Join me in a behind-the-scenes look at the big rock climbing goal I set for myself in 2024 and my experiment to have more fun with lead climbing and shift my relationship with my fear of falling in climbing.

Key Points Discussed:

• Why I chose this climbing goal in 2024
• The journaling prompts I used to frame up my "impossible goal" around lead climbing and my fear of falling (a process you could use for any big goal you have)
• A behind-the-scenes look at my biggest fears and insecurities when it came to this climbing goal
• What I achieved this year in pursuit of this goal, what I'm most proud of, and what I still want to work on going forward
• The top 5 things that made the biggest impact on my growth in this goal
• My biggest takeaways and lessons learned from pursuing this climbing goal

Even if you are NOT a rock climber, you will really benefit from listening to this episode and learning more about my approach to setting big goals.

Where to learn more about Allison:

• She Dreams of Alpine Blog
• Instagram @shedreamsofalpine

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🏔️ THE ADVENTUROUS REINVENTION EXPERIENCE WAITLIST

You're listening to the Adventurous Reinvention podcast. I'm

Alison Boyle AKA She Dreams of Alpine and this is the

show that's dedicated to all the adventurous spirits out there who have either

been transformed by the outdoors or interested in what it

looks like to step into a new adventurous and courageous kind

of identity in their life. It doesn't matter what your background is in the

outdoors, what age you're starting at, or where you grew up. If

you're curious about the outdoors and using adventure as a way to

reinvent yourself, you're in the right place. I'll be

sharing all kinds of personal adventure stories, lessons I've

learned from the mountains, teaching what I know about the outdoors and leadership,

and interviewing some amazing adventurous women all along the

way. I've been coaching women on becoming safe, confident, and

self sufficient backpackers and leaders of their own adventurous lives

since 2018. And I know exactly what

big fears and self doubts can pop up along the way. I have

so much to share with you, so let's dive in.

Okay. Welcome to episode 8 of the adventurous reinvention

podcast. This episode is actually it's really

fitting because when this specific podcast episode

airs, I'll be heading off to Spain on a rock climbing trip

with some of my clients. So I'm meeting 8 clients out

there. This was a unique rock climbing trip that we planned. We have

never done one out in Spain before, but we're gonna be climbing on this coast

of Spain for a week together in December, and

it's gonna be rock climbing. We're gonna get to have tapas

together. We're gonna do some reflection of our year and kinda thinking

backwards and what happened in 2024 and

thinking forwards and, like, what we wanna create in 2025.

We're gonna be doing some hiking together, just enjoying some beautiful

weather being in Spain if you've never been. It's amazing out

there, and it's gonna be the perfect way to end the year. So

I'm really, really excited to be going on that trip. When this airs,

I'll be flying out really soon and heading that way to spend time with those

clients. So very excited. And in this

episode, I wanted to kinda give you a behind the scenes look at

my 2024 rock climbing goal and my

experiment with fear. And for me, this was more

around my specific fear of falling. So there's all these different

elements and layers we have of fear, and it can be

with anything that you're doing in your life. For me, I really wanted to hone

in with some of the fear that I had around climbing and

falling and specifically when lead climbing. And

so this year, like, for me, my own personal

goal, I wanted to get back into sport climbing

and trying to lead a lot more and

get stronger at that and push myself. That was a goal that I really wanted

to get into. So if you were not into rock climbing,

I'm gonna explain that, like, very, very briefly. So

sport climbing is sport climbing or trad climbing,

there are different styles of climbing and, like, the way you protect yourself and

gear. But, essentially, this is when I'm saying sport climbing, it's like when

you're putting up a rope on a climb and there's

maybe, like, gear. For traditional climbing, you're placing gear as you go

and you're clipping your rope into that gear as you climb. For sport

climbing, there's usually bolts in the rock already, and you're

clipping clips into those bolts and clipping your rope into the clips.

So as just, like, a very general explanation to that. And for

when you're leading, you are the person setting up the rope. So as you're

climbing, there's no rope ahead of you. You're climbing to the next

bolt, and you're setting the rope and protecting yourself along the way to the top

where you'll set an anchor. And then other people could

either top rope it from the anchor, which many people are more familiar with. Like,

when you go to a climbing gym, often you will top rope a climb.

And so that's an experience more people have going to a climbing

gym and top roping. I wanted to practice more

with my leading and being a more confident lead climber, being the person who's

setting the route. And I have done a lot of leading in my

past, but it's not something I'd been focused on for a

while. So I did actually start out as when I got

into climbing, I started out doing a lot more sport climbing and traditional

climbing. Then I kinda met Michael. He was also into

those things as well, but he was also into bouldering and, like, hard bouldering. So

I ended up kind of becoming a boulder through dating him. And

we together we did a lot of everything. So when

we first started dating, we would sport climb, we would go on alpine

climbs, we would traditional climb, we would go bouldering, and

then there were some years where we would focus on one thing over the other.

I've been doing this for a long time now, like, almost as long as backpacking,

so about 11 years. There would be some years where we'd be really

focused on our bouldering and just getting strong with bouldering, and then some years, we'd

go back to sport climbing. And for the last couple

of years, especially since I've moved to Colorado for whatever reason,

that was a big change and I just wasn't focused on it. But the last

couple of years, I've mostly just been bouldering and

mostly haven't had really any specific goals around rock climbing

recently. I think after a while, I just it just wasn't a

big focus for me. I think I was a lot more focused on building

my business. After, you know, the pandemic, there were some tough years being a

business owner and figuring out new challenges, so I just had a lot of

my focus on being entrepreneur and being in business and less so on my

climbing goals. And so, yeah, I put

a lot of those goal goals to the side. I just mostly bouldered when I

moved to Colorado at the climbing gym, and I just was staying in general climbing

shape. So at the end of, like, last

year and at the beginning of 2024,

I was really kind of hungry to tap into that

side of myself again. The woman who was, like, really

in in love with climbing felt like she had fun climbing

goals, like, was really excited about it. And I was hungry

to set a goal around lead climbing more specifically

and working with my relationship

with fear around lead climbing. Because in the past, even when I used to lead

stuff, there was a lot of fear involved, and so I just never

reached my potential with sport climbing and lead climbing because I was

always especially when it came to outdoor stuff, like, I was always over

worried about falling. And so I thought it would be

kind of fun to be like, let's play around with this. Like, let's see if

we can make falling more fun. Let's see if we can,

like, kind of flip the script on this conversation I was having in my head

around falling and lead climbing and, like,

yeah, really just have fun with it and rewire my brain.

And I thought that would be a really fun goal to set and

got me really excited at the beginning beginning of 2024.

So I decided to do sort of at the beginning of the

year, I decided to do an impossible goal exercise

with it. And if you've never heard that before, like, an

impossible goal exercise, I first learned this from one of my coaches,

but it's basically, like, you're picking a goal that

is kind of out of your realm of current possibility,

like, something that feels like a stretch for you, the

intention the the intention behind setting this, like, kinda big

scary impossible goal is that it sorta actually does freak you out a little

bit, but, like, in an exciting way. So you're excited, but you're, like, I don't

know how I'm gonna do it and you're a little bit freaked out by it,

you really can't wrap your mind around how you get there, right?

