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Positive Attitude Your mindset matters in climbing. If there’s doubt, negativity or pessimism, you won’t improve. You have to be positive and centre your thoughts on optimism and growth. If you’ve never read Arno Ilgner’s be sure to pick up a copy. In it, he says, “Remember, your highest goal is learning, and only in action does true, experiential learning occur. This is what you climb for.” If you fall off your climb, don’t think that you can’t do it. Don’t shut yourself down with negative thoughts. The whole point of climbing at your limit is to fail and improve. It’s part of the process. You’re going to feel embarrassed and you’re going to fail. Embrace them both. Turn your self-deprecating attitude to a problem-solving one. At the end of the day, it’s just climbing and it doesn’t matter what grade you climb. As long as you challenged yourself and stayed psyched, you’re already improving.—