PRODUCTIVITY & POSITIVITY

Plan Like You’re On an Expedition

Use expedition skills to achieve other successes in life.

Me hiking Mt. Bierstadt, CO

I am absolutely fascinated by mountain climbers and expeditions. Whether it’s Earnest Shackleton or Roald Amundsen exploring Antarctica, or Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary of the old days, or Jimmy Chin and Ben Saunders of today, it’s absolutely brilliant what they’ve been able to do.

Just imagine it. Before there was GPS and satellites, back when there were ‘blank spots’ on the map, people would go off and just venture into the unknown! How would you know what to pack? How much to pack? What kind of equipment would you need or specialized training?

You knew it was coming… setting goals in life is like an expedition! In this article, we’re gonna go on a journey to understand the skills needed to achieve an expedition are the same skills to achieve more success in life.

Plan the route, Visualize the goal

In any expedition, you need to Plan the Route.

• Scout the Route. With your goal in mind, do your research to see what’s out there already and how others have done it. If the route, aka goal, has been attempted before, then learn what they did right (and wrong).
• Identify Waypoints. On an expedition, you’d program into your GPS specific spots that are good to camp down or get fresh water. In your goal, identify what you think are the big moments that you’d recognize as progress.
• Set Realistic Goals. I’m prob the worst offender on this one, by setting too ambitious of goals! But that’s just me, I’d rather set the bar super high and get as high as I can, and know there’s still more to achieve. In expeditions, you want to be realistic with how far you can travel. Do you have a heavy or light pack, hiking on well trodden or untrodden trails?

Climbing the Career Ladder is Like Climbing a Mountain

Not me.

Once people get to know me and learn that I like to hike. They often ask, “any plans to climb Mt. Everest?” I say, no way! To me, that’s giving up too much of my chance of success to good luck.

“That thin margin for error was underlined on Saturday, when Sergi Mingote, a Spanish climber who had reached 10 of the world’s highest peaks without supplemental oxygen, fell to his death much lower on the mountain.” — @adamskolnick @bhadrarukum in the @nytimes

Let’s take a detailed look at K2, not Everest, and climbing the mountain we call ‘life.’ I know, that was corny. “Since the 1950s, it has also been known as Savage Mountain for its deadly reputation. The ratio of deaths to ascents on K2 is nearly one to six. By comparison, on Mount Everest, the ratio is about one to 34.”

Getting to the top of K2 is not easy! The logistics and planning needed to make that journey happen is incredible. Early explorers got drunk in the local pub, came up with the idea for an expedition, wrote down what they needed on a napkin, and off they went. These days, we have spreadsheets to keep track of everything we need and calculate it down to the ounce. TAKEAWAY at the START — I don’t care if you have a napkin plan or a spreadsheet plan, just have a plan. For your career, your hobby, your anything, just at least a simple plan.

If we’ve gotten this far and are about to begin the ascent, then trust in our skills but also start praying.

“The serac routinely sheds enormous blocks of ice. “Some pieces were the size of a house,” Purja said from base camp on Monday. “You get intimidated by that. But if it’s your day, it’s your day. I was just praying to the mountain. This time we needed passage, and the mountain allowed us permission.”

TAKEAWAY at the BASE — Be open to helping hands. Find mentors, role models, join extracurricular groups, and put yourself out there. Don’t expect anything, but be willing to accept that advice. No one made it to the peak without some help along the way, neither should you.

If you find yourself here, near the very top, you’ve struggled a great deal… and yet it’s only HALF the journey. You’ve got to now do the entire thing back down, descending into what is considered the more dangerous half. More dangerous because mentally we’ve reached the peak and have let down our guard. Also more dangerous because the sun has been up for awhile by now and the snow/ice is much more unstable.

Similar to our career path, we focus so much on reaching the top. But once we get to the top, what happens? One error could lead to your downfall. TAKEAWAY at the PEAK — Look out for below and start helping others on their way up. Your time is limited at the top (oxygen is rare!), so start grooming others behind you and just hope you can descend the mountain gracefully.

On the Mountain and In Your Life — Plan for the Worst

“The trick was not to rush. Elevations above 26,000 feet are in the so-called death zone. And though any climber caught in the Bottleneck at the wrong time faces certain injury and likely death, getting spooked and moving too fast at that altitude could bring a slow death.