Because it stretches you to evolve in trying to become the person who

achieves it. Because if you knew exactly how to get there, you would probably already

be doing it, right? So an impossible goal, it stretches you, it expands

you. I put it in

quotation marks, like, impossible. Sometimes we achieve our impossible goals

and sometimes we have to keep resetting the goal and keep pursuing it, all

things. So for me, I use the term impossible

goal when I'm doing this. And this is

similar work that I actually do with my clients in our adventurous

reinvention experience program. We do a lot in that

program. But one of the things in the 3rd phase, there's kind of 3

core phases in that program, but our 3rd phase of our experience working

together after a lot of discovering, like, what

my clients want to do and what they want to focus on their personal lives

and, like, reinventing themselves, like, what area they wanna focus in

on. A lot of the work that we do is picking that impossible

goal for themselves and learning how to take massive action

towards themselves. And that is essentially the process of

reinventing themselves so I guide them through like a whole

framework and a process of doing that and I do this with myself all the

time like as you can see kind of in this exercise I like to have

fun with impossible goals I like to have fun with reinventing myself,

like, read it you know, in a past episode, I don't know if you recently

listened to the episode I did with Marie,

Pierre. Great conversation. Definitely go listen to it if you haven't. But we

talked about, like, redeciding things, redeciding things that you want in your life. And if

you don't want them, like, what do you want? And then things that

you want in your life. And if you don't want them, like what do you

want? And then going after it, what does that look like, right? So for me,

I knew that I wanted climbing to continue to be like a strong part of

my life, and I just wanted to bring some

excitement to it. And so I did,

wanted to bring some excitement to it. And so I did my I did an

impossible goal exercise in January of 2024. I did this as, like, a journaling

exercise. And what I'm gonna do next

is I'm gonna read through some of what I wrote in my journal at the

beginning of last year, or beginning of this year, technically, and then I'll kind of

give you an update on how that has been going for

me after almost 1 year setting that goal.

Because at the time of me recording this, it's the end of November, and I

have, like, 1 month left of seeing if I can

achieve this goal. So let me read through

part of my journal, walk you through some of the journaling

exercises that I went through, and kind of framing up my

impossible goal. So I actually, just

for some background, I actually bought a fresh journal

specifically for this climbing goal. And all I write in

this journal is things about climbing. And throughout the whole year, I've just been

like, anytime I go climbing, I write my thoughts about it, I write my

wins, all the things. So I write things I wanna work on.

My journal is completely dedicated to climbing, and it's like my

log. So what I did first is I wrote down what

is my impossible goal. So for me, with this

goal, I wrote, to become a badass lead climber

and rewire my relationship with the fear of falling and

just fear generally. So that's what I wrote. And then I

put by when. So it's, like, always good to put a date to your

goal because it does stretch you when you have kind of, like, a time limit.

It helps you kind of start thinking, well, how could I achieve this within

this time frame? Right? So I put, for me, December 31,

2024. So I just gave myself a full year. And then the next thing

I wrote is, how will I know I have achieved this

goal? This part is important if you're kind of

doing this journaling process for yourself or you're taking notes. This part's important

because if you think about what I wrote for my impossible

goal, become a badass lead climber and rewire my relationship with the fear of falling,

that's kinda vague. Like, how rewire my relationship with the fear of falling,

that's kind of vague. Like, how do we know that I've how will I know

I have achieved that? Like, in my mind, what does that mean? So I wrote

what it meant for me. This is

all very personal. It could mean something totally different from you. So if you also

wanna learn to lead climb, you may have similar goal, but it could

mean something different to you. For me, it meant that I'm

consistently volunteering to lead climbs that are either

that are at, below, and just

above my grade level range. Meaning, like, I'm,

like, consistently volunteering, of course, to do things that are below my level

that I know I can do at my level and even pushing

myself to do things that I'm like, I probably will fall doing this

or I may have to take and rest on my way up

or something. Like, I wanted to get to that point where I wasn't

afraid that I wouldn't be able to

climb it without falling. That essentially is what that means. So I

wrote that as part of it. I also said, another way I'll know I've

achieved this goal is that I've led 5 to

10 climbs in the 5, 10

plus range, outdoors. I wrote specifically outdoors

because for me, it was more like translating this goal

outside more than inside, even though inside was a part of, like,

becoming the person who achieves this goal in the outdoors. And like I said,

in the past, I have been a climber that climbs in these ranges, but I

have always struggled a little bit with that in these ranges, but I have always

struggled a little bit with that fear of falling, and it's held me back a

lot. And most of the climbs that I would lead in the

outdoors in the past have been under that 5, 10 range just because of my

anxiety and,

like, nervousness around the fear of falling. So I really wanted to work on that,

getting more in the mid range climbing and leading those climbs and

more confidently and just, yeah, more at ease, all the

things. So that's what I wrote for specifics.

And then another important part of this is so in my journal,

you'll see, like, I have climb name, location grade, and I have, like, a

list. And I have some of the ones that I've done underneath it,

but I'll talk about that later. So the next journaling

prompt that I gave myself was, what do you want most

out of 2024 and why? And this for me, I answered this in

relation to this goal.

Excuse me. So I wrote, I wanna be

challenged physically and mentally again. I wanna shake things

up to see what I'm made of, but I wanna do this in my personal

life through climbing and facing my fear of lead climbing,

and then bring that energy into my business and all my learnings around

fear to share with my clients, which is why this journal is

important to document the journey. And then I also think

it's really important, so there's a couple other questions that I do in this process.

Like, I like to spend some time thinking

about, like, why do this goal? Like, what is compelling me to do this goal?

What are my reasons? Like, really dig into the why. And we do this in

the backpacking badass program, actually, where we're, like, anchor into why this is important to

you. Right? So I wrote a list of why. I'll read that, but I'm gonna

get there. The next question was, like, why

wouldn't I do this? And then I'm also asking some more questions.

So first, I'll talk about why do this. So for

me, for my goal, I wrote, why would I do this goal, this leave

climbing goal? To be courageous and to live courageously. Like, that's just

a value. Like, living courageously is a value in my life that I

wanna uphold and be an example of. Right? To

have more fun with my climbing, I wanna be a

strong contributor and partner in climbing, so that's really important to

me, especially when going outdoors. Like, I don't want people to feel like

when they invite me to climb that they're the ones who have to be the

rope gun and put up the rope every single time. Like, I am

volunteering to do that too. I wanna do it to get strong.

I wanted to do it to see what's possible if I take my climbing a

little bit more seriously and focused. I wanted to shake up a little bit more

more seriously and focused. I wanted to shake up a long time passion, like an

older passion of mine to, like, revive it a little bit to feel alive. Like,

there's something really exciting about pushing yourself into the things that

you fear the most and seeing what happens.

