What Lies Beneath
In the fall of 2007, six days before my birthday I summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. The seven day climb up the Machame route was the most challenging and rewarding experience to date both physically and mentally. The high altitude of the tallest free standing mountain and one of the 7 highest in the world challenged my personal limits and have challenged many who set out to conquer. Local villagers will look you penetratingly in the eye and state “you must Kill Kili.”
Kill Kili. As a coach, practitioner and speaker I enjoy reframing words as they are powerful and telling in relation to mind sets and limiting beliefs. But this statement I embraced. I needed to own it and Kill Kili. They call it having “mountain courage” and it has very little to do with athletic ability or training. It lies in the depth of your soul, untapped and waiting to reveal what we are capable of. Exploring, reaching and exceeding personal limits.
I now understand why more than half who attempt to summit Kilimanjaro don’t make it. With the physical and emotionally fatigue of pushing your personal limits, the lack of oxygen and altitude sickness, there are a hundred reasons to stop. Your body and your mind has no problem finding reasons to turn back around and will proclaim them loudly. But there is always one reason to keep going, if you can find yours.
Isolated moments of solitary climbing, just me and my thoughts learning what I was made of when no one who knew me was around served as a wonderful caveat for pushing my personal limits and my beliefs, almost as much as the physical aspect, particularly on the summit day.
The summit day began at midnight and for eight hours in the dark we climbed in the thin air depriving our bodies of oxygen and energy. Disoriented yet determined, the only thing I could think was to put one foot in front of the other in the early morning hours on the quiet of that mountain and take it one step at a time. Through the uncomfortable fatigue, shortness of breath making every step laborious while quieting the thoughts of “what the hell was I thinking” and pulling deep within for what I was capable of, finding the mountain courage and pushing through my personal limits.
I had many conversations with myself, self witnessing and realizations that final summit day for the 8 hours up to the summit of Kilimanjaro’s crater, Uhuru Peak. And when I reached the summit at sunrise, all the pain and effort that preceded had been forgotten.
To this day I have a hard time finding words to fully express and describe adequately my experience. It’s so sweetly personal and as I was sharing it over the weekend with a mutually inspiring risk-taker who is a dreamer and equally passionate about life, it prompted me to share the experience in my blog. Having the opportunity to see the crater of a magnificent volcano and ancient glaciers at the summit that will be evaporated in less than 50 years and a view that very few on this earth will ever see and knowing that "I did that" overwhelms me with joy, pride and fortitude to this day. It is an experience I can build upon mentally and physically. Kilimanjaro parallels so many aspects of life and how our mind set and belief are only limiting if we believe they are. If you think you can or you can’t, you are absolutely right!
I also believe there are generally two types of people in this world. People who go through life saying I can and others who say I can’t. The “I can’ts” are often not conscious or even verbally recognizable. To others it may not seem as though we have any "I can'ts". They quietly make a statement in our lives keeping us comfortable, detouring us from risk and all the opportunity and largeness of life that is ready to embrace us on the other side of the "I can". Detouring us from greatness, from mountain top experiences that will transform our view and our life propelling us into extraordinary and exceeding personal limits.
What is your mantra? What are your limits? What is your ultimate? What is your quiet “I can’t” that is keeping your from mountain top experiences and the rapture of truly being alive?
Are you willing to explore and really see what’s inside your soul? If you are, I know greatness and extraordinary awaits!
Be Great, Glow Within, Stay Juicy,
Rachael
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posted by Rachael Cadden @ 12:21 AM
2 Comments:
Nicely said! My hubby and I summitted Kili in 1995, just months before becoming pregnant with our first child. I've thought of that climb in many endeavors since then - a pinnacle accomplishment is something that you can call on for the rest of your life when you tackle something difficult, a quiet strength reserve that you can mentally depend upon to see you through other challenges.
Blue Skies,
-Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
Well done Rachel! I posted a link on my Facebook page and on my blog.
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