Sometimes Climbers Of All Kinds Seek the Wrong Goals

I'm currently reading Ed Viestur's book on Annapurna called The Will to Climb. And much of the book explains the history of the many expeditions and brave climbers who took on this incredibly hard mountain. In the middle of it all were those like Ed who at least entertained the goal of climbing all fourteen peaks above 8,000 meters.

The leader of that pack was one of the world's most revered climbers Reinhold Messner, the first in the world to climb them all (Ed Viesturs was the first American and he also did it without supplemental oxygen). However, it's important to note that closing the loop or climbing them all was only a secondary goal for Messner. His primary goal was one all of us who climb granite or even life's mountains would be wise to keep in mind.

Messner writes, "Climbing increasingly harder routes, setting myself new targets, was of far greater importance to me."

It's easy for us to become enamored with our own records or accomplishments and miss reaching the more important, though perhaps less noticed, goals in life. We want to be better than someone else, overcome our struggle faster or make some sort of name for ourself when there are far more important things.

Like what? Perhaps just doing the next thing, maybe reaching a place just farther down the trail than last time or getting to a new personal record of some sort. Some of us are possibly stuck because we're failing over and over again at some goal or target that really isn't that important. What we may need to do is find a new dream or at least one different from everyone else and go for it whatever that means.

Maybe God has some unique goal and plan designed just for us that we're missing because we're obsessed with climbing the wrong mountain or overcoming in ways that just aren't possible right now.

Try praying for and looking for some other goal more within your reach and purvue. No, don't settle for less, just something else. Chances are it will still be some big mountain that you'll need every resource including God to reach. But my hunch is that once you go for that one you'll know you're now on the trail you should have been on all along.