Into the things that you fear the most and seeing what happens. Like, that

really does make me feel alive. Also to, like, lean

into my human emotional experience. Right?

To not be so afraid of negative emotions is, like, a big

piece of this whole experiment. It's like, what am I so

afraid of? Why am I afraid to feel the emotion of fear,

the emotion of uncertainty, the emotions that are coming up from

you? Like, I wanted to really embrace that. Right?

I wanted to learn how to find some new tools to calm my

mind in fearful situations. Like, lead climbing can

feel like it can rep it can really replicate, like, kind of a

high intensity sort of

fearful situation. And I just think it's a really useful tool to

have tools where you can calm your mind in these situations. And

it's just lead climbing haps to happens to be a really great way

to, like, practice these tools because

you're you're putting yourself in this situation pretty consistently.

I wanted to make climbing friends, more community here in

Colorado. I wanted to have more experiences.

I wanted to be able to have tools that I could, like, take from this

and teach my client clients for their own fear management because

there's so much in what I do that I get to pass on, like, what

works for me, help them with things that they're stuck on. I wanted

to really have fun, like, play, have experiment, like, not take my

goals so seriously in the sense that, like, oh, Allison, you have to do

this. Like, no. Let's have fun with falling. Like, how can we make it fun,

right? Be curious with my perceived limitations around

leap climbing and and try to, like, blow those out of the water. I

also wanted to go on some fun adventures with new and old

friends. And part of the big reason why I wanted

to do this is simply because, like, my curiosity compelled me. And in

past episodes, I've talked about how, like, curiosity has been

such a strong compass for me, and I just kinda trust it. When

I have something that keeps coming to my mind that I wanna work on,

I'm like, okay, I need to pay attention, there's a reason I'm really curious

about this, so let's lean into it, is kinda the approach that I

take. So I wrote down a big list of why

do this impossible goal. And then I wrote

down I also, like, entertained, like, why wouldn't I

do this impossible goal? Because I do think it's, like, important to

I think it's important to give that side of your brain, like, you know, it

wants to be heard as well, right? Your fears, your concerns,

your anxieties, like, put it out all on paper.

For me, my why wouldn't I do this was a shorter

list. I wrote down, I wouldn't do this maybe

because it will take a lot of dedication. Thinking about

becoming the person that has conquered her fear around leading,

it felt like kind of a really big task. I

would have to plan a lot in advance, right? And as many of you are,

and probably more busy than I am, but as probably more busy than I am,

but as a business owner, I feel busy. There's so many things I'm already planning.

Adding in another element sometimes feels overwhelming. I wrote, I will have to put myself

out there. I put that

mostly because I was thinking,

okay. To lead consistently, I'm gonna need, like, a community of people

that can come and lead climb with me because you need a partner.

And Michael has been my lead climbing partner for

a long time, but I didn't wanna just rely on him. He's also not in

the space where he's as focused on his climbing goals right

now, so I wanted to not have to be reliant on Michael. So I knew

I was gonna wanna make climbing friends. I would have to kinda, like,

figure out how I was gonna make climbing friends, friends, which I'll talk about,

a little bit later, but that meant risking rejection. Right?

I also wrote that I'll suck at it at first.

And there's nothing more than your ego hates more than sucking

at something that you've done before or you feel like you should be

better at and all the things, the stuff that our brain comes up with.

I wrote, I will feel scared and out of control

sometimes, which is true. Like, when you're lead climbing and you

don't have a good mental space, like, you feel freaked out

and you feel like you hate it. And it feels completely out of your control

and just, like, it can really, like,

make you freeze, and that's not an a pleasant feeling

to experience. I wrote I I wrote,

like, practically too. I could get hurt. Like, I could injure myself

maybe in the process of doing this. I wrote

that I could fail at this goal. I

could be too scared or maybe I embarrassed

myself. Like, maybe I set this goal, I completely fall flat on my face and

I don't make any progress on it and my ego wouldn't be really

hurt by that. So those were reasons I wrote down that my brain

was presenting me, like, why wouldn't I go after this goal?

And then after I wrote that list, the next question I

asked myself in this process was, what am I really afraid

of? What am I afraid to feel? So that's an

important question. So you kinda like take that list of, like, why wouldn't I do

this? Like, look at that and, like, kind of dig deeper into it. Like,

what am I really afraid of here? What am I really

afraid to feel? So I wrote, I'm afraid to

feel out of control. That's a huge one for me in

a lot of areas of my life, and a lot of people feel the same

way. I'm scared of hurting myself.

Like, my mind I mean, this is what happens to me when I do have

that free state when I'm leading a climb in the past was

my brain just is like, it's like it automatically thinks it's gonna

die even though logically I know that's not what's happening here. I just know

my brain is freaking out because it doesn't know what the fall will be like,

the experience of the fall will be like. It just goes immediately to being

like, oh my gosh, we're gonna die. And I can't get out of that place.

So that's a fear that I was afraid of.

Embarrassment when I don't do well or I'm too in my head,

like, that's a part of, like, when you have people that you're going with and

you're climbing with consistently. Part of my fear was, like, well, what if

I'm doing this goal and I'm, like, trying to meet up with these people and

lead with them and then I'm just scared all the time and and

I'm, like, embarrassed by that. Right? So that was something I was

afraid to feel. I was afraid of

rejection, like, making new friends. I kinda talked about that one a little bit.

I was afraid of feeling tired. I was like, wow. This this

goal might take, like, a lot more commitment to my climbing,

my strength. I'm gonna feel tired. Imposter

syndrome was something I wrote down. I was like, oh, I should be further along

by now. I should be a stronger climber by now. All the things that our

brain tells us. And then, yeah,

I think I wrote down I I'm afraid to feel like it's this is gonna

be hard alongside, you know, a lot of my

personal other goals, like business goals, everything else that I have going on in my

life. So those were the things that I felt deeply kinda at the

core were things I was afraid of. After

that, I wrote down what is the worst case

scenario? So this is something that I talk about with my clients all

the time. We have these conversations in our backpacking community a

lot, especially when people are new to backpacking and maybe they're going

on their 1st trip or they're going on their 1st solo trip. It's like, we'll

come to they'll come to a coaching call and be like, I have my trip

in, like, a week, and I'm panicking and freaking out about it.

And I don't really know why, like, this is where my brain's

going. And so we spend time. We're like,

okay. Let's think through, like, that realistic worst case scenario that you're

worried about. Let's give it airtime. Right? But then let's give

equal airtime. So it's like giving equal airtime to both the worst

case scenario and then airtime to the best case

scenario. So often so many of us only focus

on the bad things that could happen and

how it's gonna go horribly wrong. Like,

everything's gonna be awful. And what if this happens? And we'll just go down

that road. And so many of us don't spend any time

thinking about what if everything went really well.

