I do not think I am someone special.
Or maybe I do but not even remotely unique or wildly gifted way. Sure, I think differently than a lot of people around me but I think there is WAY more divergence in that regard than most of us realize.
The point I am trying to make is that, for me, choosing to do "impossible" things makes them possible. Maybe not possible immediately. Or easily. Or in the way everything has thought of them up until now. But possible. Just think for a moment about all the things that were "impossible" until one day they were not any more. If I agree that a thing is impossible, I give it permission to be that. If I refuse to accept that it is impossible, if I deny it permission to BE impossible, then it's not.
For me, mountain climbing has become a tangible way to practice this approach to life. I am not a mountain climber. I have no interest in climbing lots of mountains or even in acquiring any actual mountaineering skills. But my dad, my brother and I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro several years ago. And I decided that I want to climb as many of the Seven Summits as I can. And - maybe - do the 50 HighPoints. This is the philosophy - find a goal so big that it captivates you and requires you to do lots of things along the way to the goal. That way if you miss your goal, you will have achieved so much more than if you were not aiming that high.
So I've set my sights on the tallest mountain in South America next. I plan to be standing on that mountain when I turn 50. When I summit a couple of weeks later, that will be 2 of 7 down. But much more than that moment of accomplishment is the commitment to climbing. To being a climber. Choosing to live with purpose. So that the thousands of decisions I make every week add up to more than the sum of their whole.
I'm an educator. A husband. A dad. I am a man who does his best every day to choose to climb. Thanks for looking in on this leg of my ascent.