The sacrifice for purpose, meaning and inner potential
Recently I re-watched Free Solo, the film about Alex Honnold, the first man to solo climb one of the most revered and feared peaks in the word, El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California in June 2017.
Scaling a smooth granite surface with millimetre wide footholds without a rope is a feat only for a very select few.
One mistake means certain death.
There are no athletic endeavours that compare in terms of physical and mental demands and the height of the stakes. Honnold scaled the 900m climb in just under 4 hours making over 4,000 precise, individual hand and foot movements, a move every 4 seconds.
A men's tennis Grand Slam final lasts a similar duration, the last final between Alcaraz and Djokovic lasted 3h 40 minutes with around 1,000 shots being played and 28 unforced errors by the winner, Alcaraz.
So on that count Alcaraz dies 28 times, but if you assume he took 500 of the total 1,000 shots then multiply that by eight (to match the 4,000 movements) he dies over 200 times.
Amazing how high stakes sharpen focus.
However, it's not so much the feat itself that I want to focus on - it's the mindset and attitude behind the feat which is in some ways more interesting and watching Free Solo gives you a glimpse of this.
In the case of Honnold, he lived in a van for over a decade funded by a modest college fund from his late father and some small sponsorship deals, living on as little as $3 a day. He essentially sacrificed basic needs Maslowian needs such as safety, comfort and love, in search of self-actualisation - specifically purpose, meaning and inner potential.
He was prepared to 'endure' a decade with virtually no income and no future certainty of income, because climbing is what made him feel most alive. It was 100% intrinsically motivated.
In a recent interview, he talks about not knowing when his breakthrough was going to come but in no way cutting corners to make it happen, for instance he aborted the first attempt to climb El Capitan because he did not feel comfortable with a media circus around him and had to wait until the next season to try again. His message was to just keep doing your thing, be authentic and the rewards will follow.
Eventually he received royalties from the film, sponsorship deals and was paid $500,000 for scaling Taipei 500 in Taiwan on 25th January without a rope.
I really resonate with this story – It’s my fuel to keep going when self-doubt and externalities pressurise you to quit. How many people like Honnold may have thrown the towel in too early and never achieved their dream?
Purpose and meaning now come via the Honnold Foundation. With his newfound wealth, Honnold donates a third of his earnings to supporting good causes.
So while climbing is his passion, philanthropy became his purpose - the climbing gives him the means to work for something bigger than himself.
I'd love to hear about what and who motivates you to keep persevering and ignoring the doubters. What’s it like inside your van?