Like, what would that look like? And spend time

dreaming up what that vision could look like because

reality is, like, usually

somewhere in the middle. Right? It's not a worst case scenario. It's and some I

mean, sometimes it's the best case scenario, but sometimes it's somewhere in between. But we

need to give airtime to both. Like, your brain, if it's only focusing

on the worst case scenario, what it focus on, it's gonna create

more of that, look for more evidence of that, all the things. So we wanna

give our brain a second focus. Like, what if it goes great? And so

that it can start finding evidence for the reason it will go

well. Anyways, so I did this exercise for myself.

What is the worst case scenario? I

wrote the worst case scenario is that

this goal is tough for me, and I have to really, really work for

it. And maybe I even injure myself from a rookie mistake or,

like, an accident. And for me, it stops it

stops me making progress on my goal or even worse,

it keeps me from my client retreats or

trips, personal trips that I have planned for myself because I got injured

from a climbing goal. So for me, I thought that's probably

my realistic worst case scenario that I'm worried about.

For best case scenario, though, I wrote, okay, I

start doing this work, I make huge progress on my climbing, my lead

climbing, my fitness, and I feel more excited

than ever. I break through a big barrier with fear, and it not

only helps me become a better coach and business owner, but it also

puts new opportunities in my path. Everything leads to the next

thing. I make solid community and climbing friends for life.

The confidence and courage I've unlocked in my climbing has a ripple effect into

my business, what I teach my clients, all the things.

Right? I just imagined that place. And then I asked

myself, is the best case worth the worst case? And for me, I wrote, like,

just, like, a huge yes with a lot of exclamation points. Because for me,

it's like the worst case scenario was,

you know, embarrassment. It was ego and injury. And injury

sucks, but, like, there's so many things I could get injured doing, especially being an

outdoor educator. You know, even driving your car, you can get

injured. Like, there's that is something we cannot control. Like, I can't

control that. Right? I can do my best to be safe

and not get injured, but I can't, like, not live

my life because I'm overly worried about that. And then the rest of it was

ego. So I was like, okay, that's not a

good reason not to do something. So for me, the best case was like a

resounding yes. It was worth the worst case.

And then I said, I asked myself the question,

what is the reason why you're willing to feel

the emotions, the negative emotions, no matter what?

And so I wrote, I feel like if I can get good at embracing the

feeling of the unknown or the feeling of being out

of control or the feeling of embarrassment or the feeling of

imposter syndrome or even the feeling of rejection, if I

get good at feeling any of those feelings and I'm

willing to feel those feelings, then there's truly nothing

that I can't do. So being willing to feel these negative

emotions only benefits me in all areas of my life,

and being willing to feel these emotions lets me truly live into the

standards, the standard that I wanna set for my life, the values

that I wanna live into for my life. So for me,

like, talking about in prior episodes, like, having a

human experience is having a 5050 experience. And

there's really not a world even if you aren't going after your big

goals where you're not gonna feel the negative emotions. So I would rather

feel the negative emotions that are bringing me closer to where I

wanna head. So that feeling of imposter syndrome,

I probably will feel that whether I go for this goal or not. So I'd

rather feel it going towards my goal than not. The

feeling of rejection, I could try not I could just

keep myself locked up in the house and not go after having friends, but, like,

the other negative emotion you might have around that is, like, loneliness. So would you

rather feel loneliness, or would you rather go off and risk

rejection in the hopes and possibility of creating

friendships for life? So for me, I'd rather go. I'd rather risk

rejection feeling that negative emotional rejection for the

possibility of creating friendships that are aligned

with this goal, that are going to push me out of my

comfort zone and potentially be friendships for life. Like,

that is the fifty-fifty that is living into the

standards that I wanna create for my life. So those were

some of the things that I journaled on. I did some more journaling.

Like, I did some visualization too. Like, I wrote down some things,

like, if this was a video mashup of my climbing

moments of 2024, what that looked like. I wrote a lot of things. And then

I did a brainstorm of, what do I think? Because a lot of

times people get stuck with goals, especially big impossible goals. I'm like, well, I don't

know how. And I always tell my clients, like, it's really important

when we say, I don't know how, ask yourself, but what

if I did? And start there. Like, we don't have to know

exactly how we get there because most likely it's gonna look a lot different than

what you're expecting but ask

yourself like try to lean into giving yourself your power back

instead of being like I don't know all the time Be like, well, what if

I did know and start from there and that will lead

you along your path. Always keep asking yourself, what is the next best

step? What do I think I should do next? Where do I think I can

work next? Right? So I brainstormed all the things that

I think I would need to help me achieve that goal. I didn't

know if they were right. I don't know. I didn't know, like, what order I

should focus these on. They were just, like, my assumptions on things that I should

do. And then basically the rest of

my journal is me documenting the journey.

So now we are at, that was kind of a deep

dive into the journaling process, but I hope that was helpful, in kinda seeing

how I applied it and what some of those questions that you can ask yourself

are. We are almost at the end

of 1 year of me having written those things in

my journal. So how is it going? How am I

doing with my impossible goal? That is part of what this podcast episode is

all about. So the biggest thing that I wanted

to talk about is, like, I definitely have changed my

relationship with my fear of falling. I am now

at the point where I'm, like, indoor I'm leading indoors

consistently. And more importantly than the consistency

piece is that my mind chatter around leading is

like, my negative mind chatter around leading is almost nonexistent.

Like, when I go to lead a climb indoors with my friend, it

doesn't feel like this anxiety producing event. It's just like, oh, we're just, like, lead

climb practicing. I'm like, okay. Yeah. I guess I'll get on that one. Like, I'm

very calm, okay. Yeah. I guess I'll

get on that one. Like, I'm very calm. And when I'm on the wall, like,

in the past, it used to be, like, I would get on a lead climb

and I'd have to, like, hype

myself up and then I'd be on the climb and I'd be kind of panicking,

especially if I started to get tired and, like, my muscles started to feel tired,

I would start kind of going to doomsday. I would be like, oh my gosh.

Like, I'm not gonna be able to do this without falling. Like, I'm getting too

tired. I'm I can't do this and I'm freaking out and I'm like,

oh my gosh, the last bowl is too far below me, I should go down,

I should down climb, I would, like, panic. And

now, like, when I'm lead climbing, I'm still, like, aware of my

I'm getting kind of pumped but it's really calm. Like, I'm, like, I'll clip

a bolt and I'll be, like I look ahead to the next bolt. I'm, like,

okay. This is how I think I'll do it. I'm gonna make moves, and I'll

make moves. And sometimes I'll fall and it's not a big

deal. Sometimes, like, if I'm doing, like, a really overhang

climb, I will get to, like, a few bolt like, 4 or 5 bolts

up and I'll start feeling really pumped and tired, just like my

muscles. I'm just still working on my strength and endurance with

climbing. And I will, like, purposely choose to take

a rest at a bolt and then calmly finish the next part of

the climb. Like, my decision making is more

calculated and my willingness to fall is

just it's there. So that is huge

for me. I like, Michael can

vouch for this. He said, when I used to go climbing with him, like, I

would often get on a lead and then halfway up, I would just have him

lower me because I would freak out and I'd panic. And now I pretty

much finish any climb that I'm on unless it's like maybe

maybe I got on a climb that I knew was really hard for me. I

just wanted to try it. Like, there have been times like that. Or maybe it's

the end of a session and I'm just like, oh, I'm pooped. Like, I can't

keep going. But it's never just because, like, I'm panicking.

