Lessons for Life and Business from Climbing Sea Cliffs: Adversity vs Uncertainty

According to Hemmingway, “There are only three sports, motor racing, bullfighting and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games”.  Perhaps Wing Suiting could be added? – Fun? Maybe for some. I have to think quite hard why you would dedicate your life to the pursuit of something that could also simultaneously end it. I have to think even harder why I, a mountaineering guide, made that choice…

And so it is in business. One person’s passion is another’s poison. Risk, adversity and uncertainty can either be your undoing, or something that brings out pure genius, hidden talent, innovation and extraordinary teamwork.

Mountaineers and Rock climbers live with uncertainty, and develop techniques  to function at a high level in demanding situations – skills  gained from years of testing limits and erasing boundaries, and this is what I want to focus on today.

Climbers, like cave divers, train themselves to suppress fear and the resulting feelings of uncertainty. They train their mind to concentrate on solving the facts, so there is less time for fear, and its unproductive consequences. Two of the techniques I use, and share with audiences at corporate events are ‘Reality Checking’ and ‘Discarding’. Here I will focus on just one, ‘Reality Checking.’

‘Reality Checking’ is assessing the situation from a fact based perspective and involves separating facts from an emotional response. Sounds easy, but hard to do in a tight spot! The place to start is in understanding that adversities are based in fact – a challenge to overcome, or deal with. By contrast, uncertainty is  the lack of concrete evidence, facts or clear direction, and can be experienced as a fear or anxiety within your mind, like thinking there will be an avalanche when you hear a groan. Advertisers are great at doing the opposite, creating, and then converting dreams and desires into sales. But, this is just and intangible desire or fear.

Part of Reality Checking is to take time to clear your mind before taking any action, and then focus on each task intently. Sometimes, on a rockface you feel desperate, exhausted, mentally, physically drained, and completely out of ‘moves.’ It feels as if making the slightest adjustment, just taking one more step, will see you tumbling, and when you fall it will be a long way down. There is no option of turning back, you can’t reverse the extremely tricky sequence of manoeuvres that led to where you are now. You also can’t stay where you are for very long, or you will fall off!

I have learnt that in situations such as this, the best thing to do is… nothing!… absolutely nothing. Then, I breathe, and after taking time to recollect and assess logically, I just consider the very next task at hand. It could be as simple as selecting a piece of equipment from my harness and then wiggling it into a crack as high above my head as I can safely reach; then clipping the carabiner and a rope through it. Very slowly, by inching task upon task you are often able to ease your way out of a difficult situation and into a place where you can breathe, refocus and gather the courage needed to continue. You can’t climb a rockface in one giant leap. It is a series of thousands of small steps that guide your journey to the top and back down safely.

Adversity and uncertainty play into each other and part of the challenge as a climber is to keep separating them by using a “Reality Check”. This rationalising helps you make better decisions and and realise your goals. There may be additional problems en route and so the process is ongoing. Realising you have options and possible solutions which are based in facts raises motivation and wins the confidence of a team.

Finally, by persisting and remaining focussed right till the very last step you can often prevent further adversity from occurring. By keeping your mind alert it is open to opportunities when they arise.

I am hoping that next time you feel uncertain about how to guide your team, or overwhelmed the ‘Reality Check’, may provide a good starting point to overcoming those thoughts!