Every time I’m in the mountains, they teach me so many things. And so many of them I forget. So I am hoping that by writing them down I can remember them better.
One of the most important things they teach are that so often we think of “conquering your fears” as a lifelong journey and struggle. It’s something people work on for years or even decades.
Mountains teach you that fears are fickle, that even the strongest fears that caused you nightmares and kept you awake all night, trembling in bed, are quickly set aside by the mind when they are no longer useful. They are mirages, they are temporary guests, so understand them, be gracious to them, but also be willing to let them go, not just one day, but maybe even ten minutes from now.
Climbing up Mount Van Hoevenberg, there was a particularly steep section, likely only 20 degrees but it seemed like 30 or 40. The snow was thick and every step in snowshoes bent my feet upwards at an unnatural angle. My feet were screaming with every slow, painful, step, and behind me was all slope, and to the right of me was a dropoff. For one moment, I panicked and didn’t think I could do it. “You’re not here to be a big picture thinker, my friend,” a voice in my head spoke up. “Just count steps, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
So I started counting, one step at a time, qadam bi qadam ila al qimmah, as my Berber guide Ibrahim had taught me on Mount Toubkal two years earlier.
And within a few minutes, the steep slope was gone, replaced by a gentle flat!
Og Mandino taught me this so many years ago. “I will always take one more step, and then another, and another. For I never know success might lie just around the bend.”
And here’s the thing, the fear of that steep slope was only a momentary visitor, until it was no more. Going down that same slope, having summited the mountain, I gleefully bounced, still one step at a time, but I had overcome that fear.
Our fears need not be lifelong handicaps. Sometimes the journey to overcoming them takes days instead of decades, and sometimes minutes instead of days.