7 Days of Leadership Lessons from Mt Kilimanjaro (Day 3)

Day 3 started with a sense of relief. Relief that my headache was gone along with all other symptoms of altitude sickness. It seemed a good night’s rest was exactly what the doctor ordered.

One of the reasons for doing the mountain leadership experience with Blair Singer in conjunction with K2 Adventures was for the opportunity to start each day with deliberately set intentions and end each day by reflecting on our learnings from the mountain, both facilitated by Blair.

In the 9 months lead up to the climb, Blair was fond of saying that being on the mountain is the greatest lesson in being ‘present’ (The ability to be here, now… as explained in Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”). I must admit, I was a little sceptical that I would be able to learn that lesson given I did not believe I was entirely capable of being fully present – something always manages to distract me!?!

But during our morning briefing, Blair really encouraged all of us to lead from our inner quietness and be completely in the now.

Day 3 was to be one of the longer and more difficult days on the mountain as we climbed up to just over 15000 feet to the Lava Tower and then back down again to the camp at the base of the Barranco wall. Blair reminded us that our natural state as human beings is quietness and when we can just let ourselves BE then all other conditioning (like the need to listen to music to distract us from the pain of difficult exercise) simply dissolves – after all, we aren’t born with headphones in our ears!

Day-3-Landscape-mini

I’m happy to report that Blair was right!

The sheer vastness of the landscape during the day and the opportunity to be a part of something so expansive was not only awe inspiring but also the perfect enabler for allowing me to simply BE….present, in my natural state of quietness.

As Blair explains, resistance is an energy inside you that will pop up when you’re trying to go to a bigger and better place. So resistance is simply a self defence mechanism of the Ego and once you acknowledge that, the inner resistance dissolves and your ability to be present and grow as a person is greatly improved.

I relished being present and connected to my surroundings and the team around me…in silence. I also felt an overwhelming sense of peace and love that reminded me that even though my head was in the clouds (literally), a sense of appreciation and gratitude goes a long way to allowing me to just be me.