Leading is Leadership
The harder you climb, the more people look up to you.
Not only are the masses physically craning their sore necks skyward just to watch you dance into the clouds….
…they are learning from your movement, your mistakes and how you manage your relationship with your partner. Just like you, they have disappointment, fear and a distracted belayer. But they are thinking you do it better.
EVERYONE IS WATCHING AND LEARNING
Just like you, they are thirsty for harder grades, more ease, grace and flow on the rock. You represent something they don’t have, and also a way forward. They are thinking, “maybe one day I’ll move like that,” and even if they don’t know how or when that will ever happen, your impression sneaks its way into their vision of a good climber and who they look forward to becoming.
DID YOU EVEN KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING?
When you decide to take on the responsibility of lead climbing you are agreeing to take on more risk to your body and spirit. Flipping upside-down and ground falls become part of reality that toproping can ignore. You learn to manage risk, and invite the danger quite a bit closer. We will talk about Death another day, but for now, acknowledge her Power and Presence in this conversation. A leader shows restraint when the cost is too high. A leader is someone who understands that a life with more complex decisions and consequences is worth the reward of wisdom, power and joy.
A leader goes first, showing others a way forward they could not have imagined without first watching your fine body creeping across the wall.
Lead climbing means being a leader in a community with no elections. There is no governing body that says you must be a kind and qualified role model to ride the sharp end. Anybody who wants to gets to lead eventually. And when you do, what will you be teaching those still on the ground?
And if you think no one looks up to you because you are falling on 5.5. toprope, crawl out of this hole of false humility and into the sunshine of the bright, precious space you take up in this dark forest of real life. First of all, there children watching and they might even be your children. We are all gods to children in the ways we both rule and inspire. My dad first took me climbing on a 5.4 wearing his yellow hardhat and carrying a double rack of nuts scared out of his mind for my life and his and he was (and still is) the coolest person alive. And remember the time six months ago, or six years ago, when you were slipping off jugs in rental shoes and you saw someone with bigger muscles and a little more bravery who inspired you to try a little hard and show up more often?
NOW YOU HAVE BECOME THAT PERSON.
Whether you knew it or not, what has your presence inspired in your community today?