Why I Stopped Climbing for the Summit

The first time I hiked a state high point, I was obsessed with the destination. The summit. The selfie. The checkmark on my map.

But something changed along the way. I realized the summit wasn’t the most important part. It was just the punctuation mark at the end of a much longer, more meaningful sentence.

The real lessons were happening earlier:

• In the quiet, breathless switchbacks

• In the conversations with strangers along the trail

• In the moments I nearly turned around, but didn’t

• In the grit it took to keep going - not knowing how much farther I had to climb

It’s a lot like personal and professional growth. We chase the “summits” - titles, degrees, milestones. But those are just outcomes.

The real transformation happens in the in-between:

👉 The prep work

👉 The discomfort

👉 The resilience you build

👉 The mindset shift you earn

Now, when I climb, I still aim for the top, but I’m far more interested in who I become on the way up.

And that’s how I approach goals at work too. It’s not about arriving, it’s about becoming!