Free Inquiry 10: Crushing goals.

Well, here it is. The last post for this semester. It’s been a trip, to say the least – I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my abilities this past semester. I’ve also learnt a lot about teamwork, taking care of myself, and pushing past my comfort zone to be able to accomplish my goals. I didn’t realize that a single project could achieve such things, but something so big as lead climbing definitely worked its role. At the beginning of the semester, being able to lead climb, and passing the lead belay test at Crag X was a far away dream – something that I wanted to do, but didn’t have the guts to actually go forward with. This is why, I’m so relieved to say… I PASSED THE LEAD TEST!

To be honest, I’m still kind of shocked that I did it. @AppreciatingtheAscent and I did our official lead test last night, and we did it a little bit hesitantly. We were both exhausted, hadn’t climbed in a little bit, and the person that we wanted to do our lead test with wasn’t available. However, we were both pretty set on getting it done. With a little bit of motivation talk by Grant (Steph’s partner) and talking back and forth, we decided to just full send and go for it. I’m really happy that we had that mindset, because I think it takes a certain amount of determination to be able to do something like that especially when tired. Mindset can make or break the game, because I notice that having a negative attitude towards something always results in a lower quality performance. I think that I’m really lucky to have my climbing partner be Steph as we work really well together to keep each other hyped and continuously support each other towards our goal.

Something else I learnt is how to care for myself and know my limits. I went through my free inquiry blogs, and I can see the weeks where I felt motivated, and then the weeks where it was the complete opposite. My motivation went up and down in accordance to the level of stress I felt, and it makes me realize how much school does take a toll on your everyday life. Injuries are very common in climbing, and I’m grateful that I knew where my limit was for each climbing session I did so that I didn’t get injured again. I also learnt how important a dynamic warm-up is when climbing as it completely changes your climbing. Ultimately, I learned a lot about what makes me feel good in order to climb – something that I will carry over to any future climbing sessions.

I said this in my previous post, but I’m honestly just super proud of myself. I haven’t felt like I’ve accomplished something super big in a little while, so I’m stoked on getting to do this project and actually achieving it. I think that I’ll remember this project for a long time now, because a) I’ve actually recorded my progress, and b) I got to do something extremely epic and actually got to finish my goal. Here’s to putting your mind towards something and actually achieving it!!