Congratulations to Sir Ranulph Feinnes – conquering Everest for the thrid time at 65 after serious surgery. During his interview on the Today programme and various other news programmes, he said something about goals and vision that struck a chord with me.

He said (and I have to paraphrase here as I can’t find the interview to listen to again and check) that the way he managed to go on in the face of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion was NOT to think about getting to the top. He had to think of the climb as never-ending, and to keep on going, step by step by step. Counter-intiutive, you might think.

It’s good to have an end goal, a vision. It inspires and motivates you. It makes you believe that you’re getting somewhere, that the rocky patches are worth negotiating and that they won’t last forever. 

However, there are times – particularly if you’re mired in a slough of despond -when lifting your eyes to the distant horizon makes your spirit fail and your heart sink. Sometimes all you can do is to keep looking down, at your feet and the next few inches of  path in front of you. Your goals shrink to taking a step, then another, and another.

It takes guts to keep going when all you want to do is to give up.  As the way gets tougher and tougher, your motivation comes from lower and lower down Maslow’s heirarchy of needs until you hit the very bottom  - the biological need not to die. Self-actualisation (ie. your dream- at the top of the Maslow pyramid) becomes irrelevant then. 

Often, the difference between success and failure is perseverence. You can start with a dream, but that isn’t enough. Something other than a dream  - something real, hard, dirty, bloody and sweaty – has to kick in.  It’s resiliance, willpower, determination that get you to where you want to be. 

But you need the dream too. Without one, why would you bother?

Filed under: Coaching, Life Coaching by Melanie