Warriors Way

I want to feel powerful, don’t you? Don’t you want to feel like you can deal with whatever occurs while climbing? Let’s investigate how power is understood from a warrior’s perspective.

Last lesson we clarified fears as either survival or illusory. Now, let’s look at different types of fears.
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There are many types of fears, which we’ll dig into in the next lesson. In this lesson we’ll look at how to clarify fears. Fears come in two varieties: survival and illusory. Illusory fears are the ones that need our attention.
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“What if” questions can leave us passive, not taking any action to answer the questions. How do we deal with such questions?
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What can we do to keep our attention expanded when under stress? Read it here or listen to the audio version of this lesson.
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What we focus on expands our attention in either helpful or unhelpful ways.
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Concentration focuses attention either broadly or narrowly. How does that relate to redpointing and on-sighting?
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How do you stop the mind from over thinking and second guessing? Do you focus on stopping thought or redirecting attention. Let’s investigate.
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In the last lesson we investigated positive thinking as a method for improving mental fitness and found that it limited awareness development. What about willpower?
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Does positive thinking enhance performance or hinder mental fitness?
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One strategy for goal attainment is to strengthen our beliefs. But how do beliefs affect risk-taking and improving performance?
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Are affirmations effective tools to improve our mental fitness? To find out, we need to first understand mental fitness at a broader level.
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We looked at goal setting strategies last lesson. Now let’s look at tapping into true motivation for accomplishing goals.
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The last several lessons focused on decision-making and the creative process. Now let us touch on a few final topics as this year comes to an end. The end of the year is a great time to contemplate the past year and what we’d like to accomplish next year.
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It’s fun to come up with ideas and begin taking action, but following through to completion on those ideas can be the most challenging part. How can we stay committed to taking these final steps to complete our ideas?
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We’re looking at the creative process, from creation to completion. Last lesson we addressed creation. Before we can complete an idea we need to maintain our momentum as we take action. In this lesson we’ll address the maintenance process.
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Creating something new includes creation of a new idea of what you want to accomplish, engagement and maintenance of the idea as the project takes form, and finally completion of the project. Let’s look at the first step, creation, in this lesson.
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Climbers want to create something beautiful, whether it is a first ascent or repeating an established route that really challenges them. In the next four lessons we will look at the creative process.
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A foundational decision determines why we climb. Primary decisions determine what we will climb. Secondary decisions determine how we will climb so we can accomplish the primary decision.

“Why” decisions lay the foundation for our actions. Once we know why we do whatever activity we do, we can determine specifically what we want to do. “What” decisions give us vision.

The quality of our decisions begins with foundational reasons that address why we do what we do. Quality “why” reasons lead to quality actions.

In previous eLessons we outlined a structure based on current reality, vision, and following the path of least resistance through that structure. As we enter that structure we’ll make many decisions. What decisions we make, why we make them, and how we make them determines the quality of our actions. In the next four lessons we will study decisions, how they differ, and how they build into the climbing process.

Desnivel, my Spanish book publisher, received several questions from climbers after my presentation in Madrid. They asked me to give answers, which I am posting here.

With our starting (current reality) and ending (vision) points clarified, we set up structural tension between them. Our actions will now be directed along the path of least resistance through this structure to close the gap.

A vision gives us an end point or target to shoot for. Our starting point (current reality) and our end point (vision) set up a structure for our actions to flow along the path of least resistance. Let’s look at how to create our vision.

I’ve introduced the path of least resistance in the last lesson. Now let’s see how understanding our current reality gives us our starting point.

Energy moves along the path of least resistance. This is true from how atoms interact to how planets, stars, and galaxies move. Is it best to follow the path of least resistance when climbing?

We’ve all probably heard that it is important to be persistent in order to achieve our goals. But, some climbers are more stubborn than persistent. What is the difference between them?

How do we refine our on-sighting ability? Becoming aware of how we deal with ambiguity gives us some insight. We need to create flexible plans that can be modified through quick decision-making.
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On-sighting differs from redpointing. There are many more unknowns and quick decision-making is important. You need to decide what to do and when to act it out.
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Before we address on-sighting, let’s look a little deeper into redpointing. We can diminish our redpointing ability by falling into typical tendencies, based on how we avoid stress.