And, like, it's kind of even funny now, my friends that

I climb with consistently, they they kinda say they say

I'm like such a calm climber, which is hilarious to me because I

didn't used to be like that. I'm even when, like,

I fall or I'm, like, I'm getting a little tired or when I do fall,

it's not very, like there's just not drama around it. I used to be

so it used my head, like, my mental chatter was so

dramatic. So I'm very, very proud of that

progress. I am consistently

volunteering to lead climbs indoors and outdoors.

Every week, I go and lead climb with my friends. I have a group of

friends that I go with consistently. Indoors, I'm also

consistently leading at or above my level. I still

have some work to do with outdoor leads that are, like, in my

mind at or above my level, especially depending on

where we climb outdoors because there's some areas where things are more run

out, and I kinda get in my head about that because the spacing between the

bolts is a little bit different than it is indoors. So that's an

area I still really need to work on. And

there is differences. Like, in outdoors, you are making a little bit more

safety assessments when you're out there because the falls could be more high

potential. So it is important to think through those things when you're outdoors,

but I've still made so much more progress outdoors. Like

in the past, I used to default a lot to the stronger

climbers just to put up the leads and I would barely lead anything.

Now I'm like even if I'm maybe not volunteering to consistently lead

things that are a little harder for me, I'm still volunteering to lead

things that I know that I can climb, like, even if I've never

climbed them before. So that's huge for me. And I'm really proud of the

progress that I've made around my fear of falling. I do

feel like I still have so much more room to grow here, but it's really

exciting to be on the place where I'm like, okay. I've found calm

confidence, and I know I now have some tools to,

like like, I have just this difference

in the way I approach lead climbing. It's it's kind of hard to

explain sometimes, but it's, like, a very profound feeling that's very different than I had

at the beginning of the year. Some other things that I'm really proud

of from what I've the progress that I've made from setting

this impossible goal is, like I said, my calm mind

and all the progress I've made around that and so much less mind drama. Drama.

That's one of the biggest wins. But I did do a

510 a lead outdoors. There was this 10

a 510 a in Shelf Road, an area that we climbed

that's near us in Colorado Springs called I am a Viking

that I climbed it actually. I went on an outdoor trip at the very beginning

of the year in February, right when I set this goal, and I did it

on top rope. And I was too chicken to,

like, lead climate that day. I didn't think I don't think I lead lead

climb anything that day. I was just like, I'm just here to get

back on real rock again because it had been a while. And

I remember when I climbed it on top rope, I remember thinking to

myself, I was like, I could lead this. Like, I know I could lead this.

But I was still in February, I was still make I

still learning, like, how to kind of overcome some of my fear with leading,

so I didn't even try it. But I went back in September

to shelf road with Michael, and I told him, I was like, I

need to lead this climb. Like, I just need to do it. And

I let it, I let it clean, I didn't fall, and I I was,

like, really proud of myself for doing that. So that was a big moment for

me. That was one of my more proud moments from the year and kinda felt

like a full circle moment. I was like, yay. I'm really proud of my

consistency consistency, and continually showing up for this goal. I also got

to get outdoors a lot to climb more this year, and, again, like, exploring new

areas that I hadn't been

to. So I went to Shelf Road, which is a climbing area near

Colorado Springs. We went to Diablo Canyon in Santa

Fe. I got to go to Dakota hog

Hogback in Bear Creek, which is actually a really local spot.

I went to 11 Mile Canyon. I went to I think it's called

Staunton State Park, which was one of my favorite areas that I

discovered this year. Shout out to Meg who recommended it.

The bolting is, like, very generous there, not very

much run out stuff. 11 mile, like, I felt like everything was run out

and very slabby, at least what we climbed. So it was a little bit scarier.

I was climbing more under 59 and under there. I

wasn't brave enough to try, like, harder stuff. Staunton, very fun. I

can't wait till winter is over to go back there again.

I got to go I went to Joshua Tree climbing with clients. That was

more for clients though. Spain climbing retreat, I do hope to

get some leading in there. That will be fun. So I got

outdoors a lot more with my climbing again, which used to be a

huge part of what Michael and I did every weekend. But like I

said, kind of, you know, we shifted gears. We have a lot of passions. We

mountain bike. We backpack. We hike. We do a lot of things outside

of climbing, so sometimes it's not our main focus, and it hasn't been the

past few years. So it was fun for me to get outdoors a lot. And

a lot of those trips were actually not with Michael. A lot of them

were with the new friends that I made. So the biggest

things like, if I had to kind of take some

lessons learned and takeaways from this whole experience,

so far, the biggest things that have helped me this

year are number 1 was having community.

So the very first thing that was really

interesting about this goal is I remember I set this goal and I had this

intention that I really wanted this to happen this year, and I knew a big

part of that was, like, I need to make some more climbing friends

that are actually, like, aligned with this goal. Like, I had some friends that I

bouldered with, but they didn't really wanna lead climb. I needed to find

some friends that wanted to lead climb. I wanted to find some women friends, like,

a women community. And I didn't know how I was gonna do it, but I

remember Michael and I, we went to the climbing gym to

do some leading. It was the beginning of the year. I skipped back on the

rope, and we ran into one of my friends, Rivka. Her name's Rivka.

And I had met her her at an entrepreneur event a

couple years ago, and we hadn't hung out that much

since the time we had met. Maybe a couple other times in between, but I

knew she was working on climbing, and we ran into her at the climbing gym.

And I was like, oh, hey. Like, good to see you. Haven't seen you in

a long time. And part of I think when you step into a new goal

and an impossible goal, I think a big part about it is talking about it

because I think that is part of, like, trying not like, believing

in yourself. So I told her one of my big goals this year was to

do more lead climbing, get back into my sport climbing, and all that. And when

I said that, she was like, oh, you should join me

and some ladies that I consistently climb with in the mornings,

and we're doing a lot of leading, and that's, like, our goal too. And

we climb every Tuesday Thursday mornings, at least back then. That's

what they're saying. And I was like, oh my

like, it was one of those pinch me moments. I was like, the

universe conspires in your favor when you set a true intention

towards something. So I felt like I had set this big goal, and then all

of a sudden I happened to run into this person that I have met before

but hadn't seen in a long time at the right place, right time,

and completely in alignment with what I was looking

for. So that worked out really well.

