6 Takeaways From My Personal Climb

Yes, you heard that right – lattice not a ladder (and not lettuce… lattice… hee hee).

A story about how and when my ladder became a lattice…

My professional career started a little later than a lot of women. Quite frankly, my personal life sort of started like a ladder; just not necessarily a corporate ladder. Sure I worked throughout my entire life, but in my early years, the priority was to work so I could live… not live so I can work (which by the way is still my goal). My most important job during those years was to raise well-behaved kids so they could someday become great adults. Don’t get me wrong, being the planner that I am, I also knew that building professional skills throughout my life would help me when ‘someday’ I would need to get real about my career. Fortunately, I was able to find a balance between working and building key skills in a field I enjoyed and being there for the kids whenever possible.

So how does this all relate to my ladder and lattice?… read on…

To put it simply, the first rung (my 20s) was about being married and having my babies. The second rung (my 30s) was about raising my babies while finding work that supplemented my husbands but allowed me the flexibility necessary to raise two very busy kids. Before I knew it, I found myself on the third rung (yep… my 40s). It was during this rung that I found myself working up a different kind of ladder… the corporate ladder.

Finding myself with more time to focus on me as my kids were in (or approaching) college, I leaned in and was ready to find something more permanent and something with more responsibilities. Doing this both inwardly and outwardly allowed me to commit and push myself to achieve success in various roles while working my way to a pretty high rung in the corporate ladder.

Suddenly I found myself on a pretty high rung of the ladder as a Corporate Director of Learning. Then, unexpectedly I suddenly found myself taking a side-step here, a side-step there, even a step or two down and then back up. Suddenly my ladder looked more like a lattice while I worked hard to find the niche that was the best fit for me… (which by the way is still a journey).

Throughout this process of ups, downs, and side-steps, I’ve learned the following 6 things (in climbing terms):

Crux: A route or problem’s most difficult passage or sequence. 

As you climb your lattice you WILL run into a crux or two (or three or many) along the way. Don’t let them drag you down and push you off the lattice. Instead, take a deep breath. Find your support system (friends, colleagues, mentors, etc.), and embrace the process. Know that the world will not stop spinning because of this single crux, and you will come out on the other side stronger and with many lessons along the way. It’s facing these cruxes that we become bigger and better than we were before.

Fingerlock: A hold formed by inserting your digits into a finger crack and then twisting, with your weight coming onto the lowest cammed knuckle. Sometimes with thumbs-up, sometimes with thumbs down.

Find the proverbial ‘finger cracks’ that you’ll need to grab along the way, and then grab them thumbs-up or thumbs-down… whichever gives you the best grip. These cracks can also be referred to as safety nets. I’ve always tried to stop and think “what’s the worse that can happen” and then plan for that… then if it doesn’t happen great – but if it does, I’ll be ready! Thinking this way has helped me be as proactive as I can in planning for those ‘finger cracks’, and prepare for either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down grip.  Sure, we’d love to avoid any thumbs down events because we probably get a better grip when thumbs are up… but you simply cannot avoid the thumbs down. So be ready, and know what (or who) will be there to coach you through the tough ones – and celebrate with you on the not-so-tough ones. Again… know your support system!

High-step: To bring one foot high and stand frontally on the big tow, recruiting the quadriceps muscle to push and reach to reach a higher point than what is comfortable.

In other words… taking a big leap of faith! This one is fun and scary all at the same time. If we could predict the future with 100% accuracy, we’d probably take a lot more high-steps around our lattice than we traditionally do. But because we can’t predict the future, we are often taking the next step without knowing what’s on the other side, and sometimes we find ourselves unexpectedly in the high-step pose. The fear of doing this can be crippling, but there lessons and reward on the other side are immeasurable. Sometimes, we need to take small side-steps along the way before we can get to a high-step, but when we get there, we need to be brave and take the damn high-step! Even if you slip and fall, you’re likely wearing a harness and safety rope (you should never climb without it), so it’s not like it’s going to kill you – it may just slow you down a bit. One German philosopher once said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Remember this!

Belay: To secure the rope while your partner climbs.

Simply put… you’re not alone. While climbing your lattice, you are going to meet so many people. Some will need you to belay them, and at times you’ll need them to belay you. Embrace both sides of the belay. Helen Keller once quoted, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Anchor: A belay/rappel point generally atop a pitch, marked by fixed protection (like bolts) or built using removable protection.

Find your anchor and always know where it is. My anchor is my faith, my husband, my kids, and my best sister-friend (if you’re reading this you know who you are). No matter what shape I’m in, they are always there and always love me unconditionally. In return, I never want to take advantage of that. When my career takes steps up, down, across, over… whatever direction… it always affects them in different ways. I need to remember that.

Know your anchor and be aware of how your actions impact them and proceed accordingly… and never, ever, ever, forget to let them know just how much their support means to you.

Summit: The highest point of a hill or a mountain.

There will be several summits along the journey of your climb. Don’t forget to enjoy the scenery. Even the smallest hill likely took some effort to climb. It’s important to pause, look around, and reflect. Look around you. What do you see? How did you get there? Did you take the easiest path or the hardest? Would you have done anything differently? Is it what you had expected, or is it a total surprise? What did you learn? How will you do it next time? Who should you thank?

Next time you find yourself hanging on your lattice (or ladder) by a fingerlock, and you feel like just giving up, remember… “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. ~Lau Tzu