At one point, I thought my ultimate goal in climbing would be sending a 5.12a outside. I did it! I was elated for about 17 seconds before grabbing a guidebook and looking up the nearest 12b. A while later, I completed that 12b. Then a 12c. Each time I achieved a new grade level, I took my new skill level for granted and looked toward the next achievement. Ten years of that passed, and I recently finished my first 14a. With my recent accident and my ever increasing age (41 puts me in climbing’s senior circuit), I feel confident that this was the hardest route I’ll ever climb. But maybe someday I’ll get back to full strength, and that familiar itch for more will return.
Because this is what humans do. If we kick a 30 yard field goal, we want to kick a 35 yarder. If we do that, we want to try from 40. Always striving for a bit more has made us an extremely successful species. It helped us span the globe, take control of agriculture, build industries, and invent the Snuggie. But this lack of contentment doesn’t make us a particularly happy species. Because there is no end to this game. We always take our progress for granted and move the goalposts just a bit further away.
The feeling 18 seconds after a big send
Always striving for more is baked into our DNA through millions of years of evolution. So how can a human ever be satisfied?
I believe that when it comes to honing our skills, we need to find joy in the striving itself. All humans love to learn and improve regardless of the nobility of the ends, so our striving doesn’t have to be meaningful. Just find something that you love or want to do and try to focus on the process of improving day-by-day or year-by-year. Gardening? Crosswords? Lawn Maintenance? Fishkeeping? Breadmaking? Curling? Ukulele? Puppetry? Karate? Parkour? Faberge eggs? Climbing? It doesn’t matter. We just have to remember that it isn’t about our ultimate skill level or status in our chosen activity. Rather, it’s about enjoying the activity and the process of improving. (And it sure doesn’t hurt if you can recognize your progress by remembering how bad you were when you first started.)
Do you remember your first time climbing?
When I (hopefully) get back to the sport of climbing, I’ll get the unique experience of starting from scratch. Which means that after years of extremely slow improvement, I can now experience gains each week or each month as I work through the grades all over again. So having a “pre” and “post” accident climbing career could be a fun new journey.
That is, as long as I don’t focus too much on my final post-accident grade. Because there is no end to that game. No matter what I do, I could always move the goalposts just a bit further away.