My favorite climbing phrase - “Trust it”
“Trust it!”
As with achieving success in nearly anything in life, there are a boatload of aspects that contribute to being a good climber…strength being one: grip, shoulder, back, core…you name it! Another key component is technique, which develops as you spend more and more time on the wall, on the rock, and around climbers, watching their beta and unique decision making unfold.
But I think the most fun part of climbing to witness growth in, is TRUST. It’s as though the novelty of it wears off in the best way. All of a sudden it no longer feels ‘new’ and that hold doesn’t look as far away or as scary. All of a sudden you can look at a hold and just know what it feels like. It’s that quiet transition; trust in yourself to be able to catch and stick the hold. Trust you might not have had the month prior.
Although that initial element of learning to trust shows up as hurdling outside a comfort zone, ‘trust’ is ever-present in climbing…
At the gym, new sets are always going up. New problems to navigate, new movements to work through.
Outside, well…I think we can all agree Mother Nature has a mind of her own! Ever-present and ever-changing elements we learn to trust over and over again.
With each burn, trust just seems to course through your body as you make it one move farther each time!
Hearing the words ‘trust it’ yelled to me when I’m climbing gives me an opportunity to not only trust myself, but also the encouraging voices cheering me on…hearing me echoing those words back to friends and fellow climbers as they work through projects of their own challenging them to trust themselves and me.
As time passes, it seems these moments have sprinkled themselves into life outside climbing.
Life is really just this route with an unknown hold just above us…and I’ve recently caught myself whispering “trust it” throughout everyday life moments, more times than I can count. This phrase can apply to trusting yourself, your surroundings, the situation, the unknown, or really anything you need it to mean.
The best part? You don’t have to be on the wall to remind someone else, or yourself… to trust!