Becoming The Man Who Climbs

You seek the top of the mountain.

There is a trail that leads there, but the way is perilous, and deep in snow.

You yearn for easy transport, for the helicopter to take you directly to the peak.

You want the silver bullet, the magic formula, the push-button solution that will wipe your old life away and replace it with something far removed… something utterly transformed.

But in your heart you know the truth:

The fulfillment you seek comes not from tricks, hacks, or shortcuts, but from taking one step after the other until you stand there, at last, on the roof of the world.

The fulfillment you seek comes from becoming the man who climbs.

So do not ask for the helicopter.

Do not ask to be taken out of your self.

Instead, live your life in such a way that your mind is transformed, so that the things that fill other men with dread fills you with alert excitement.

Live your life in such a way that the utterly spent exhaustion of childhood is returned to you.

Live your life in such a way that all traces of action-crippling ambivalence are seared away, that you may stride up the mountain with joy.

The blinding snow, thigh-high drifts, and lactic burn has NOT been removed. It’s all still there.

Only now they do not stop you, for you have made yourself dauntless.

And what would seem arduous and unbearable to others who are not lit from within, as you are, seems instead to you a privilege, an honor, and the greatest of adventures.

Here’s the first step: Become the man who climbs.