"Fear is okay. Complacency will kill you."

I am a fortunate member of the Ellevate Network, a great global network for women, now owned and led by Sallie Krawchek . A benefit of membership, one of many, is attending online webinars that are hosted one to two times a week. This week's webinar featured Alison Levine, the Team Captain of the First American Women's Everest Expedition. And this woman skied to both poles of the earth. Talk about accomplished. She's done more - just check out her bio. 

As I was listening to her speak today about what she learned through her climb of Everest, I couldn't help but be reassured and bolstered by her own learning experiences and takeaways from her climb. Earlier this week I started my blog based on my own "personal summit" and posted about how I've begun to come to terms with life's many valleys, plateaus, and peaks. Funny that today's webinar was all about climbing a mountain.

During Alison's presentation there were many take aways, but I really connected with these five and here are my own interpretations:

• "Backing up is not the same as backing down." On Everest, Alison shared that during the climb, you do end up backing up a few different times in order to reach the summit because your body has to acclimate to the altitude or you can die. You start at base camp, climb to camp 1, and then go back to base camp, and then you climb up again to camp 1 and so on. The climb includes a number of "back ups" but its not "backing down." In our careers, sometimes we have to take a lateral move or a move backwards in order to achieve our own personal summit. You're not giving up when you take those detours on your career path, you're just "acclimating to the altitude". 
• "Can't control the environment. Only how you react to it." There are many variables in life and you can't control them. You can only control how you react to them. Simple to understand - not always simple to implement. But a good reminder nonetheless. 
• "Fear is okay. Complacency will kill you." This came from when Alison was discussing how her team approached climbing Everest. At every point in the climb, you have to stay aware and she used fear as a welcome tool in this process. In your personal or professional life, opportunities or risks present themselves every day. If you don't stay aware, almost afraid to miss something and ready to take action on these opportunities, then your complacency "kills you" either through a missed opportunity or something that will set you back. 
• "You don't need absolute clarity to put one foot in front of the other." This was a big one for me. I work more effectively when I have a carrot in front of my face (a goal), whether put there by me or someone else, and when I know all the facts. However, the future is never clear, and no matter how much we plan, sometimes it won't go the way we want it to. However, not knowing the future should never stop you from moving forward. It's okay to take a little risk and not know all the answers. 
• "Build relationships." People are much likelier to risk their own necks for you if they know you and because you cared about them. Humans are naturally social creatures. We grow and are inspired by connection. That connection can be what saves you, either on a mountain when you need help, or in day-to-day life, whether you're looking for a referral or just a ride to the airport. Now ideally, you've shown them why you're awesome and trustworthy through this process - which makes you deserving of their help as well :) It's like Teddy Roosevelt said, "The most important ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."

Thank you Alison for the strong reminders and for being sure that we remember that we all need to #keepclimbing, and if we do, we can get closer to accomplishing our goals with each incremental step.

My final takeaway is to remember that ultimately, each experience is only worthwhile when you take what you learned and apply it to make yourself better than you were the day before. I did today and I hope you will too.