I mean, I was I was ready to, like, sign up for

all the events at our local climbing gym to try to meet

people. Like, I was ready and willing to do all of that and that was

my plan, but this worked out really great. So another really

important part of that is, I had to be willing to kinda,

like, you know, show up when they

wanted to climb because I wanted to really be able to climb with these people

and have this community. And they like to climb in the mornings, and I

am not really a super early person, but

I show up in the mornings to leave climb with these ladies even

though that is not my style typically because this goal was really

important to me. And so I wanna just, like,

before I move on to what else what else helped me

here is I do think that risking those negative

emotions like rejection and awkwardness and embarrassment

are so worth finding the community that's perfect for you. Please don't

stop yourself from finding people because you're really

gonna help really gonna help you step

into that version of yourself, and keep looking for them. Don't

stop looking for them. I remember when I first moved to Colorado, I didn't

have very many friends. I feel like it took me 6

months to find people that I felt, like, really truly connected with,

and it was a lot of rejections. I went on a lot of friend dates.

I met up with a lot of people that I just, you know, kinda jibed

with but, like, didn't see myself jiving with for a long time. And then

I remember when I met my friend, Alex, it was I had signed

up for this mountain bike group thing, and we were biking together, and it

was like a little kid moment. I was like, oh, cool. Are are you

a beginner biker too? And she was like, we're both riding our bikes. And she's

like, yeah. And I was like, cool. Cool. Well, like, do you wanna ride

bikes outside of these kind of biking events sometimes? She was like, yeah. And I

was like, okay. I was like, well, maybe we'll, like, exchange numbers after

this. She was like, yeah. And I was like, okay. And then so we did

the awkward thing where we exchanged numbers and then, you know, I took the chance

of, like, texting her after I was like, hey. Would you like to meet up

for a ride? And then, you know, she was

also willing to show up and do it. And then now we're, like,

really great friends. And that evolved. And so if I hadn't been willing

to reject the awkwardness and embarrassment, like, I wouldn't have found

that friendship. And I had done that before and it didn't

pan out. Like, I've gotten people's numbers, texted them, and they've just

ghosted me. So we have to be willing to do it and I

think it's totally worth it. So that was like my sidebar because I know building

community is such a huge thing for some people. Okay,

the next thing that really helped me with this goal is

climbing with women. Okay, so I love my

husband. I love climbing with my husband, Michael, but there is

something really powerful about climbing with women that

I personally believe that has helped me up my game and

really work on this goal. So I think a lot

of it is that like when I'm climbing with other women, I

wanna hold my own. Like personally, and this is not to be like

this is nothing to do with them putting any pressure on me. But for me,

I wanna step up. I wanna be a strong group

contributor to any climbing trip that we go on

and the climbing that we do. And we talk about this in backpacking,

like, the different personas you step into when you're becoming more self

sufficient. Like, in backpacking being a strong group contributor

is you being to be that person that's invited along on trips and people

know that you own your own safety. You have your own back. Like, they're not

gonna have to babysit you. Right? Like, that's I'm not meaning this

in a negative way. I think it can be really empowering to know that you

can step into this role. Right? And so for me, my

desire was really high for that with climbing. Like, I wanted to

get invited on girls trips where we go climb, and I'm putting

up lead climbing routes. Like, they're not just it's not just me being like, would

you put up this rope for me? I felt like I had done that a

long time. I was ready to be

more of a leader because I had the experience.

I really wanted to step into it. It was ready. I was ready for

that. And climbing with other women just, like, really compelled that in me.

I think when I was climbing with Michael, especially because he was my husband, my

partner, right, a lot of times I would default to him

because he was he was, like, the stronger climber out

of us too. So I'd be like, no, you just climb it. Like, you'll be

faster. You're better at this. And so I would count myself out like a

lot more often. And when I'm with with other women, I'd be more willing

to, like, take those leaps of faith and that risk. And,

like, it was just a really powerful shift for me to be able to climb

with other women. Another thing that was really

helpful is I took a fall clinic in the early

springtime. I signed up. My friend told me about it. So at our gym,

they offer falling clinics. And I don't know why every gym

doesn't offer this. I've talked to some of my clients who say they don't really

do that at their gyms. They'll do some lead climbing classes, but

this class was specifically on falling. And I really appreciate

that our local gym offers this because for me,

something really clicked for me after taking a fall clinic because

basically all that we did in that clinic was

you climb up to different situations and take falls. And so he would

be like, what are you most afraid of? I'm like, I'm most afraid of, like,

getting ready to clip a bolt and falling because I'm pumped.

Right? Because that for me was like the most out of control

scenario. And so we practiced that. I mean, like, obviously,

we were practicing it in a safe way, so still being mindful, still

thinking about the fall, all of those safe practices. But he

would have me pull out a length of rope as if I was about to

clip the next one and take a fall. So I got to experience

these safe falls in all these different scenarios. And he even had

me, like I was, like, I'm really scared of taking fall or, like, doing

harder climbs because they're out I know they're out of my limit, but this is

what I want. I wanna be able to, like, get on a 5:11

unsure if I'll be able to climb it and still going for it. And he's,

like, well, let's do it. And I was like, well, what if I can't even

make it to the 2nd bowl or I get to the 1st bowl and I'm

unsure if I can get to the 2nd bowl? He was like, like, this is

just where he talked me through about, like, how a lot of this

is, yeah, we are having those risk assessments and talking through those

things. But a lot of it is communication and being, like,

in communication with your belayer and having a lot of trust and, like, your belayer

understanding this stuff too. So, anyways, that clinic gave

me a lot of positive experiences around

safe falling. And for me, that I think was huge

because my brain needed to have a lot of experiences

of safe falls so that my brain could see the correlation of

safety with falling instead of, like, panicking into the

unknown and also with different varying experiences. So, like, clipping

a bolt, falling right at the bolt, falling mid between

bolts, falling at the first bolt or, yeah, like,

shortly above the first bolt, you know, falling, clipping the

anchor, or all these things, like, I got to practice a lot of it.

So I feel like that clinic was it was only, like, an hour long,

but we did so much. And

that was, like, a huge I did only one fall clinic and I

feel like everything like, for me, a lot of the work that I did clicked.

It just it became so much more natural for me.

I talk about this a lot with my backpacking clients, like,

especially the the women who wanna go solo. They wanna go on solo

backpacking trips. Like, sometimes jumping straight

into a solo backpacking trip, especially when you have a lot of fear and

anxiety and your nervous system is, like, lighting up on fire and

making you panic, like, sometimes that's not the right move. Like,

sometimes we need to slow down and create

a, like, a resume of positive experiences around being alone and trusting yourself because a

our ongoing solo is, like, trusting yourself to make the right

decisions, trusting yourself to have your own back, to make

safety calls, to know what to do in certain situations, we need to

build a resume of positive solo

experiences. And so what I always recommend to my clients

is, like, don't be, like, so in a hurry to go

on a solo backpacking trip and freak out and not enjoy it and

panic. Maybe either you don't even go or you go out there and you hate

the experience. Like, take that time to slowly build your way up to

feeling safety around it, and it's totally okay if it takes you a

little bit longer to hit that goal. I think it will be worth it.

