What Bouldering and Michael Jordan showed me.
I was recently reading an article about success and its relation to being “coachable”. The author exemplified this trait with Michael Jordan’s story as the key to everything he was able to accomplish, he was very “coachable”. He would listen to every single piece of advice, he would implement every strategy given to him.
“My best skill was that I was coachable. I was a sponge and aggressive to learn.”
– Michael Jordan
The article kept me thinking long after I read it. Those words were stuck in my head and got me analyzing my own abilities to be “coachable” in the different coaching/mentoring situations I had been involved in the past. Soon, a moment came up to prove myself that they had something to teach me.
On a random day, I was doing some Bouldering, trying to make my workout more fun. It was my second time in this sport, so I was ready to show myself some improvement compared to my first attempt, but as much as I thought it was going to be fun and that I could do it no problem, there was always an instance where I could come up with a reason (or an excuse) to tell me otherwise.
After 30 minutes of jumping around and trying different levels of difficulty, I was tired, and my arms couldn’t hold my body weight anymore, after all, it had been a long day and we had gone to the gym at night. To me that was the perfect explanation of why this time, even when I wanted to really excel in my performance and was trying my best, I was doing only slightly better than before – not that I was coming to it with preconceived limiting ideas about my strength. Part of me thought It didn’t matter because I was having fun, however, I was bothered by not being able to increase a level of difficulty. I really wanted to do better.
At this gym, there was another girl whose body type looked like mine, skinny and short (maybe not as short as me), the difference was that this girl was the goddess of the walls. I am going to be honest, I was ‘jealoseinated’ (jealous-fascinated) with her abilities and skills, wondering if one day I would be able to master my body the way she did and with that level of strength.
There was this challenge that I had tried already three times and, just when I was close to finish it, my body would say “no, forget it, your arms just won’t support you all the way to the end”, and immediately fell. But there was also this tiny part of me that just wanted to do it. I know in that moment that I wouldn’t leave until I got that wall!
Sort of defeated, and on my way back to the same spot after a quick water break, this wall climber pro girl approached me and said, to get to the edge you have to let go and just get it. Immediately, those words started mixing in my head with the most rational excuses I could found: “I know you are right, I just don’t have the strength you do, etc” We chitchatted for a few more minutes as I continued my way to join my friends and face this wall again. But her words wouldn’t leave my head: “let go and get it”, and then everything I had read on success came back to me: “to be successful you have to be coachable”, “be brave”. At that moment, a little part of me thought, well, the worse that can happen is that I fall trying again, and, you know what? one the most entertaining things in Bouldering is falling, so, let’s try one more time!
I can tell you, something in me changed that day, after that little conversation, things started to feel differently. I was determined to finally reach the end of this challenge, and I had these thoughts in my head that wouldn’t leave. I looked up the wall and took a second to imagine myself letting go, jumping and successfully holding myself with two hands in this small artificial rock, after all, everybody says that you must visualize yourself being successful. I went up one more time, and suddenly, I couldn’t believe it! I did it! Obviously, my arms were exhausted and a few seconds after I fell. But, it wouldn’t matter, I did it!
It was an amazing sensation and thought me a lesson I will forever use in every situation I am faced with. Here is what I have learned:
- Listen: Being coachable is about being open to hear what people who knows best have to say, either because they have tried it before and succeeded, or because they can see something that you can’t, and their assessment can help you close the gap.
- Trust yourself: There is always an inner voice cheering you up and most of the time you shut it down by listening to your fears or doubting your skills because you “have not done it before”
- Imagine yourself where you want to get: Use your imagination to set up the expectation of what you want to achieve, by the time you do it, you already know how to get there because you experienced it in your imagination before! That’s the trick of visualization, it gives you the experience you thought you didn’t have.
- Don’t mind falling, it can be fun: even if you do not make it through, the process matters, the effort matters, the inspiration, the idea, the sweat matters! and if you aren’t entertained by it, at least your inner child will!
- Start small: give it a try! Start with the smallest activities, once you have mastered it, get ambitious and start imagining being successful with bigger goals. Remember, your baby steps will eventually get you sprinting!
Do you think you can try these steps with that one thing you’ve always wanted to do but you are afraid of? What would happen if you dare?
And, if you did, let me know, how did it go for you? What did you learn? What was your achievement?!
Until the next time!
XO
