9 | Honoring Self When You Reach The Mountain Top

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Welcome back. Today we're going to discuss how to fully embrace high achieving moments with a culture of honor.

So imagine you've had a dream - for years, maybe even decades

• You made the deal

• You got the job

• You made the Olympic team

• You finally hit a breakthrough within your career

• You finally hit the financial goal you've been working so hard for

• You met the girl | you found the guy

• Your company just got an offer and it's twice as much as what you ever dreamt of

• Your team won the national championship

Imagine a moment coming into fulfillment that you've only ever dreamt about.

Okay. So keep that moment in your mind.

I'd like to now introduce you to

What Olympic medalists call "the gold medal syndrome"

It's a weird and surprising experience that athletes discover after a big win.

Instead of finding happiness, they wake up to an extremely low feeling of emptiness.

And it's surprising. They've been working years, if not decades, for this.

And their dream just happened.

And not even one week later, they feel depressed.

What is going on?

So that's gold medal syndrome.

But this only seems to happen with one type of person.

I may be overgeneralizing here.

But in my mind, I've met two types of people.

The first type of person is an outcome-focused person.

This is the type of person that wakes up feeling empty after a big win.

This is the type of person who stops the pursuit after making the climb to the peak of their first mountain.

This is the first type of person. This person is the person who experiences gold medal syndrome.

They've only ever had their eyes on WHAT they wanted to achieve. The one mountain peak. And have never looked beyond that.

Now let me introduce you to the second type of person.

The second type of person is a process-focused person.

They reach the peak of one mountain,

and then point towards their second mountain.

They never experience gold medal syndrome.

And here's why:

As they get closer to that big win,

they're already defining what their "second mountain" is going to be.

Because for them, it's not necessarily about the win.

It's about the process of mastery they are committed to.

The results, or wins, only help to support the pursuit of the process of mastery.

The person that has modeled this the most is an incredible human being, Alex Honnold.

He's most known for free soloing both Half Dome and El Cap.

There's an amazing documentary made about his story in free soloing El Cap.

And one scene caught my attention.

A scene most would never pay attention to.

It's a scene that shows his journal.

And if you look closely enough, you can see his note on the climb he wants to focus on after El Cap.

AFTER EL CAP?!

Anyone who's been to Yosemite Valley knows that there

should be no "after El Cap."

It's the Gold Medal of all Gold Medals.

Even in interviews the main question people ask Alex is:

"Are you going to be done after El Cap?"

These people are the first type of people, result-focused people.

But not Alex.

His response to these questions . . . it's like he doesn't even understand the question.

Because his brain works so much differently.

El Cap is just another way for him to engage in the process of climbing that he loves so much.

It's a stepping stone in his pursuit of mastery.

I'm not sure if the language of "Second Mountain" applies here because he's more like on his "Fifth Mountain."

But what is so inspiring about this journey is that despite the big "wins" - he wakes up the next day with the next mountain in mind.

And that reveals he is a person of honor.

HE KNOWS HIMSELF.

He enjoys who he is.

He knows he's a climber, which is way more than "the man who free soloed El Cap."

A climber figures out how to become a better climber, even after climbing El Cap.

If he were just the man who free soloed El Cap - he'd be done once he did that.

And then wake up feeling empty.

Here's how this ties into honoring self.

I believe that Alex Honnold has done the inner work in his mind and heart to get really clear on who he is and what he's about and then woken up every day to go fully be that man.

He's actually done the inner work. And how I can tell is how humble he is.

I've seen interviews of him before he did these climbs and I've seen interviews of him after he did these climbs.

And you know? I see the same person.

WHO he is hasn't changed. He hasn't let the success get to him.

And this is culture of honor.

He honored himself before these great achievements.

And because he did that - he doesn't rely on his achievements to honor himself.

He didn't NEED these climbs on his resume.

No, he pursued these climbs out of freedom of who he was, what he was about and what his mission was.

How amazing is that.

And you have the exact same opportunity.

If you go into the pursuit of your first big mountain, having cultivated an honor for yourself, you will find freedom in the journey, and you will also know that you've got the character, the heart, to not only reach the first mountain by being who you are, but to always have a second mountain peak in mind. Because your commitment is to the journey - not accomplishing the peak.

Honoring self - yes keeps us grounded in our big success moments. But that's only an effect of the cause.

The deeper thing happening is we're becoming the kind of people, the kind of leaders that will always have a sense of momentum in our lives,

because WHO we are unlocks our pursuit.

We will never experience the gold medal syndrome.

Because it will never be about achieving something,

it will be about fully embracing who we are with joy, excitement, contentment and enthusiasm that involves achievements along the way.

Who we are informs our worth. Not our achievements.

So what does culture of honor look like in a mountain peak moment?

Celebrating the achievement.

And also keeping your feet grounded in the freedom of who you are.

This achievement is part of your character. It's not all of your character.

It's interesting to watch how Alex Honnold celebrates after he reaches the top of El Cap.

His friends who were filming, which was kind of nerve racking for them, are all exploding with excitement. And begin making their way over to him.

But if you watch Alex - he simply climbs over the edge.

Turns himself around and sits quiet for a moment.

He's not jumping up and down, he doesn't even have the expression of "oh my gosh I just did it."

No, he's quiet, content, and takes a moment to look out over Yosemite Valley

and simply . . . take in the moment.

I think when we live out of who we are, in our top moments, we keep it simple and embrace the moment. We don't try and extend the moment, or protect it.

We simply embrace the moment.

And then after a little while. We move on. And out of the sense of simply being ourselves, we start making our way to the second mountain - with just as much joy and enthusiasm and excitement.