Re-examing Your Goal

A well-known inspirational stories is about Jim Collins, author of Good to Great . In 1978, Collins, an avid climber, became obsessed with climbing Genesis , a “100-foot slab of red rock in Colorado’s Eldorado Canyon.” No one had ever free-climbed this rock — most people thought it was impossible. Free climbers rely on ropes only as the ultimate safety devices; they prefer to climb under their own power. Collins felt he was strong, but Genesis intimidated him. He became determined to overcome his fear. In Good to Great , he writes:

“In studying climbing history, I noticed a pattern: Climbs once considered ‘impossible’ by one generation eventually became ‘not that hard’ for climbers two generations later. So, I decided to play a psychological trick on myself. I realized that I would never be the most gifted climber or the strongest climber or the boldest climber. But perhaps I could be the most futuristic climber. I did a little thought experiment. I tried to project out 15 years, and I asked myself, ‘What will Genesis seem like to climbers in the 1990s?’ The answer came back clear as a bell. In the 1990s, top climbers would routinely [free climb] Genesis, viewing it as simply a warm-up for even harder routes. And less-talented athletes would view Genesis as a worthy challenge but hardly impossible.”

Collins embarked on an interesting exercise by projecting himself into the future, from 1979 to 1994. He bought a personal organizer and changed all of the dates in it to 1994. Then he visited the canyon and began to imagine Genesis the way a climber 14 years in the future would see it.

“With that change in psychology,” he writes, “I managed to climb through to the top of the route. It caused quite a sensation and confused many of the best climbers of the day. They were still climbing in 1979, whereas I had psychologically transported myself to 1994. And, indeed, by the early 1990s, these same elite climbers climbed Genesis routinely, no longer thinking of it as particularly hard. One climber from England — a much stronger lad than me — even climbed it in his tennis shoes!”

Excerpt from 'LifeManual' by Peter H. Thomas. www.lifemanual.com. Copyright 2005, 2006. All rights reserved.

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