By Mitch Simon
San Diego Daily Transcript
July 16, 2004

I was startled out of a deep sleep at 12:30 a.m. on a typical summer morning at 10,000 feet atop Mt. Rainier. It was on that pitch-black, wretchedly cold, snowy morning that I began a new "conversation" with life. What was I doing here? I should be at the beach, not risking death clinging to a 14,400-foot glacier. At 12:30 a.m., on Aug. 31, 2000, I began to say yes to being unreasonable, where previously reason had the death grip on my life.

During the previous morning, we were taught that to be on a rope team, we held the life of our team members in our hands. I was struck by the intensity of the responsibility and the sheer excitement of living on the edge. For the first time in my life, I would be immediately accountable for the lives of my teammates. I imagined how exciting life would be if I lived every second with that type of responsibility.

I had committed in March to spend the next six months training to summit the most technical peak in the lower 48 states. I had taken on the experiment of living unreasonably. This was to be the year that my wife and I were expecting our third son. It would have been so easy to say no to this opportunity. After all, I was not a mountain climber and I had an "important" job to worry about. I was challenged every day by my wife, my job, and myself to say no to this unreasonable decision.

At 10,000 feet, strapped into the lives of my three team members, I rejoiced at having said yes. I had made a commitment to a life where my fears would not drive my actions. My actions would be driven by a commitment to acknowledge my fears, and take on courageous actions anyways.

At 12,000 feet, I was exhilarated by the freshness and purity of a sun that rose below the glacier that was now our world. I was amazed at how quickly my body could adapt to new food, new equipment, a new way of walking and even a new way of breathing. I marveled at how my body and my mind quickly adapted to the altitude simply by declaring that giving up was simply not an option. Had I said no to this climb, would I have ever experienced a life where my actions, not my thoughts and beliefs, dictated what was possible?

My response to a coach who invited me to climb Mt. Rainier was, "Are you out of your mind?" This coach saw greater possibilities for me than I saw for myself. As much as I wanted to stay inside a careful and calculated reality, this coach enrolled me in a "conversation" to take on life as a fearless game of anything is possible. My six months of training became more than a physical transformation, it became a conduit for how I would look at any situation that would come my way. Mt. Rainier for me was the death to my own limitations.

What would be possible for you and your company if everyone worked according to the belief that anything was possible? What would the nature of your conversations be if you held your team accountable to the lives and livelihood of their teammates? What would you demand for yourself if failure were not an option?

Should you enter into a coaching conversation similar to the one that impacted every aspect of my life? Ask yourself if your current beliefs provoke you to take on unimagined opportunities. Are your conversations consistently unbridled, fierce and dedicated to fostering what is truly possible? Are your team's conversations and actions fully aligned with the vision of your company? Does your leadership inspire everyone in your company, your family and your community to be unreasonable in their actions? Are your results extraordinary in all aspects of your life? If you answered yes to all of these questions, you don't need a coach. You need to share with the world how you got there.

If, however, you wish to live a life where you are consistently exhilarated by the risks you are taking through fearless and bold conversations, I invite you to enlist a coach to provoke you to make every day an unreasonable, edgy and risky ascent. Hire someone who will push you to make the climb, to see the sun rise under your feet, and to make unreasonable results a daily occurrence for you and the people in your life. I invite you, as a community of hungry readers, to begin a new conversation to take on life as a fearless game where anything is possible.

Mitch Simon: (858) 449-9463;
msimon@simonalliance.com