Rock climbing is a unique sport that has challenged my problem solving skills and self confidence. There are many life lessons that can be drawn from rock climbing. Here are 3 indoor boulder problems I climbed over this past weekend that demonstrate 3 life lessons I’ve learned from rock climbing.
Life Lesson 1: Everybody has a different beta
In climbing, beta means advice or solution.
When somebody asks “What’s the beta for this problem?” – they are usually asking for the solution. When somebody asks “Can you offer me some beta for this problem?” – they are usually asking for some advice. Both ways of using beta essentially point to what the solution is to the boulder problem.
Everybody’s got their own way of solving problems in life. You can look at other people did, but don’t conclude that their way to achieving success is the only way. There’s no rule against copying somebody else’s method, but if it doesn’t work for you, then try something else.
Try and fail repeatedly until you find your unique beta.
Boulder Problem 1
In this problem, I had to drop my knee, slowly lean over, and stretch my right arm out to reach for the next hold on the volume. I actually attempted this problem like at least 10 times a week ago, so I knew most of the sequence prior to completing it in this video.
I tried doing what my friend did when I first attempted this problem – reaching over from a standing position; however, the hold for my left hand was terrible. I couldn’t hold onto it to stop my body from swinging out when I was trying to reach the next blind hold. I had to resort to doing the move more statically and from a lowered position.
It took a lot of tries to position my body and rotate my right ankle to get me to the next hold. Not gonna lie – this problem frustrated me the most in my climbing session.
Life lesson 2: The best lesson in life is failure
Falling in rock climbing is scary, especially when you’re high off the ground or have boulders you can crash into on your way down. It can also hurt a lot – I know a friend who fell wrong and dislocated his elbow. I’ve had falls where I’ve cheese grated my own skin on my way down. Makes me cringe thinking about it…
Despite the fear and pain, falling in rock climbing teaches you a lot about what you need to change in your beta and climbing technique to complete the problem. It’s okay to fall.
The same idea goes for treating failure in life. Failure sucks when you experience it because it’s often painful and embarrassing. That pain and embarrassment can last for a minute, an hour, or even a day, but once you get over it, you gain wisdom as to where and what you need to improve on to move forward.
A real and recent example has been my failure with job interviews. I haven’t been able to make it past the second round of any of the job interviews I’ve had. GRRRR!! After 3 interviews, I’ve realized that I need to improve my technical software skills for Full Stack Web Development.
Remember this! Just like after you fall from rock climbing, sometimes you gotta take a minute to recollect yourself. Check yourself to make sure that you’re okay. Maybe laugh a little. Then get back up and try again.
Boulder Problem 2
In this problem, I took a hard fall. I don’t know how I didn’t cheese grate myself on the way down, but thank God I didn’t. I had to lay down for a couple of minutes to recover.
Once I collected my marbles, I got up, trolled my friend a bit, and then tried the problem again. I was out of juice to hold the side pull so I stopped climbing. I also realized that I needed to practice swapping feet during climbing – I fell because I let go of my right foot which was carrying most of my weight. For next time, I think I’ll need to slowly transfer the weight from my right to left foot.
This is my current project now.
Life Lesson 3: Trust your feet to get you there
There are boulder problems where you have to stand up on or push off of one foot to reach the next hold.
In those moments, it really becomes a mental battle of trusting yourself to not lose footing when you release all that weight off your foot and reach for that next hold.
If you don’t trust yourself to get a job done or to accomplish your own goals, then it doesn’t matter how much encouragement you’re offered because you’re not going to get to where you want to be. As important as it is to get other people to help you, you also have to trust yourself in the process to get to where you need to be.
Building up that trust in yourself involves putting in the consistent repetition and practice of what you need to do.
Boulder Problem 3
This problem involved getting high feet to reach the last hold.
I had to trust my left foot a lot on this one because I was pushing off of my left leg to get me to the last hold. My left foot wasn’t in the best spot – it was like on a very small area of the volume. I felt like I could’ve slipped off it at any time. Thank God I didn’t.
If there are any other life lessons from rock climbing you have learned, leave it in the comments below. I’d love to hear them!
