Be Gentle with Failure
By Steve House
Be Gentle.
You see the world from your point of view. We all do. The default setting for humans is to be egocentric. Totally normal. When a petite blonde woman climbs better than 99.99% of the rest of climbers it brings out the worst of that egocentrism. Protecting our individual egos enables the rise of sometimes ugly behavior, including abhorrent bullying.
Here are some things you can read about Sasha online:
She’s too scared to climb outside.
She’s too heavy to climb hard.
She’s only sponsored because she’s blonde and a woman.
This disdain is confusing because Sasha Digullian is one hell of a good rock climber. And in my estimation, there are few sports as tough as rock climbing. In typical endurance sports they say that it never hurts less, you just go faster. In hard rock climbing the harder you climb, the more it hurts. There is no plateau to the pain and discomfort. The worse the holds are, the more it hurts. The more unnatural the movements are, the more it hurts. Weighting the first holds causes searing pain in your fingertips, your finger joints feel like they might snap, and sometimes they do, and the shoes you wear are so painfully tight you can only wear them on for a few minutes at a time. Yet, when Sasha isn’t being the target of direct derision, all people want to talk about is that she is blonde and attractive.
Core to the mission of Voice of the Mountains is to show that the best climbers in the world are as human, as emotional, and as vulnerable, as you are.
Sasha gets scared and Sasha is brave. Sasha is strong and she trains hard for that strength. Sasha has introduced climbing to big brands and in the process she has made the pie bigger for all striving professional climbers. She started and runs her own nutrition company, and she is a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
Listen carefully to Sasha and you will hear in her voice how rejected she has felt, and how hard she works. Her tone of voice drips with humanity. And if you can park your ego long enough to see that your belief in the talent of others is your ego’s way of excusing your lack of prioritization of your own goals, you will feel her obsession, her drive, her focus.
We are fallible. Humanity is fallible; that much Sasha’s story clearly shows us. But obsession, more often than not, has at its source the inner critic. The inner critic is so important because it is that voice whose whispers are the source of insecurity, need for approval, the relentless bombardment that she is not enough.
Climbing hard is hard. Being a professional climber is hard. Being bullied and criticized and minimized is hard. Wisdom is virtually impossible because it takes going through all those hard things, and more. My challenge to you today is to become Sasha. Listen to her as if you ARE Sasha. Give up your worldview for a moment and see the world as Sasha sees it. And try, please try, to wrap her—and yourself—in the soft blanket of understanding, appreciation, and tell her:
She is enough.
Exploring the poetic soul of the mountains.
Voice of the Mountains explores the mental and emotional adventures found in discovering who we are and what we’re capable of. Here we engage in self-reflection and humility, and embrace the beauty and struggle of the alpine experience equally.
