That’s what keeps you stuck.
3. Compassion: Have compassion for yourself. Don’t judge yourself for any of your feelings. This will only add guilt and shame, making everything worse.
4. Acceptance: When you allow yourself to experience your feelings and examine where they’re coming from, you’ll have a better understanding of yourself. The more you’re able to do that, the better all aspects of your life will be. In particular, it will help you tackle that mountain.
5. Expression: Whatever you can do to express and release your feelings safely and constructively will help you move forward. Watching sad movies to encourage those tears of release, journalling, dancing, or any sort of art or creative expression (and you don’t have to be an artist for that — it’s purely about releasing feelings) can be helpful.

Once you’ve begun wading through the emotions that leave you feeling overwhelmed, you will begin to feel some relief. Your anxiety will diminish; you will feel stronger.

You’ll feel ready to tackle that mountain.

In order to begin moving forward and keep building momentum as you climb that mountain, do not look up. To do so might be paralysing. Better to make some headway first; this will help you in gaining confidence.

Just keeping grabbing for one small rock at a time, and don’t look up. One step at a time, one rock at a time…you will be energised by the fact that you are making progress.

Before long, you will feel ready to tackle the most challenging rocks. They might not put you at the top of the mountain right away, but you’ll be well on your way to reaching it. You might even be able to look up after that.

And the beauty of it is that you’ll also be able to look down and see how far you’ve come.

Here’s more on overcoming obstacles and facing fear:

Thank you to the Good Men Project and the team at Change Becomes You for publishing.

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Originally published at libertyforrest.com on January 19, 2022

©Liberty Forrest 2022