Kay:
Hello there Questers and welcome back. It’s Monday, October 4th, and this is episode 456. We have a quote for you today from Edmund Hillary. In fact, Sir Edmund Percival Hillary. He was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist, and he’s got a pretty good explorer quote for us today.
Shi:
Your quote today is, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
Kay:
What a deep quote but such a simple phrase. I mean, I think we’re in less than 10 words here, but we’ve got something here that’s quite the mountain of content.
Shi:
It really is and as Kay mentioned, Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer, adventurer but one of the first climbers who have been confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest and part of the ninth British expedition to Everest. So, when you have someone that’s that accomplished in one field particularly when it comes to something physically dangerous and taxing, I think that it’s safe to say this person has faced those fears, those walls, those limitations, and figured out how to get through to the other side which makes this kind of advice even more poignant.
Kay:
Yeah, because Sir Edmund Percival Hilary has conquered a literal mountain. In fact, the literal largest mountain in the entire world being Mount Everest. So, he’s done the thing that the quote is metaphorically telling you about here. So, he’s saying, it’s not that literal mountain and this is a lesson that he’s likely learned along the way, that he himself took so much more conquering than the actual mountain itself. The amount of training it took to go into that, the amount of preparation it took to go into that, the amount of mountaineering he likely had to do just to get to the point to be ready for Everest likely took him years of preparation.
Shi:
And then even with all of that preparation, no doubt the mountain, the act, anytime he was on a mountain, not just Everest, but anytime, mountaineering or conquering a literal mountain facing that up-front opponent that lives inside of us all. That tells you, you should quit, and this is hard and why are you doing this? And oh, my leg and oh, I’m thirsty and it’s too hot and can’t we just stop. I don’t know about you guys, but I got the internal complainer that does that stuff all the time.
Kay:
That kind of stuff definitely lives inside my brain too. Whether you’re on the mountain or preparing for the mountain, oftentimes it’s you who is your biggest obstacle. You’re the one who gets in your own dang way. I know I get in my way. I know that that can be something that many of us struggle with. When we are trying to go up against something hard, sometimes I was going to be a little self-reflective, but do you make it harder on yourself? Yeah.
Shi:
This is the entire reason why I try and find the most entertaining things that I can watch while I’m doing my runs on the treadmill because that internal complainer gets really loud when the effort is high and things are tough when you’re facing the mountain, whether it’s metaphorical or literal. So, finding something that you can focus on, that you can redirect to helps you distract from that, but not going to lie, it’s still there.
Kay:
Yeah. The voice is there when you are conquering the mountain and when you get to the top, you get this little moment of reprieve, along the way you find moments of Zen that are really great, but even still it’s that internal dialogue, it’s that YOU. Oftentimes, for Sir Edmund Hillary, he was likely motivated already. But for many of us, the journey up to Mount Everest starts from sitting on the couch, eating potato chips, having a dream of climbing the mountain. So, the climb can feel so steep, and that mind can talk so much that sometimes even talk ourselves out of a climb before we get started.
Shi:
I feel like we need to cue the Rocky montage now from couch to summit. What it takes in between is all of that preparation and that preparation time and that training time and that conditioning time is the part where we slowly but surely conquer ourselves where we’re able to, despite that voice. Turn the volume down on it or make it your best friend or distract from it or work through it, whatever your process is. It’s likely a combination of all of them because it takes all of the strategies. But there it is, you can go through the Rocky montage and come out the other side, just as Edmund. Hillary reminds us here in this quote.
Kay:
Now Edmond has a quote, but I cannot let this go by without saying it’s the
Kay & Shi:
[singing] “eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight. Rising to the challenge of our rivals.”
Kay:
Sir Edmund Hillary said, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
Shi:
Alright, it is Monday fun day run day, get it done day and today is all about exploring. So, make a plan to take an adventure before the end of the year. You’ve still got a few months left. Some adventure, even if it’s a hike on an upcoming weekend, do it for yourself and watch how you can conquer the mountain and that inner voice and explore the unknown territory. Are you ready? Pack up with us now?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
