A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ

CLIMBING THE WALL

This week I attempted something new for the first time. After months of a friend asking me to go rock climbing with him, I found myself with a completely empty night. My wife and youngest daughter were out at the coast. My oldest daughter was at her friend's house. I had no perfectly good excuse as to why I once again couldn’t go. So I said yes.  I drove over to the oldest rock gym in the country, here in Portland, OR.

As I sit here typing with bandages on a couple of my fingers and feeling like I used muscles in my body that I didn’t know I have, I am struck with four valuable lessons.

Be willing to try new things.

I had never done this before. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was probably one of the reasons I had turned down the invitation to climb many times before. I was unsure of whether or not I’d enjoy it, whether or not I’d be good at it, and whether or not I’d feel comfortable surrounded by new people in an unfamiliar place and community. Trying new things is the foundation of personal growth. I know this fact, and yet had avoided this new thing. By trying it, I was forced to think differently, move differently, ask different questions. A side benefit was using new muscle groups.

Where in your personal life can you try something new?

Where in your business life can you try something new? 

What could the benefits be by doing that?

Be willing to be humbled.

Hand in hand with trying new things is the willingness to be humbled. It’s not easy being the one in the group that isn’t able to do something. It’s not easy being surrounded by people that are better than you at something. But that’s our internal voice and competitor talking. It’s incredibly healthy to be humbled from time to time - to realize that those around you are better than you at what you are attempting to do. Why was I unable to do this? Why did those around me make it look so easy? In what way was I approaching the wall incorrectly? What could I do to prepare better? What had I not done in the gym to be ready for climbing?  If we have a healthy sense of self, being around people that are better than us will only drive us to improve. This is true of rock climbing or in the office. 

Are you willing to mess up in front of your peers, fall down, or have to start over? 

Are you willing to ask for help, have others watch you fail, or be the new one in the group?

Be willing to do difficult things.

Let’s be real. Climbing 20, 30, or 40 feet up a wall doesn’t scream easy. But at first glance it did seem like I should be able to do it on my first or second shot. I'm in fairly good health. I run 4 or 5 days a week. I’m in the gym 4 or 5 days a week. I eat a fairly healthy diet. So tackling this wall seemed fairly doable. Until my first, and second, and third, and fourth attempt up that wall. My frustration began to mount when I realized this was not as easy as I thought it might be. My muscles began to wear out. It became both a mental and physical game. I kept having to remind myself to be willing to do what was difficult. I climbed until my fingers were bloody and my muscles gave out. That didn’t mean I accomplished what I set out to do. It just meant I was willing to continue to fail at it, and continue to get back on that wall and do what was difficult to me - even if it wasn’t difficult for someone else.

Be willing to do things you are not certain you are good at.

It’s so easy to stay within your strength zone or within your range. Perhaps it’s why I invite people to run with me or invite them to join me at crossfit. I'm comfortable there. I have a level of familiarity there. I know I can knock out those 10 or 15 miles. I know I can knock out the prescribed work out of the day. But how often do I agree to do something that I know I am not good at? Look for the opportunity to be around people that are good at things that we are not yet good at. I have found good humans are always willing to help, to teach, to coach, to show you a path forward. This will slowly build self-confidence - one of the ingredients necessary to become good at almost anything.

As I think of just the couple hours I spent tonight in that rock gym, I am certain they made me more willing. More willing to try something new. More willing to put myself in humbling situations. More willing to do difficult things. More willing to do things that I’m not sure I am good at. I am certain my time on the wall delivered that. 

What I am not certain of is whether I left that gym a better climber than I entered it. But I’m willing to test that out again next week when I go back.

Chris Suarez