A friend of mine recently took advantage of one of the social media coupon offerings for a free intro lesson and two week membership to an indoor rock climbing place. The price was right (free) and I had never tried it before so upon the invite I comitted and went a couple of weeks ago for the safety class and to start climbing. It was a great experience and besides not being able to move my hands or arms for a few days it was fun as well.
One of the big things I realized about climbing is the importance of communicating with your climbing partner and planning your climbing route ahead of time as much as possible.
The communicating part is key not only because your climbing partner is holding the rope and harness that is this only thing that prevents you from hitting the ground when your arms give out (may have happened once or twice) or you jump for that hold a few feet up and miss. Communication also plays an important role in successfully climbing your “route” (climber’s term I picked up) to the top.
Once you are climbing even if you tried to plan your route beforehand things have changed. That grab is not really what you thought it was or maybe that lateral leap you had planned just doesn’t really make sense from this height. So, you communicate with the person below you to try and find alternatives, to change, update your route and make it through successfully.
Climbing in that way is a lot like life. You may have your route or path planned, but things change. Things you didn’t see coming actually happen and we are forced to stop, hold on for dear life and modify our planned path to accomplish our goal.
The communication aspect of dealing with these life changes comes in many forms, including talking with your family, friends, advisors, and others which will help you modify your route or plan to still achieve your goals. Otherwise, just like climbing, you may fall (also may have happened more than once) in achieving those goals.
