When Your Problem Feels Like Mt Everest

​Most of us have never seen the Himalayas, climbed in the Andes or stood next to Switzerland’s Matterhorn. But a majority of individuals and families have faced disaster, tragedy, debilitating illness, an accident or other trial, some personal mountain that at one point seemed insurmountable.

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​When Your Problem Feels Like Mt Everest
Author: Gary Sinclair

Most of us have never seen the Himalayas, climbed in the Andes or stood next to Switzerland’s Matterhorn. But a majority of individuals and families have faced disaster, tragedy, debilitating illness, an accident or other trial, some personal mountain that at one point seemed insurmountable.

People of course respond in a variety of ways. Some are immediately overwhelmed and give up. Rather than even start the climb, they give way to depression and despair uninterested in the help of friends, professionals or fellow-strugglers.

Others panic. They want to overcome but don’t know where to begin so they run from person to person, idea to idea, without a plan making little headway towards the summit.

“On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

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A third group gets angry. They spew their rage at life, God, friends, family or all of the above, furious that life has taken this precipitous turn.

While each of these responses is somewhat extreme, they are normal. They are emotions that erupt when we face a mountain that scares us because we don’t believe we have the resources to conquer it.

NEVER QUIT POSTER
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​My wife Jackie and I encountered a Denali over a decade ago now when it was discovered she had stage three colon/rectal cancer. There was a tumor growing inside her and the devilish cancer cells had begun to spread. Ironically, she and I had climbed her first fourteen-thousand-foot peak in Colorado just three months before.

We now had a new mountain to climb. It took some weeks for us to figure it out, but we finally realized that we must climb her cancer mountain the same way we ascended those of granite. While climbs and climbers are unique, there remain principles that undergird any successful summit bid.

We now had a new mountain to climb. It took some weeks for us to figure it out, but we finally realized that we must climb her cancer mountain the same way we ascended those of granite.

“Mountains are only a problem when they are bigger than you. You should develop yourself so much that you become bigger than the mountains you face.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

The same is true with personal mountains

The same is true with personal mountains.

Let me discuss three of the key principles as they impacted our Mt. Cancer.

One, never climb alone. Most every experienced mountaineer will tell you that you are foolish to in high altitude by yourself. People do it, yes, but many of them die, some needlessly. During Jackie’s illness, we knew we must invite others to walk this trail with us, some being people who had faced a similar journey to ours. Others simply wanted to be there with us.

Two, climb one part of the trail at a time. Get through the next switchback before worrying about the next one. On a mountain trail, we would give each other candy once we reached the place on the mountain where we reached our next waypoint. In the same way, as we started her cancer journey, we focused on the next doctor visit, the chemo, surgery or radiation treatment rather than think about what might be down the road.

Mountains Better Pillow - Assorted Styles & Colors
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No, we couldn’t perfectly excise from our minds the possible future implications, but we became pretty good at keeping them at arm’s length until later. The mountain didn’t disappear but we could face it more and without unnecessary, unhelpful distractions

Three, be honest about your mountain. Some natural mountains have more snow and ice than others; some are steeper; some have false summits. In the same way our personal trails will vary from those others hike. We must face the difficulty of our mountain and not look the other way or try to make it seem easier than it is.​

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​The same is true with personal mountains.

People who get cocky in the mountains often die there. People who don’t follow the basic rules may never make it down. That’s what happened in 1996 on the tragic Everest climb when sixteen died. As climber extraordinaire, Ed Viesturs, says, reaching the summit if only half the climb.

Thankfully, Jackie is cancer-free today and still hiking. We believe that at least part of her success and health today is due to utilizing high country practices and principles. The mountains have more to teach us and others.

I’ve written more about his in my new book Never Quit Climbing as well.

The good news is that there is also hope for you to conquer personal mountain if you’ll learn from those who climb the big peaks. Your ascent can be a long and arduous one but remember: the view from the top is worth it!

​Bio: Gary Sinclair is an author, leadership coach, speaker and avid climber/hiker. He has summitted nine fourteen thousand foot mountains and hiked with his wife Jackie in beautiful places like Yosemite, Alaska, Colorado, the Canadian Rockies and the Alps. He has an ongoing passion to help those who are hurting face life challenges that seem beyond their ability to conquer. He and his wife currently live in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. His website is: http://www.neverquitclimbing.com and he has recently written a book entitled, "Never Quit Climbing," available at Amazon.com.

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