Reminders from a Mountain #14 If you never take any risks, you will miss out on some seriously amazing things.
Zermatt, Switzerland - I had been fleeing the terrible weather and trying to chase the sun my whole trip, but had already planned out where I would be staying each night, so I had 3 nights in Zermatt planned (this was clearly my very time in Switzerland…).
Yet as I boarded the train, I could see the clouds roll in and could tell that we were heading into “can’t even see the mountains on the left” kind of weather. So I left Lauterbrunnen to head to this tinnnnny little town. I got there, unloaded my bag and started to check out the whole city. Which took all of 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other… yet the clouds stayed incredibly thick and dense so I couldn’t see a single mountain around.
Because I have an abundance of patience (I do not have an abundance of patience), I immediately regretted my decision to come and started looking at the timetables to see if I could hop on the next train out of town and not waste a whole day pacing a tiny little town. I started looking at the weather in other places and was kicking myself that I just left a much bigger city, to come to this tiny little one to have nothing really to do or see.
So I went into the market to get some chocolate so at least I had something to look forward to. Then low and behold when I walked outside, the clouds were quickly moving and I saw the tiniest sliver of blue sky.
So I ran (actually I was probably skipping in excitement at this point) to the nearest station that would get me up the mountain and decided to risk going up, hoping and praying it would clear up so I could actually see something. It was quite the risk because I was on a pretty limited budget and tickets to go up were a pretty penny. So I had to be mindful about which excursions I was taking and there was only a few hours left before the last train came down.
As I took the train up, the clouds started to clear and I skipped from window to window on the train as the clouds not only continued to clear up, but cleared up only in the direction of the Matterhorn. So I had this epically phenomenal view of this incredible mountain I had only seen in pictures. At each stop, I ran from platform to platform soaking up all the views and marveling in the incredible beauty that is this mountain and all the surrounding areas. But also so abundantly grateful that I took the risk to rush up the mountain and it exceeded my expectations.
I also met some of the most incredible people who, like me, had risked coming up in the hopes of beautiful views and we all got to appreciate together the beautiful day it turned out to be.
Now think about work and life
Do you take risks on yourself? Do you challenge, invest and grow yourself to become better each and every day? Do you take that class, join that group or volunteer your time because you know it will result in growth, even if it takes time, money or energy up front?
Do you take risks on people? Giving them a shot at a role that you know they will be amazing at, even if they don’t meet all the qualifications? Do you allow yourself to be vulnerable with others, so you can build strong, healthy relationships?
Do you risk having healthy boundaries? Are you willing to endure the discomfort of upsetting someone or not living up to their expectations because you know everyone operates better when they have healthy boundaries?
Do you risk asking for unfiltered feedback from people that will be honest and candid? Or is the possibility of hearing something you don’t want to, enough to hold you back?
If we never take any risks, we will miss out on some seriously amazing things! So what are you going to risk today?