Embracing the Storms: How to take advantage of life challenges

After what felt like storm #306 in the last month alone, many of us probably started to ask: “what next?”

The First World problems of rubbish weather, my email server going down and a delayed train were suddenly paled into insignificance when I checked BBC News and heard of the Ukraine invasion last week. Right when the world had started to get back on its feet… not so fast!

If 2020 and 2021 weren’t challenging enough, 2022 is really spoiling us!

Should we be surprised? One thing we should have grasped in the last two years is that storms will usually come and test us when we least expect or prepare for them.

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life. Some come to clear your path”

Paulo Coelho

In the Marine Corps, the ‘Crucible’ is the final test every recruit must go through to become a Marine. The Crucible takes place over 54-hours, including food and sleep deprivation and over 45 miles of marching. It tests every recruit physically, mentally and morally and is the defining experience of recruit training.

Perhaps the pandemic was our own ‘crucible’: a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.

Taking advantage of adversity doesn’t just happen though. It begins with choosing a growth mindset: reframing setbacks as an opportunity, and asking the right questions.

Think outside the box

Every crisis or disruption brings an opportunity for change and innovation: if nothing changes, then nothing changes. Our busy lives rarely permit the time to think and reflect about what’s important, and so many of us continue in projects, places, roles and relationships that don’t serve us. Being restrained behind four walls suddenly forced us to think beyond the box. This emergency stop could explain the ‘Great Resignation’ phenomenon where record numbers of people changed their jobs during the pandemic.

As an adventurer, I found my own ‘crucible’ in 2015 when my second attempt to climb Mount Everest was thwarted by the Nepal earthquake and avalanches that had trapped us on the mountain for two days. My first attempt in 2014 didn’t fare much better, with another avalanche that tragically killed 16 people.

These experiences could have easily been swept under the rug and dismissed as bad luck. But it’s our choices that give things their meaning. On the walk out of Base Camp, we passed the harrowing sight of villages and livelihoods crumbled to the ground. Yet our friends Tashi and Lakpa had a huge crack down the front of their teahouse, which had otherwise stayed intact.

“Don’t worry!” Lakpa reassured us, “We’ll build a better house!”

Re-define success

For me too, the Everest disaster was an opportunity to build back better. But first I had to re-define my idea of success. For so long, I had taken a goal-focused approach. It was all about reaching the summit: the next milestone. This is how we’re conditioned from our school grades through to adult life, where success is often measured by moving up the career ladder, the car you drive, or the house you live in.

Adopting a growth mindset focuses more on the process – the habits and behaviours acquired towards the outcome, and learning on the way. Rather than being fixated on the outcome which is often outside our control. Instead of asking “why has this happened to me?” it’s asking: “how can I grow from this?”

If I couldn’t climb Everest literally, I decided to cycle it instead, and cycled fourteen times up Great Dun Fell within 24-hours to accumulate the equivalent height – 29,035ft – a feat known as ‘Everesting’.

To raise money for the victims of the earthquake, I also helped to set up a ‘Walk For Nepal’ on the anniversary of the earthquake, with over 100 people climbing Snowdon to raise in excess of £20,000.

Whilst Everest may be the highest, I discovered other adventure challenges could be equally rewarding. 2017 I completed my Climb The UK challenge to cycle, walk, run and kayak over 5,000 miles to all 100 county tops in the UK. For once my goals were entirely dependent on body and mind working together, rather than objective factors such as avalanches, weather and Sherpa strikes. It gave an opportunity to truly appreciate the hidden corners and gems of British home-soil, for others in the wider community to participate and follow the journey. In 2020 I completed my toughest challenge yet to run the National 3 Peaks Challenge – climbing the three highest peaks in the UK and running the entire distance between them, covering over 452 miles or 17 marathons in 9 days 12 hours. Mostly important it was the catalyst for Mind Over Mountains, a charity to restore mental health through time spent in nature, which has continued to support hundreds of people through the pandemic and beyond.

Reasons to be Cheerful

The good news is we don’t have to wait for another pandemic to stop and reflect. Create the time to assess your strengths, weaknesses and what surprised you during the pandemic – what you learnt and what you want to take forwards.

We can’t escape the storms in life. Maybe we shouldn’t even try. Today I ran outside without a headtorch, the sun was shining and the crocuses were in bloom. All reasons to be cheerful. In the midst of the Ukraine crisis, we need to find those glimmers of hope more than ever.

The storms will never last forever – but we can create something that will.