Life Lessons from Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

On August 11, 2024, me and 5 of my 6 kids traveled to Africa to hike Mount Kilimanjaro.? Mount Kilimanjaro has an elevation of 19,341 and is located 3 degrees south of the equator in Tanzania.

A lot of individuals tend to dwell on the lessons learned from the planning, preparation, training, and collecting the proper gear, and there is a lot to be said about that.? However, the most meaningful lessons for me came while actually on the mountain.

The climb included 8 days of fairly difficult hiking and living conditions.? Since August is part of the dry season on the mountain, it was hot and very dusty while hiking through the jungle during the first couple of days.? Thankfully, the evenings cooled off a lot and made the hardness of the ground a little more comfortable while sleeping.? However, since there is limited water on the mountain, no showers were available during the entire 8 days and everyone uses damp cloths or wet-wipes to clean up as much as possible each evening before climbing into your sleeping bag.?

Lesson #1:? Don’t ever under-estimate the power of adaptability in your ability to accomplish goals.?

On the mountain, adapting to whatever it throws at you is critical to your ability to succeed.? Whether it’s the heat, the cold, the dirtiness, the thin air, the condition of the primitive restrooms, the uncomfortableness of sleeping on the hard ground, or maybe the food you have to eat; how you react and respond to adversity weighs a lot in determining if you are able to enjoy the journey and have a successful climb.

Lesson #2:? Lean into the adversity and see what you can learn from it.?

Adversity, pain, and discomfort have a way a stripping away a lot of non-essential distractions and helps you focus and zero in on your goal and the reason you are here in the first place.? Our group experienced ?multiple times when the higher elevations starting causing a number of health issues including; nose-bleeds, headaches, nausea, etc.? One of the best ways we got through it was continuing to support each other.? There was no denying to ourselves the adversity and discomfort we faced, and it didn’t really do any good to complain.? It forced us to think about ways to get through it.??

Looking up at the summit could be daunting by seeing how far you still had to go and could start playing games with your mind, such as telling you that you the goal was still so far away and you might not make it and that you could quit anytime and go back down and take the easy way out.? So a number of times each of us just had to tell ourselves and each other, “I’m not going to worry about the summit or what tomorrow may bring, but I know and can make it to the next ridge and through today.? Tomorrow will take care of itself and I’ll worry about it tomorrow.

After 6 tough days of hiking we arrived at the highest base camp at over 15,000 feet late in the afternoon.? Our final ascent would be made from this base camp starting that same evening.? Needless to say we didn’t get much rest for the remainder of the day.? That evening at 10:30pm the guides called us and said it was time for the final climb.? We then proceeded to put on our warmest clothes and our headlamps and start the final accent in the dark.? If all worked out the way it was supposed to, we would hike all night and reach the summit by sunrise.? It was probably good to only have visibility a few feet in front of you that night.? To see how far away the summit was would not have helped.? Progress was very slow.? A couple of our team were so tired they begin nodding-off during the night while hiking.? One thing we had not adequately prepared for was saving enough candy bars and good tasting sugar / carbs to keep us energized.? This was a bigger problem than I had ever imagined.? I have to say this final 4,000 feet of elevation was very physically demanding.

Lesson #3:? This life-lesson is probably the most important.? Real success, I believe, comes from combining your deepest desires with your values, experience, abilities, and personal faith into a single passion to accomplish the goal set before you.?

Succeeding on Kilimanjaro took a lot more than just planning and wanting to do it and hoping for the best. ?It took a “never give up” attitude and it took knowing the depths of yourself and that comfort of knowing you’re not the first to be in this situation and repeating in your mind that “you’ve got this and you can make it.”

We also had a local team around us which provided a lot of support.? There were the guides, the porters, the camp cook, and of course, the encouragement we got from them and each other along the way. My daughter and son certainly did their part as emergency room nurses in providing the pain meds and medical advice we needed along the way.?

Life-Lesson #4:? This lesson is about leadership:? You can’t be a leader on your own.? Leadership is not a solo sport.?

Climbing Kilimanjaro takes the knowledge and wisdom of an experienced guide. ?Our guide had climbed to the top over 150 times and was a motivator, coach, supporter, and counselor during our 8 days.? Much easier to follow someone into the unknown when you have confidence in their abilities and knowing they will look out for you.? Isn’t it that way in your business and personal relationships as well.

I am happy to say on the morning of August 19th our climb had a glorious ending with seeing the sun rise from the summit of Kilimanjaro.? We all made it to the top.? And to be sure, we were all very tired.? All six of us can say we climbed to the summit of Kilimanjaro, but none of us can say we did it on our own.? It was truly a team effort.? Interestingly enough though, I ask all our team members while enjoying dinner the next evening in the hotel, “Would you ever like to do all this again?”? The unanimous response including myself was, “absolutely not.”? Just a reminder for a last life-lesson, that not all the efforts expended to achieve success are desirable to repeat.