By: Heidi Whitaker

“We cannot lower the mountain, therefore We must elevate ourselves.” -Todd Skinner

Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. However, in 1952 he made a valiant, but failed attempt to climb Mount Everest. A few weeks later, while addressing an excited English crowd, Hillary made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. In a loud voice he shouted, “Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve grown all you are going to grow… but I’m still growing!”

What is Your Personal Mount Everest?

Climbing your own Mount Everest means reaching the best that is within you. As you put one foot in front of the other, success – in business, relationships, health and all aspects of life - will follow you up that mountain.

Are you Thinking Big Enough?

Mountaineer and public speaker, Todd Skinner, encourages us to “Think, Believe, and Act on a Himalayan Scale.”

Fourteen and half-year-old Christopher Harris has already scaled Mount Everest, making it just 1500 metres from the summit before being forced to turn back. Where has this young man set his sights? Christopher dreams of Mars, where the tallest mountain reaches 21 kilometres into the Martian sky.

Indeed, before you can act on a Himalayan scale, you must think on one. It is your thinking that will determine how high you scale in this life.

“When I Have a Choice, I Choose to Believe” –Leslie Householder

On any given day, more than half of the thoughts of the average person are negative. What’s worse, 80% of those negative thoughts are recycled negative thoughts from the day before. We’re just thinking the same negative thoughts day after day. No wonder so many people are afraid of anything that may help them to progress.

Spend as much time as you can reading and listening to motivational materials. Read or listen to biographies about successful people. If you are sick, feed you mind stories of people who have overcome illness. If you are poor, feed your mind stories of people who have overcome poverty.

Constantly feed your mind until you come to understand and accept that although there will be failures along the way, success is a NORMAL consequence to risk-taking. This is what will give you the courage to climb your personal Mount Everest.

The skeptic says, “Let’s see if this will work.” The intelligent person says, “Let’s see this work.” - Steve Pavlina

Erik Weihenmayer, is a blind man who dreamed of climbing Mount Everest, a feat that defied nearly 90 percent of those who have attempted the climb to the summit. Determined not to waste his life feeling depressed and useless, Eric began to stretch his limits and became one of the elite few to make it to the top of the mountain.

Erik conquered Everest by simply putting one foot in front of the other. When asked how he accomplished this feat, Erik said, “I just kept thinking … keep your mind focused. Don’t let all that doubt and fear and frustration sort of get in the way.” Then, most importantly, he said, “Just take each day step by step.”

Eric didn’t wait for another blind man to pave the way for him up the mountainside. He took action. All the positive thinking in the world would not have gotten him anywhere had he not moved his feet.