So that could look like, you know, going on more solo hikes. Like,

even if you're not used to solo hiking in general, like, doing more solo hikes,

going on a solo car camping trip where you have access to your

car at a campground that's like more other

people are there. It feels like a little bit more safe. Like, practice, you know,

like, even if you have a lot of just general fear around going solo, like,

even doing silly things like going to dinner by yourself or like

going to the movies by yourself. Like you just really need to create a lot

of positive experiences around being alone.

Another thing that I felt was really helpful for

me making progress on the skulls, I kept up with bouldering. So I

still go bouldering, which is another style of climbing.

If you're new to all this, you could look it up. I I didn't really

talk about that at the beginning, but I kept up with my bouldering. So I

still go bouldering at least once a week at the climbing gym as well as

all my lead climbing that I'm doing. For me, I think bouldering helps me

keep some strength and power at the forefront of my climbing,

body moves. Like,

I think it's really important. It also helps me practice dynamic

movements on the wall which has been really useful as I'm trying to do harder

stuff or more, overhung climbing routes

that are lead climbing because sometimes I'll be, like, above a bolt and I'm

not yet clipped into my next one, and the next move looks

powerful. And in the past, that would kind of freak me out. I'd be like,

I know what this is like when I'm bouldering, but when I'm, you know,

like, on lead, it would freak me out. But I think feeling more confident in

my dynamic movements from bouldering has helped me have more

confidence in my dynamic movements on lead. So

I think it has a lot to offer my lead climbing,

and it helps me learn to, like, be more bold with my

climbing in general. So that was super useful. And then

finally, I think just consistency and, like,

having self integrity towards my goal. So

falling and lead climbing and bouldering and climbing

it's something that I do every week no matter what like period.

Like I go 2 to 3 times at

minimum every single week, if not more. Sometimes when I'm going outdoors,

it ends up being more every single, almost every single

week, right? That consistency is so

important to this process, especially

for this particular goal. It was so super important to this process. No one is

going to force me to go climbing every week. Nobody's going to care about my

goal like I do. Like, I could have set this goal

and not talked about it again and nobody would have cared. They wouldn't have,

you know, been encouraging me to step up for this goal.

But I have to do it for myself and I have to show up for

myself even when in the moment, like, I don't

want to. So if you look at my journal, you'll even see some entries in

there that were, like, went bouldering today,

felt meh, like, wasn't feeling it, but I still got an hour

in, still got on some of these climbs, and I'm proud of showing

up. Like, that showing up for yourself, showing yourself

that something is important, I think, is massively important to any

goal. Like, you have to keep keep going. Right? There are areas that I do

think, like, in reflection kind of looking back at all this, areas

that I do think, like, in reflection kind of looking back at all this, there

are areas I know I still need to work on. Like, I don't feel like

I fully have achieved this goal. For me, like, a

big area that I wanna still work on is

translating that calm mind chatter and calmness that I have

indoors leading more to outdoor scenarios, especially

when the bolting is spaced out. Like, I still struggle

when things are run out, which

I'm trying to decide I need to figure out what my comfort level with that

and maybe that's just a decision, like, there are certain things maybe I just

won't lead just for a safety reason, like, I'll

just make that call. But then I think there are certain scenarios where it's just

the bolting is more spaced out in the gym, but it's totally within my realm

and I should go for it. So I need to work on that and make

some more decisions around that. So that's something I'm still working on.

I wanna do more consistent fall practice because that was doing that

one session was so powerful. I wanna do more work with that,

and climbing more outside of my range so that I fall

more. I feel like lately the last especially the last few months

I've noticed that I have been getting on climbs

and instead of like going I'll start to feel pumped and

instead of going for the next bolt, I'll just be, like, tell my

bowlerab, like, okay, I'm gonna take here and then I'll, like, I'll, like, kind of

flake try to get the pump out of my arms

and kind of reset, and then I'll finish the climb. And,

you know, sometimes I do this because we're on an overhang route. And if I

fall, like, I can't get back on where I wanted where I was starting

because a lot of the women that I'm are belaying me are,

like, way less than me. So I fall farther when

they're belaying than me so that's fine. That's not a big deal.

But if I wanna finish the climb, then it's hard to get back on the

wall for things that are really overhung. So sometimes I do that for a

reason. But I've noticed I just started doing it more instead of just

opting to push myself and can I make it to the

next? Can I push through this pump? Like, maybe I have more in me than

I'm thinking I do, so I would like

to you know, do that a little bit more. And I think

I've just gotten a little bit, like, lazy.

There's not the panic isn't there. Like, I'm not thinking about the next bolt being,

like, I'm too pumped. I'm gonna panic like where it used to be. It's more

just like, nah. I don't feel like falling. Like, it's been more of a

this kind of calm decision I've been making. So I'd like to get back into

pushing myself into, you know, seeing if I can get to the

next bolt even when I have that feeling of pumped and, like, my

muscles are tired. Right? And then I think

sticking to a training plan. So I did create a training plan midway

through this year to try to, like, work on getting stronger. I have been

okay at sticking to it. I think I haven't been taking that one

as seriously as I could. And I think for me,

I'm at this point now where in order to climb harder and climb harder

routes, which I am interested in, I'm gonna need to

take that training a little bit more seriously. So,

yeah. As far as, like, if you remember when I was reading back in my

journaling goals, I wrote down, I will know I have achieved

this goal when let's see, actually, exactly how I worded it.

I said, I will know as I'm finding this,

I know I'm consistent I've achieved this goal when I'm consistently volunteering

to lead climbs at or below and just above my

grade level range, and I talked about how I'm doing that for sure

indoors and somewhat outdoors. I could

do more of that outdoors. So that's semi

achieved. And then I wrote, I've also led 5 to 10

climbs in the range of 5 to 10 plus in the

outdoors in 2024. So I've actually only

led, 1 5 10 a outdoors since

I set this goal. I've done a lot underneath

the 5 tens outdoors, but, again, my goal

was to do 5 to 10 outdoors. So I

still haven't achieved that yet. I do still have 1

month left to hit it at the end of the year. So maybe I

will. Maybe I will hit my goal. Like, maybe I'm gonna head off to Spain

and go to that trip and, like, slay it, like, just hit it out of

the park and tick off those leads. Like, that could totally happen. I'm holding space

for that. And maybe I won't, like, hit the goal. Maybe

I will, quote, unquote, like, fail my impossible

goal. But I hope that with this long

podcast, I hope that you can see with this

example that I've laid out today that it really doesn't matter

either way. The woman that I've become in setting that

impossible goal to become a badass lead

climber, to have more confidence, to have fun with

my fear and really rewire my brain around the fear of falling,

the woman that I become in setting that goal, I've

done already so much with that experience.

