What Alex Honnold taught me about preparation
Alex Honnold and Jay Shetty
I couldn't watch Alex Honnold's Taipei 101 climb ( 🫣 🙈 ). But I did listen to a bunch of his interviews. I love listening to Alex talk about mindset and preparation.
❤️ My favorite Alex interview was the one he did a few weeks ago on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast (highly recommend). One piece that stuck with me is how Alex talks about preparing to be afraid. Before he free-soloed El Cap, he imagined the scariest parts of the climb... what it would feel like to look down and be worried he'd slip and plummet to his death. He spent time, while on solid ground, imagining the specific parts of the ascent where he'd be scared. He spent time, while on solid ground, imagining what it would feel like to be halfway up the mountain, looking down and imagining his body falling on specific rocks. And because he took the time to really sit and feel that fear before he started climbing, by the time he actually climbed, he wasn't afraid anymore. He had already processed the fear, dealt with it, and moved on.
🧠 If you've listened to Alex's interviews, you know how clear and compelling he is. He makes hard things seem easy. You can do what you set your mind to, if you practice and prepare.
👯 Though I stopped taking new career coaching clients a few years ago (a side hustle I had for decades), I still do occasional career coaching for friends and family. This weekend I was helping a family member prepare for a call he was pretty sure was going to be a verbal job offer. He wanted to rehearse how to respond. But channeling Alex, I also had him rehearse how he'd respond if the call was a rejection. I told him, look, even if you're 95% sure it's an offer, let's rehearse for the 5% chance it's not. That way you'll feel more prepared for how it would feel and won't be as shocked, in the off chance it happens.
🙌 Good news, the phone call ended up being an offer, and now I'm supporting him in the salary negotiation. But to the point, I feel like I provided better, more comprehensive support, having thought through and role played both scenarios. I've understood the power of role play since 10 years ago, when one of my coworkers taught me how to role play every tough conversation we were about to have at work. Alex's recent interviews are just leveling up my belief in the power of practice.
⛰️ Role play, manifestation, and mindset are all related and I've been thinking a lot about them in the context of entrepreneurship and leadership. How can we better prepare ourselves to handle uncertainty? How do we step into our power, feeling confident and unafraid? I think Alex's advice would be something like practice, practice, practice. In the truest way possible.
