The Power of Creating Impossible Goals

Over the last month, I took the biggest PAUSE of my life to take one step towards my impossible goal - to scale Mt. Everest.

I took a break from working, creating, coaching, and meeting people and invested all my energy into this first step.

This first step was a 17-day expedition in the Himalayas that got me climbing beyond Everest Base Camp, to summit Lobuche East, at 6100m above sea level.

Besides all the training that it took to get myself ready for the climb, one of the biggest commitments I had to make was to plan the rest of my life around this goal.

For someone who usually doesn’t take more than a couple of days off from work, a 17-day pause is kind of a BIG deal.

But spending over 2.5 weeks climbing, sitting with my own thoughts, dealing with sub-zero temperatures and of course, a barrage of emotions gave me something that none of the other projects in my life could have given me - A whole different perspective.

“So, how was the expedition?” a lot of you asked. “Did you make it to the summit?”

The short answer is YES! The long answer is below.

Some experiences are really hard to put into words, but I tried my best to capture the new perspectives that this experience gifted me:

1. Trust Your Body To Do Magical Things - My toughest day on the climb was not the Summit day. It was 2 days before on my way to Everest Base Camp when acute mountain sickness took over me. With every step I took, I felt like there was a hammer pounding at the back of my head. With the air getting thinner and very little oxygen at 5500m, I found myself taking the longest breaths of my life. To be honest, I was doubting if I would even reach base camp, let alone the Summit.

But not only did my body adapt beautifully from there on, but on the night of the Summit push at 1 AM, it gave me all the signs that I was fully ready. My body somehow knew that this was important for me and literally 2 days after that bout of altitude sickness, I found myself being the first person from my group to scale Lobuche East. Then after climbing down safely, we had to take a 5-hour trek to reach the closest village wrapping up what was a 17-hour day of climbing. If you ever told me that my body was ready to do 17 hours of continuous climbing at the start of the expedition, I would say that you’re joking!

Perspective Shift 1 - Stop taking your body for granted. Treat it with a sense of wonder every day. Because It truly can do incredible things if you truly listen to it and let it guide you.

2. The Intention You Set Defines Your Outcomes - While here I was trying my best to scale 1 6100m summit, 2 incredible climbers from my group had set their intention on summiting 2 peaks (Lobuche East & Island Peak) within a span of 5 days. So while here I was exhausted after the 17-hour journey down from Summit 1, they were mentally preparing to climb down, get the rest needed to start their climb for Summit 2. And guess what they did!

Perspective Shift 2 - When you dream bigger and set your intention on doing something impossible, some of the other things that you previously considered hard become more easily achievable.

3. It’s Never About Reaching The Summit after All - The real test was not the climb to the summit. It was the 12 days before that when you deal with all your emotions from sleeping in sub-zero temperatures, eating almost the same meal every day, not being able to sleep well, breathing heavily, and asking yourself, ”Why am I doing this?”

Having the answer to that question crystal clear powered me through the good days and the bad. It gave me strength and courage every single day I was in training and every day on the expedition before I reached the summit.

Perspective Shift 3 - The bigger the goal, the more clarity you need on your Why. Because it’s that clarity of your mindset, that what will help you stick to the process, even if you don’t end up hitting your goal.

Coach Yourself To Achieve Your Impossible | Here are a few simple steps to get started.

1. What’s Your Impossible Goal? Make the Invisible, Visible.

What’s the craziest, most outlandishly wonderful thing you can imagine doing over the year ahead? Your first step is to get it out of your head and make it visible. Write it down on paper. Share it with someone you love. Visualize it. Start reading about it. Your goal at this stage is to get crystal clear on WHY this means so much to you. Because this is what will see you through.

2. Take A Tiny First Step. Commit.

With my impossible goal to climb Mt. Everest, a tiny goal was to climb my first 6000m mountain. An even tinier step was to book this expedition as early as January of this year so that I had made a commitment and was not invested to see it through. BIG Goals always start with TINY Commitments like this.

3. Create Daily & Weekly Momentum.

Every day or every week leading up to your goal, make sure you are doing something that keeps you in the game. For me, it was my physical training. It was also all the documentaries I watched, the interviews I saw of other climbers and the stories and pictures I read on Instagram. Staying inspired is critical to sustaining your momentum.

4. Fail Hard During Training, but focus on FUN.

Too many of us get obsessed with measuring our progress with such goals and our failures start to sucking the joy out of the process. Measure your progress but your ultimate and most important question should always be, “Am I having fun in this process? Is it bringing me joy?”

Here’s to you and your Impossible Goals in 2023!

Love. Coach Sid