Climbing a cliff I become fatigued, cannot go on, notice that my hands are clammy, feel my energy dispersing and no longer want to be up here. I look to the people down below and detect feelings of trepidation beginning to consume me. I call out: “I can’t go any higher. It’s too hard and I’m too tired. I want to come down.”
The man who has been feeding the rope to me and guiding me on this climb calls back: “Don’t give up. You can make it to the top. Just believe in yourself!” I feel agitated with his response. I wanted him to say: “It’s alright, you can come down.” But he didn’t. I look back overhead. Still I cannot see any hand holes or protruding rocks to grab, so that I might pull myself higher. I yell out again: “I’m really tired and I’ve hurt my hand. I need to come down now.” He agrees and starts guiding me down. I think to myself: “It’s ok, I did well for my first time. Some people wouldn’t even have had a go. But I did.”
This voice is not one of reason, but of fear. It is not because of weakness that I could not climb to the top, but a mindset many of us have for believing we are inadequate and incapable of achieving our intentions. We feel comforted by this feeling; the feeling we meet with when fear defeats courage. “It’s alright,” we tell ourselves, “it’s just too hard.” But it is not too hard. It is only in our mind that a silly tale like this can subsist.
On my next climb I clamber once again up the wall. I fatigue near the same point I made it to last time. But someone calls out: “Keep climbing, you can rest when you’re dead!” Something happens inside of me. Fueled by my desire to succeed, and propelled forward by an urgent thirst for life, I continue. I reach the top and scream out in elation: “Yes! I made it!” I take in the beauty of the view from up here. I see rugged green mountains encircling a tranquil turquoise bay, coconut trees shooting to the heavens, and fluffy white clouds blanketting a baby blue sky. I begin descending down the rock face, accompanied this time by feelings of satisfaction and not solace. Courage helped me to do this while fear was waiting at the sideline.
We can do anything we want to do in life if we only believe in ourselves. Fear tells us that we are fragile and that something bad could happen to us. Though courage knows our true strength, and will never demand anything of us we are not capable of achieving. A dove is safest in its aviary, but doves are not born to be caged.