Like, I have accomplished so many things. I've made so

much progress. There's been so many lessons that I've learned along the

way. I've made new friendships in the process of setting this

goal. I've gone to brand new places that I've never climbed

before, gone on some amazing climbing trips with new friends.

I've had amazing experiences, moments of joy and, like, pushing myself, all the things. I've

gotten stronger. My climbing has myself, all the things. I've gotten stronger.

My climbing has gotten better. I've, you know, honed this mental fortitude and,

like, I've created new tools for calming my brain and, like,

situations that feel more out of my control. These are huge. They're outdoor climbs at

5:10 that I've led this year. So remember, I'm not gonna be able to do

that. I'm not gonna be able to do that. I'm not gonna

be able to do that. I'm not gonna be able to do that. I'm not

gonna be able to do that. I'm not gonna led this year.

So remember, at the end of the day, setting

any kind of big goals, any big scary impossible goals,

doing that is more because it helps us set a compass and a direction

better than achieving the goal itself. Like, the becoming

of the person who achieves the goal that is

beautiful and it's so often underrated. And honestly, like,

it's so much better than achieving the goal itself. Like, the becoming of the

person who achieves the goal is the actual, like, adventure of

it all. I probably because I

I have led climbs 5, 10 plus, like, in the past, done this

part consistently. Like, I am not like, this is not something that I

haven't done before. But I really wanted to do it in a way where lead

climbing felt more fun and the mind chatter felt calm.

So I probably could have gone at the beginning of this year and just forced

myself to tick off. Fun and

calm confidence.

But made

progress on the fun and calm confidence part of the piece, which was a really

big part. It was, like, more of the the reason of doing it more than

the 510. The 510 was just more of a way to measure it because it

was, like,

this is, you know, at and some of those if it's above 5

10 plus range, like, above my level depending on the

climb, like, if I can have calm confidence in those

situations on outdoor leads, like, I will know I have achieved that goal. So

for me, it was just an easy way to measure it.

I really just wanted to have fun with this goal. I am fine with

it taking the time that it's taking. I I am busy. Like, I am doing

a lot of things also outside of this goal, and I'm learning a lot

about myself in the process of this goal. So I'm really thrilled

to have set this goal for myself. I think that I'm probably

gonna double down on it in 2025 and see what happens, kinda like

fuck around and find out, you know, and make it even bigger

and stretch myself even more because I'm still really excited about climbing and

where I could take it and, like, what happens if I like I said, some

of those things I said I could work on, like, take my training even more

seriously. I also feel like that training goal goes so

well with some other personal goals I have in my life. So I'm really

excited to kinda like, I'll tell you guys more about some of those goals as

well in the future, but I guess I'll leave you with

this. Right? So I wanna encourage you to set

that big impossible goal. Show up for it each week and do

your best and when you have an off week, like, pick yourself back up

the next week and keep going. Like, I do wanna be like, you know,

I talked about consistency being an important part of this but let me, like, give

some transparency around that. Like, I definitely did have off weeks.

There was this 3 week period in August where

I had back to back backpacking trips in California with

clients, where I really didn't climb at all.

And I know that I could have tried harder to keep up with my climbing

during that time period because I do have friends that live out there in

California. I would have people to go climbing with, but I was a

little overwhelmed with everything that I needed to do and all balancing all

the client stuff and just, like, wanting to be present for that. So I gave

myself permission for 3 weeks in August to take a break from the

climbing goal in general and that I would just pick it back up when I

got back to Colorado. So the important, like, message here is, like,

even when life is lifing which is something we talk about

with our clients all the time, like, life is lifing, like, and now what?

Right? Just don't quit. Your progress does not

require your perfection. It only asks that you don't

quit. And so if this podcast has inspired you to

set your own impossible goals for next year then I really want

you to encourage you to lean into that,

explore that, think about what that could look like for you next

year. Like December is such a great time to start thinking about what

you want to go big on in the new year, what side of yourself or

identity do you want to explore, what would you love to

create, where would you love to go, what would blow your mind if you achieved

achieved it in 2025? And don't be so afraid of the failure aspect of it.

Like, what if I don't achieve it, Allison? I hope that this podcast the biggest

thing. I hope the biggest thing has shown you is, like, it doesn't

matter if you have fully achieved your goal by the end of it.

There's so much that you will create

by going for it in belief that, you know, maybe I

could do this. Right? If you have goals around

backpacking, like if you're wanting to get more into backpacking and you have big goals

around that, like you could also do this work with us inside of our backpacking

badass program where you could walk yourself through some of the

prompts that I talked about in this episode, think about it through

the lens of backpacking, and you could use that program

as, like, a way to kinda step through the skill sets that you need to

step into to achieve that goal. And, again, if you

wanna learn more about the backpacking badass program, you can check that out at

shedreamsofalpinedot com/waitlist. Or if

you're interested in doing some of this kind of, like, reinvention,

you know, identity sort of work deeper,

kind of like I talked about, I do this with our adventurous reinvention

experience clients. We will be enrolling in that

program in late March or early

April of 2025. So you can go to that wait list at

shedreamsofalpine.com/are,

apple, red, elephant, a r e.

I will link both of those things in the show notes if you're interested in

either of those. But in that adventurous reinvention experience, like, we

worked together all summer on this concept

along with preparing for a big backpacking trip together, which usually

takes place in July or early August. And that program is

much different than the backpacking badass program, but it might be a right fit

for you. So if you want to learn more about that, you can listen to

my how to work with me episode. I wanna say that's, like, one of the

3rd or 4th episodes in this podcast and I definitely go into

more the differences between those two programs.

Okay, y'all. I'm gonna wrap this up. I can't believe I

think I've been talking about an hour now. Wish me luck

in Spain. I am so excited to get to climb with my

clients out there. If you're one of my clients that's joining me there,

I can't wait. I'll see you soon. And I'll have to

report back on if I hit my goal

in maybe a future podcast episode or something like that or post it on

Instagram. So I cannot wait to share with you more. I hope that

this podcast episode was helpful, gave you a little bit behind

the scenes look of, like, how I approach big goals, especially, like,

outdoor goals in relation to, like,

impossible goals and all those things. I can't wait to share more with,

like, some of the things that I'm setting for 2025, definitely

for another episode, but until then I will see you

in the next episode. Okay. Bye.

Hey. I wanted to thank you real quick for tuning into the show and

listening all the way to the end. If you love this episode and you want

deeper support in becoming a safe, confident, and self sufficient hiker and

backpacker, then head over to shedreamsofalpine. Com/waitless

to learn more about our backpacking badass coaching program, where I teach

you absolutely everything you need to know to be self reliant on the

trails and stop waiting around on others for the adventure

invite. So I'd love to help you more in your journey of stepping into

your adventurous identity, and that program is the

absolute best place for us to start working together. So, again,

that's she dreams of alpine.com/waitlist, and

you can learn all about it there. So that's it for today, folks. I

hope you get to spend some time outside this week, and I'll be back

very soon with a brand new episode. Bye.