BEING or DOING

My daughter had the privilege of attending an event that featured Colin Powell, Desmond Tutu, Dorothy Kearns Goodwin, Al Gore and Lisa Ling. But the speaker that impressed her most was Erik Weihenmayer http://www.touchthetop.com/about.htm. You’re probably not familiar with the name but Erik is the only blind man to ever summit Mount Everest. In fact, in August last year he conquered the last of the Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each of the seven continents), a feat shared by fewer than 100 climbers. Some truly incredible achievements.

Achievements are a big part of our lives. They dominate the way we identify each other (think about how we make introductions and talk about our kids). In the extreme we assign value to people based on what they can do or have done. But after years of being motivated by the achievement, I have come to believe that it’s more about the being than the doing. Now, I’m not saying achievements are not important – they are. What I am suggesting is that our focus should be on the being – who we are becoming – then let the doing flow from the being.

Ironically, a focus on outward achievements and acknowledgements can tend to make us self-centered, bouncing us between self-confidence and arrogance in success and self-doubt and discouragement in failure. While a genuine focus on our inward character will eventually drive us an awareness that it’s not about us. I still enjoy the summits but I’m learning to enjoy the climbs.