“And if your oxygen canister runs out,” said the climber and cinematographer Renan Ozturk, “you could just shut your eyes for a second, and never wake up.”

How many times have we said, “let me grab a quick shut eye and then I’ll feel better?!” Imagine never waking up for it! Yikes!

In climbing giant mountains like Everest, you don’t do it all in one push. In fact, it’s a several day/week process where you’re slowly pushing up AND down the mountain, bringing supplies up to the next campsite and pre-staging. TAKEAWAY — What are you pre-staging for your future success? For example, are you reading a book or taking supplemental training classes to increase your skill? Or perhaps it’s investing in buying a tool you need to be more efficient.

“When they arrived, they discovered that their tents, stocked with all their cooking gear, sleeping bags, mattresses and lifesaving technical clothing — including heated insoles, gloves and base layers — had disappeared. Was it buried in snow? Blown off the mountain? It didn’t matter, it was gone.”

Sometimes, when you go back up to the next campsite, you might find all the gear you prestaged wiped away by the weather. Nature just smacked you in the face and is asking, what will you do now?

“But Purja treats his mountaineering expeditions as he would a mission in the military. “There is a backup plan for a backup plan for a backup plan,” he said. He and the team returned to base camp and began packing up their replacement gear. “We plan for the worst and we hope for the best.””

TAKEAWAY — It might be too much to have a backup career plan for a backup career plan. Instead, I suggest you gauge if your current job goes belly-up, is there another position in the company you could do? Do you know enough people in the company that if you needed to transfer to a different department, would you get some help? Finally, do you have enough in your savings to last 3 months with no income?

Expeditions — What the Body Can Do Without

Man-crush, Jimmy Chin

In an interview with Jimmy Chin, my man-crush and renown climber, mountaineer, skier, Oscar winner, National Geographic photographer…

“Interviewer: Speaking of dramatic situations, didn’t you almost run out of food on the expedition? [2]

Jimmy: Yeah. We normally make an assessment of how many days we think it’s going to take to summit the mountain based on how difficult the climbing looks — and mix that in with a little optimism. We had planned for seven days of climbing and brought the appropriate amount of food.

But after two days of climbing we got caught in a four-day storm. That’s six days right there; then we proceeded to climb for another 12 days. And in really cold temperatures, you’re burning thousands of calories.”

When it comes to planning for an expedition, food and water becomes the heaviest portion of what you’re carrying. So, every ounce counts when you have to carry it for miles in extreme conditions.

“We’re talking oatmeal and cous cous 12 days in a row, packing enough food for 7 days but being stuck on a mountain for 18, and eating every meal out of one pot and a spoon shared by three people — all while functioning on decreased dexterity and brain power thanks to the freezing temperatures and thin air. This is adventure eating at its highest altitude.” — @BilowRochelle in @bonappetit [2]

Imagine packing only one spoon between several people, and sharing it for days on end, just to save some weight! That’s the kind of minimalist and savage thinking that needs to happen to successfully climb the mountains that Jimmy Chin does.

So, why should we be any different when it comes to exploring our life? What minimalist and savage thinking do we need to do to achieve that razor edge?

TAKEWAY — Assess what’s in your job jar at work and at home. Ask if those tasks are really life important or can they be cut out/minimized. Stop wasting time carrying dead weight and spend your precious minutes on the things that make a big impact.

Why Do An Expedition When Others Have Been There

You might wonder why so many people climb Mt. Everest. What’s the point of an expedition if someone else has already been there.

Same goes for a lot of things in life — why bother climbing the career ladder, trying to be productive, or exercising so hard. The answer — we do it to prove something to ourselves and to help others around us.

When explorers ventured into the unknown in early expeditions, sometimes they were competing against major government sponsored explorations.

“Yet there is a key difference between the two waves of exploration. The twentieth century space race involved primarily the bureaucracies of two national governments, while the nineteenth century polar expeditions were undertaken by both private organizations and national governments.

