Being ‘too busy’ is one of the most common myths that keeps people from achieving their goals.
People make time for things that are really important to them. I think the reasoning as to why we want to make time is the deciding factor between doing something that we want and not doing what we really want.
This past month I have had one of my most adventurous months to date. The busyness kind of happened organically. It started with a big goal. Dream line. To run and climb the South-East ridge of Giant’s Castle. 40km of running, 8km of ridgeline climbing, 2000m elevation. I was in. We needed to prepare for such a big goal and the weeks before got pretty busy!
It all started a of couple weeks before, with me and the crew heading up North to climb Blouberg.
I thought this was a perfect training opportunity. Undertaking a 4 hour approach, carrying heavy bags, to sleep in a cave. Get going the next morning for an hour and a half hike and you find yourself at the base of a 400m cliff of some of the most beautiful climbing on the African continent. Myself and Aymeric Goerget had an amazing day climbing Big Corner ( 21 ) making it back to the cave in the early evening.
The next week was a week of work. I continued to train, but more importantly I had to put the time into my day job. I put in extra hours that week and over the weekend. I was prepping for the following 3 weeks. As I said, if your reasoning is sound, you can make time.
For me, my underlying reason is personal growth and the expansion of my mind. In doing so I create happiness for myself and hopefully for others. And if what I am doing gets people inspired, so much the better.
That same weekend after Blouberg I decided to run the Mweni Marathon as a training run. Not far from where the dream line will be and around similar distance. We had a bit of a crazy weekend.
Writing off a car after hitting a cow, me and my team managed to get to the camp site around 1 O’clock in the morning. After a few hours of sleep we were at the start line in the rain and wind..
We winded our way up the pass to the top of Mnweni where we ran across the top of the Drakensberg, in the snow! Making it back to the campsite with happiness and laughter after an epic run. We enjoyed this for the afternoon and then we had to deal with the real issue of not having a car anymore…
The week of the dream line was busy. Leaving on the wednesday left little time in the gym. But we have a good team and we were on top of things. I could even argue that attempting a dream line is work. Our work is all about inspiring and getting people outdoors.
Ruan Kotza from the Reel things Film is shooting our Dream Line as part of his Documentary series In the Berg. Work or not, we still had to make time for this.
Just because we made time, doesn’t mean things go according to plan. Unfortunately the mountain had the last say and at around 1:30 we made the tough decision to turn around. We went in too light on gear and it became too unsafe for us to justify it anymore.
No worries, the mountains are big and will remain there. We are excited to give this another attempt after the winter climbing season and find the perfect time to do it right!
After all this I was still feeling good metally and physically and wanted to see what I could do. I managed to get a late entry into the Mac-Mac 50 miler ( 80km ) race. I went out to Mpumalanga on a solo mission where I wanted to run long and just spend some time with myself in the mountains. A perfect way to round up a wild 5 weeks and stay true to my reasoning.
Unfortunately this lifestyle at this pace is unsustainable. As much as it works and I was able to do it, I cannot do it continuously.
As important as it was to make time for this to happen, it is equally important to make time for your friends and family, and most importantly time for yourself. I took time from various parts of my life to make this happen.
It’s a continuous struggle to find that balance of work and play but by doing big sections like this it has definitely helped me see where that balance is.