There is a distinct difference between redpointing and on-sighting. Lets look at redpointing in this lesson and apply the best strategy in using the material.

Let’s now begin putting together preparation and action, thinking and doing. The next few lessons will address applying this process to redpoints and on-sights.
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We’ve discussed the skill set of doing and the skill of moving. Now let’s see how momentum and the moment help create quality.
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We last talked about “the doing skill set.” Now let’s begin digging into how to engage our bodies when we commit to taking action.
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When we commit to action we focus our attention in our body, doing the climbing. It’s important to know precisely what our body does to take action effectively.
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As you transition from preparation to action, you move from one skill set to another. Making a definitive break is critical for committing fully to action.
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We’ve gone through the preparation and transition phases of risk-taking where we use our mind’s intelligence to think–the thinking skill set. Now we shift to the body’s intelligence to take action–the doing skill set.
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Facing your fear of falling directs your attention onto the actual situation and can diminish the fear. You accomplish this by literally looking down into the fall zone.

Fear of Falling originates in the mind. This fear can be created by the mind due to a feeling of loosing control or concern about injury. Experiential knowledge of falling is required to clarify the limiting aspects of the mind.

Are you learning to expand your ability to deal with stressful situations or are you learning to avoid those stressful situations? Learning requires converting stress into comfort. Learn how to key into your body signals to make this conversion.

How much stress is too much stress? This lesson touches on introducing just enough stress to allow learning to occur.
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When should I start leading? This is an important question. You need to balance safety with learned skills. Many climbers opt for following too long and are lured into a false sense of safety.
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Falling is a hotly debated issue among climbers. The next series of lessons will dig into understanding falling so we can make better risk decisions.
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This lesson is the final step for using our minds. We’ve prepared, weighed the risk, and made a decision. Now we need to let go of the thinking process and shift into action. This lesson addresses a very important part in accomplishing this shift.
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This lesson address intention and how it fits into decision-making.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

You engage yes-fall risks differently than no-fall risks. By “different” I mean you need to determine whether or not to listen to your mind’s doubts.
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Risks contains decisions within decisions. How we utilize our analytical and intuitive intelligences changes as we go deeper into the risk.
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To make appropriate risk decisions we need to understand consequences experientially rather than just intellectually.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

We’ve gone into the mechanics of how decisions are made in the previous lesson. Now, we need to address what will help us follow through with those decisions. The main driving force of our decisions is our motivation. Motivation, however, is determine by the goals we have.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

We’ve gone into the mechanics of how decisions are made in the previous lesson. Now, we need to address what will help us follow through with those decisions. The main driving force of our decisions is our motivation. Motivation, however, is determine by the goals we have.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

Decisions shift us from preparation to action. If we don’t make appropriate decisions we don’t take appropriate risks. Read more as we begin digging into the transition phase of risk-taking.
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Forks in our path require us to make decisions. What do you consider when making decisions?
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This lesson addresses gathering objective information during preparation for a risk.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

This lesson addresses thinking intentionally, not habitually.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

This lesson addresses resistance we feel concerning stress and the need to accept it.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, discount offers, and practical tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

This lesson addresses how we each have a tendency toward being intuitive or analytical and how this tendency can interfere with our climbing.
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In the next series of lessons we’ll investigate the mind’s intelligence for preparing for risks. This lesson addresses how expectations effect preparation.
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This lesson looks at ways the mind tricks us into skirting the learning process. Your mind does have intelligence, which we’ll address in later lessons. For now, we need to understand its limitations so we don’t unconsciously waste attention. Labeling is one limiting tendency of the mind. Many people label a situation or outcome as “good” for instance. So, what do you mean by “good?”
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This lesson addresses how random our thoughts are and helps us ponder the question: Who am I?
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These lessons are emailed in more detail, with upcoming training, product offers, and practical application tips, to our eList subscribers. Please join our eList to receive these lessons.

This lesson addresses the way our minds can lie to us about situations we haven’t yet engaged.
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This lesson addresses the natural tendency of our minds to be active.
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These lessons are emailed in more detail to our eList subscribers. Please sign up to receive these lessons.
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This lesson will dig into the difference between thinking and awareness.

This week we’ll dig into questioning our status quo to help bring about the change that is required to improve.

Matsuo Basho quote from Espresso Lessons book.