When the Summit becomes a Plateau
One of the things about having goals is that, assuming you continue to be diligent and put effort into the achievement of said goals. you will reach them. It’s rather an inevitability. It might take a bit longer, or require a slightly different path than you originally envisioned, and yet, you will get there. Your goals will be realized. That being said, the whole process of goal-achievement can (and indeed has) been likened over time to mountain-climbing, there’s no doubt about it. Why? Because at times it can feel hard. Really hard. There’s a huge expenditure of energy, be it physical, emotional, or mental, and there can be a sense of pushing yourself uphill, especially as you build momentum. And then, at some point, the goal is achieved, the metaphorical summit is reached. And you can exhale in a big way, and mark the success in some way.
I’m a big proponent of taking time to celebrate victories and successes, however small they might seem. I believe strongly in the importance of savouring the moment, really acknowledging the effort and the outcome. My personal belief is that it’s the moments that make up our lives, and so you must take the time to acknowledge the moments as they happen rather than sail past them and on to the next objective. The question that I’m sitting with right now, however, is around timing: how long do you sit and savour the success of reaching the summit, before that summit becomes a plateau? Because it will.
You see, life being what it is, until you reach the end of your time here, there is always something more to achieve, one more task to be accomplished, one more goal to reach. In light of this, the danger as I’ve noted above is that so often you don’t take time to savour the moment before moving on to the next one. There is an opposing danger as well, however; this is the danger that you’ll hang out in the land of savouring and celebration for too long — and all of a sudden what felt like a summit is now a plateau. And the energy of plateau can be stagnant. Stifling. Really, rather like being in a rut.
Plateaus happen in all areas of life. Business, relationships, exercise — you name the area, you can plateau. And the plateau isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. If we continue with the mountain-climbing analogy, a plateau can be the place where you rest, gather energy for the next phase of the climb. The question is how to move away from the plateau, once the rest, energizing and savouring is complete — how to find the energy to shift and put your focus on a new summit. And when to do that. My sense is that when the celebration and savouring starts to feel stagnant, that’s the time to find a new objective. Something that will pull you out of the rut and move you into a new-found sense of purpose and direction.
Bottom-line: the plateau can be a great place to hang out for a while. It can be comfortable and allow your body and mind time to rejuvenate. And yet, you will have to move on at some point. If you don’t, your life will lose its spark. And a life without spark isn’t really a lot of fun. Those are my ponderings for today.