This is me atop the rejuvenating Mt. Sanitas in Boulder, Colorado.  Getting to the top was not that easy.

Here is me about 20 minutes into the climb.

I had a lightbulb go off shortly after my rock collapse.  Physical challenges are training for life. 

I was climbing with an expert by all standards.  He knew every step and how to navigate.  For him it was an easy jaunt while I panted like my dogs in the heat, literally tounge-out and non-stop breaths for life!

There was no way that anyone was going to get to the top of this enormous, stair-filled mountain before me or without me!

That’s the first thing awesome about this hike: setting the bar high is key.  Run with people who challenge you physically, who you admire, who bring out the best in you to match and exceed your ability.  If I were doing thing with a quitter, that rock I collapsed on would be the final step I took on this journey.

Of course, the implications of this idea run wide.  I am so grateful to have so many friends who inspire me and set a high bar, so thrilled to have a larger community of amazing people who expect only fantastic things from me… A high standard for the energy around my life was not always the case.  A bitter, gossipy, and somewhat victimized crew of people sort of fled from my life when I challenged myself to grow creatively and mentally.  Now… I am doing this physically as well!

Now, the second awesome thing that I learned from world-class triathelete Hillary Biscay at the Mind Body Green Revitalize conference: you have to look ahead and see where your going, and your body will follow.  I was looking down for half the hike and struggling like crazy.  When I remembered these words, I somewhat huffingly lifted my head and made it up the first, then the next and the next potion of this climb.

Again, the theme echoes out into life.  If you are stuck in the day-to-day, how can you be a visionary? There always has to be a long-game as well as a short range view. Lately I have been mired in the day-to-day.  That is not thriving. That is not expansive.  There has to be a sense of where each phase of a project will land, what the end product will be, what life will look like after a hurdle then another.  Visionary living looks forward and gains strength by not trying to control every step but, rather, by being drawn to the finish line.

And finally, my third hiking victory lesson: it feels amazing at the top!

I am now taking my physical life as something just as important as anything else. Even the dogs will be cruising around town far more!    Hopefully any of this will ring true with your own desire to have more passion and energy, flow and freedom.  It really works!

xoxo Dana