Everybody's heard the saying, "Hindsight is 20/20." It means that, even though it's not always clear what you should do, it's always clear what you should have done. It can be easy to beat yourself up over the way you handled a situation, but the fact is that you made what seemed to be the best choice at the time, given the information you had to make the decision. There's no use in regretting something you wish you'd done differently—that energy is better spent thinking about how you can act better in the future.
Twinkie at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Climbing brings this into sharp focus. If you place a bad piece of gear or go for a hold with the wrong hand, there's no time to scold yourself over what you should have done. You have a new challenge to figure out, and regardless of how you ended up in that situation you're going to take a whipper if you don't figure it out soon.
I should have been smarter about working Twinkie while we were on our last trip to The Red; I shouldn't have put so much faith in gear in my first year of climbing; I should have realized at a younger age that the best people in the world are the ones who embrace their individuality and feel no shame for being themselves. From the insignificant to the fundamental, there are tons of things that I could regret. And I do feel a pang when thinking about some parts of my life, but I move along quickly, because there's no time to mourn wishes and should-haves when I still have work to do in bettering myself. I think we all do, always.
I'm interested to hear what others consider to be some of the most important lessons they've learned, in climbing or in life. But I don't want to hear about your regrets—just tell me what advice you would give yourself to make a better decision the next time. What do you wish you knew?
I should have been smarter about working Twinkie while we were on our last trip to The Red; I shouldn't have put so much faith in gear in my first year of climbing; I should have realized at a younger age that the best people in the world are the ones who embrace their individuality and feel no shame for being themselves. From the insignificant to the fundamental, there are tons of things that I could regret. And I do feel a pang when thinking about some parts of my life, but I move along quickly, because there's no time to mourn wishes and should-haves when I still have work to do in bettering myself. I think we all do, always.
I'm interested to hear what others consider to be some of the most important lessons they've learned, in climbing or in life. But I don't want to hear about your regrets—just tell me what advice you would give yourself to make a better decision the next time. What do you wish you knew?
