Early one fall morning, late October, I bolted from a hiking trip with friends in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, just outside of Gatlinburg, TN, to head north to the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky, in an attempt to conquer the via ferrata wall in the afternoon. I had worked out routes 1-5 … Continue reading Via Ferrata: Day 6 – Revisit
I wanted to take a step back and summarize what I’ve learned so far through this practical test of my theories, and start thinking about next steps, moving forward. For now, it's pretty much a bullet-point list of what I know, but even creating something new has to be done in incremental baby-steps! KEY PRINCIPLES: … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Debriefing
I’d finished up the last of the four days I was able to eke out in Kentucky, getting comfortable with climbing around the via ferrata course there. The next morning, I scooted out of the Red River Gorge area, and hit the asphalt for a 6 hour road trip over to the rolling hills of … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 5: The Ultimate Test!
For a while now, I’ve been working on this theory of mine, of how increasing one’s competence, in comfortably uncomfortable increments, increases one's confidence in such a way that allows for the next round of competence building. I’m playing my own guinea pig as I test out the theory. I ran around the via ferrata … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 4: Triumph!!
So, what are the takeaway lessons from a realllly bumpy day? When you’ve laid out a competence-confidence plan for yourself, to tackle something new, something that has the potential to chuck you way wide of your comfort zone, there are going to be times when you don’t judge the situation correctly, when you OVERestimate what … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 3 continued: Takeaway Lessons
Competence-Confidence Plans are executed one step at a time. My next step was to get back up on that canyon wall! I searched my schedule for the opportunity to run back to the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky, a couple of weeks after my last climbing session. Because being systematic is such an important … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 3: Snatching Victory
If you stick to the system, of methodically, incrementally stretching your comfort zone, you will likely know when you’re ready for the next micro-challenge. When you contemplate that next stretch goal/task, you'll find that there’s a mixed sense of (manageable) fear and excitement and belief that you do have the capacity to pull it off. … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 2 continued: Stretching
Day 2 of executing my competence-confidence-competence plan. In the morning, I tucked in a quickie hike up to see Natural Bridge - it was so close, on the same road as the via ferrata, how could I not?!?! It's one of Kentucky's beloved landmarks and I finally got to see it - Mother Nature has … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 2: Oops
To prepare for the 150- 280' via ferrata heights at Nelson Rocks in West Virginia, I had about 4 weeks to get my act together, to basically go from belly crawling on the ground to soaring, head-in-the-clouds, heights. Whew, whew, breathe!!! Fortunately, this particular endeavor already had a fairly easy competence-confidence progression with which I … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Day 1: The Plan
Lately I’ve been on a kick of “Just say, ‘Yes!’” when someone asks if I want to do something together. I have a fair amount of social anxiety, so it’s been a bit of a practice for me, to help me get outside of myself and get on with my life. Recently, a guy I … Continue reading Via Ferrata, Intro: You Take Me Higher
Smarter-Not-Harder U 