How well can the private sector perform a function traditionally conceived as the natural province of the government? According to recent research by Jonathan Karpoff (2001), the answer for Arctic exploration appears to be: Better than the government itself.” — @NatGeo [4]

Imagine if you are planning to scale a Himalayan mountain when you see a national team, full of experts, the latest gear, and ample resources. Do you turn around and say, what’s the point? Nope, you press on excited at the prospect of being the underdog and performing better than any of them. The competition forces you to think more creatively and be more scrappy.

“Government-sponsored polar expeditions tended to be larger and better funded than private expeditions. Yet by most measures, the government expeditions fared poorly. They made fewer major discoveries, introduced fewer technological innovations, were subject to higher rates of scurvy, lost more ships, and had more explorers die.” [4]

TAKEAWAY — The reason why we pursue the expedition of life with so much passion is because we have an innate passion to achieve. Tap into your passion and lock onto that when you’re doubting. Trust that you can do it and do it better than others.

You Need Specialized Gear

Ben Saunders doing his thing

In researching for this piece, I got totally lost and immersed in Ben Saunders “diary blog” of his and Tarka L’Herpiniere expedition to the South Pole, where they set out to honor Captain Robert Falcon Scott by retracing the infamously incomplete Terra Nova expedition.

“The Scott Expedition is a 1,800-mile (2,900km), four-month return journey from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back on foot following Scott’s route. Equivalent to 69 back-to-back marathons, the team will face temperatures as low as -50 °C and will haul sled loads of up to 200kg [440 lbs] each.” — The Scott Expedition [9]

Obviously, when Captain Ross attempted the crossing back in 1912, he didn’t have the luxury of satellite phones with GPS, advanced fabrics for protection, much less movies downloaded on his tablet.

“Sleds and Weight. Saunders and L’Herpiniere will be hauling handmade carbon-fiber sleds with Kevlar bases. Lightweight yet tough enough to withstand banging into rock-solid ice, the sleds are specially designed so they can be shortened as the pair drops off supplies for the return trip.” — Arctic Expeditions of the 19th Century [5]

Their expedition took advantage of the latest in technology to help them achieve their goal. They even partnered up with brands to test out new gear and customized certain ones to fit them even better.

Here we are on our “expedition” that we call life. Whether it’s a career journey or a personal passion (Venture Out!), why shouldn’t we take advantage of the latest technology and gear to help us along? My challenge to you is to think beyond what you’re currently doing, and see if there’s a role for technology to aid you in your goal.

But don’t fall into the trap of, “if only I had that device, I’d be so much more productive.” For example, an iPad, fancy headphone, or Nike’s Alphafly. They’re awesome products and I have 2 out of 3 of them, but they may not significantly increase my ability to achieve.

So, identify what your expedition is and see what technology is out there to help you. For productivity & positivity, here are a few ideas (FYI, I do get kickbacks from these links):

• Note Taking — Invest in and purchase the best app where you can capture notes and pull them up from anywhere. I use both Google Drive ($20/year for increased storage) and Evernote ($70/year for the Personal Plan)
• Blue Tint Eyeglasses — Reduce eye strain, protect the health of your eyes, and even get better sleep by blocking blue light and reduction in glare. I use the Gunnar Razer ($100) and look great during my endless hours at Starbucks!
• Meditation — Ease the mind, reduce stress, and open yourself up for more happiness. The popular ones seem to be the Headspace (which I use, $70/yr) and Calm (also $70/yr) apps and are free to try-out.

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REFERENCES:

1. What’s Jimmy Chin’s Top Fitness (and Life) Advice? By Brad Stulberg
2. Olive Oil, Salami, and “Tiny Shrubs”: The Diet of an Extreme Mountain Climber By Rochelle Bilow
3. How Climbers Reached the Summit of K2 in Winter for the First Time By Adam Skolnick and Bhadra Sharma
4. National Geographic: Plan and Prepare for an Expedition
5. Arctic Expeditions of the 19th Century By Daniel K. Benjamin
6. South Pole Expeditions Then and Now: How Does Their Food and Gear Compare? By James Owen
7. International Polar Guides Association (IPGA) Expedition Planning Checklist
8. The Manual: Plan an Expedition By Steve Howe and Pete Rognili
9. The Scott Expedition
10. Nike has finally revealed the secrets of its 1:59 marathon shoe By Matt Burgess