I challenge you to take a moment to ask yourself these three questions: Do I know what I am most afraid of? Do I dare to dream of facing it? Am I living my most adventurous life?
One of the greatest risks you can take, in my opinion, is to publicly declare the undertaking of a challenge where the outcome is uncertain. In my case, the odds of successfully reaching the top of Mt. Cho Oyu were rather slim especially when taking into account that last season there were very few summits. Once I evacuated my climbing partner Kheiry, sent down my 2 climbing Sherpas and my basecamp support Jeremie to be with Kheiry, my odds decreased even further. How did I respond to this? With fear? Did I retreat? Did I quit or give up? No. I made a choice to embrace the unknown. I embraced the uncertainty. I embraced the negative odds, rose to the challenge and attempted to overcome these impossible odds. The question is: Why don’t we all do this in our everyday lives?
In general, we make as many excuses as possible. We consider and focus on of all of the possible negative outcomes, the percentages of failure, the ridicule we may face if we do not succeed while choosing not to believe in ourselves, our potential and our ability to prevail in anything that we attempt. Why?
There is this myth that we’ve created in our minds that only extraordinary people can achieve great things. I challenge you to take a moment to rethink what is possible. Whether you’re climbing an 8000M peak, running an ultra-marathon, applying for the best University, training to become a doctor or lawyer, finishing your homework, sleeping with the light off, starting a new business, helping your family, raising money for a charity or helping another fellow human being. It is ALL possible.
The rewards of taking the first step are immense. Knowing you’re working towards making your dream a reality is one of the greatest feelings we can ever experience. The greatest tragedy in life is never having tried and never having lived. Life is about experience and if you’re not growing, learning, loving, contributing, experiencing, succeeding and evolving then what are you doing in your life? Forget what the person next to you thinks, listen to what you want, what you dream of, what you fear the most and face it head on. Do it with the greatest passion and the greatest amount of love and I guarantee that whether you find success or ‘failure’ that the journey will be immensely rewarding in ways you cannot even imagine.
Ever since I was a teen-ager, I’ve been taking what I call ‘calculated risks’. I was never afraid to fail in anything that I tried. Why? Because what mattered to me was happiness. What mattered to me was truth. What mattered to me was that I was being true to myself, my beliefs and my dreams. I fell many times, often flat on my face, often beaten up by the experience of life, but each time I came back stronger, more determined, more experienced and more fulfilled.
Discover, Search, Find and Inspire. Listen to your heart, seek out your greatest challenge that lies dormant in your heart and embrace the idea of facing it head on. Let the undetermined outcome become your source of strength. Find pleasure in overcoming your fear of failure and rise above your clouds, your 8000M summit and your Cho Oyu Challenge.
Your life, is your adventure. Do you choose to live it to the fullest?
Thank you for following along and giving me the strength to live mine.
With love,
Elia Saikaly
