A Journey of Grit and Bonding: Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

This one is a story of a 10-year-old and me. It is a story about accomplishing challenging things together, learning and growing, inspiring and motivating others, cultivating grit, and enjoying the journey.

On Monday, May 20th, me and my daughter hiked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South Rim. She is 10 years and 8 months old. My Garmin clocked 26.68 mi/5161 ft of elevation gain in 13 hours and 28 mins inclusive of all breaks. We started at 4:45am in the dark and finished at 6:13pm. I was so happy to see her finish, the sense of accomplishment for this one was different for me as well. It was special to share the time, the mountains, the struggles, the celebrations and the bonding. She showed a lot of grit, and commitment through it all, and I know she will go on to do big things in life. And then, I'll tag her on LinkedIn :)

Earlier this year, as a family, we signed up to do a parent-child goal together. It was a way to spend some quality time 1:1 doing something active. My daughter committed to training for Grand Canyon Rim to Rim in a day with me and my son picked a different goal with my husband. I had done the Rim to Rim hike a couple of times, so I felt confident leading her through it. However, I was also nervous about setting such an audacious goal with someone so young. Will she be able to do it? Will she be motivated throughout? What would she do if the conditions aren't favorable? Am I equipped to handle any emergency and ensure she stays safe? How will I make sure she enjoys the experience and has fun? And so, we started our "journey". I wanted to do everything possible to make the whole experience fun for her and support her through it.

Every weekend, rain or shine or snow, we hiked. We built up slowly from 4 mi to 22.5 mi which was our longest training hike. Waking her up early on weekends was a challenge, and so was keeping her cheerful. Many times, my hikes didn't feel as peaceful as I like them to be, due to some understandable and excusable whining from a 10-year-old. But generally, she was motivated to accomplish her goal. There were times she wanted to give up, but I'd lift her up, and there were times I was tired, and she'd say "Mumma, suck it up!". We got to talk a lot about different topics, ranging from school to the environment to family & friends’ issues. She even planned out a full babysitting business with some very complicated rules :) We had some friends join us on the training hikes (and on the final trip). We did 19 training hikes this year, covering 172.77mi, and 56,135ft of elevation gain! Some hikes were in a drizzle, some with high winds and one in total pouring rain. As my trainer says, there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate gear. So, we fine-tuned her gear over time as well. Slowly, we pushed up the start time so she'd get used to waking a little earlier, and I would get try things to get her energy and motivation going in the first hour. We would go celebrate after each hike with a trip to Starbucks as her treat. Thanks to Taylor Swift, whose songs shared a few miles with us, both with her listening to it and us singing along. While it wasn't always all smiles, she persisted and so did I. On the final day, she woke up at 3am, I gave her some Gu gel for caffeine, but other than that, she was highly motivated to hike. We took some breaks including a long one at Phantom Ranch, where she wrote out some post cards that would be delivered by the "mule” and suffered through the last 5 miles in heat going uphill after already having tired legs.

So, what are the takeaways, from this and from parenting that applies to work teams too:

·???????Dream big. What you model for your kids and your team will help them dream big too.

·???????Everyone can follow along and must also do the work. I couldn’t have hiked for her, so she needed to be committed once she had the dream and put in the work.

·???????Stick together; helping others meet their goals feels amazing, including the triumphs and the tribulations.

·???????Go have fun and make memories. This is a lot of waking time spent together, it will suck if you don’t have fun and make some deep connections.

·???????Celebrate. Whether it was the post hike treats, or the celebrations post the hike, it is important to celebrate.

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