So, you have spent an enormous amount of time and resources planning your climb to the summit of the mountain. You proceed as planned, and execute your plans with great precision. Finally you reach the summit! WOW, you’ve made it!
For a while you are overwhelmed with pride; until you realize that actually that was not the summit you yearned to conquer. Suddenly, you now find yourself on the summit of the wrong mountain!
A few days ago I wrote and shared an article entitled: “Stop celebrating on the summit of the wrong mountain”! Two days later I was contacted by a friend who read the article. He found himself in a space where he was busy redefining his life and purpose. To use the mountain metaphor, he found himself standing on the wrong summit, and was in need of getting himself off that summit (“as soon as possible”!).
He had read my article which advocated that “If you find yourself on the summit of the wrong mountain, one of the best things you could do for yourself would be to climb down; get yourself off that mountain and find the right mountain to climb”.
My friend was quite anxious. Like a boxer firing a volley of quick combinations to the head and body of an opponent, he fired me with quick questions in succession: So how do you make a decision to climb down the summit after all the hard work? What about the risks? What if you never get the right mountain to climb? And what if it’s too late?
I pointed out the following:
- The decision to climb off the wrong mountain need not to be a hasty and reckless one;
- A fair amount of reflection is required including an assessment of how one got to the wrong summit in the first place;
- Like the climb which needed to be thoroughly planned for, climbing off the wrong mountain also needs to be carefully planned for;
- The decision to find and climb another mountain has to go through a full planning process.
I also pointed out that by using the mountain metaphor we should not simplify life to being all about climbing mountains and judging if they were the right ones or not. I also advised that perhaps we should hug, embrace and thank the wrong mountains before we grudgingly climbed down – for in some cases, without them we would not have known they were not the appropriate ones for us. We need to acknowledge the wrong summits as being part and parcel of our life’s journey. We need to appreciate the gift and anything positive that the mistake of climbing up the wrong summit could have brought to us; only then could we plot our climb down and identify the right mountains to climb.
Book for your free assessment coaching session, and let the journey begin (083 628 3428 or shoni@potentialexponents.com).
Shoni Khangala – Certified Inner Life Skills Master Coach
Founder and CEO: Potential Exponents
www.potentialexponents.com
“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them”. – Harold J. Smith
