Goals, ice-bath, and the mystery of why we climb.
“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.” That sentence followed me up a frozen mountainside this winter, somewhere between an ice bath I did not want to take and a summit I was not sure I would reach.
We love to talk about goals as destinations — the revenue target, the market entry, the black belt, the summit. But nobody actually lives at the summit. You take the photo, you feel the wind, and then you climb down and look for the next mountain.
The ice bath taught me the same lesson in two brutal minutes: the goal was never to be in the water. The goal was to become the kind of person who gets in. Discomfort, voluntarily chosen and repeated, is the most honest training program ever designed.
So when you set your next big goal — for your company, your team or yourself — ask what the climb will make of you. That answer outlasts every summit.