The power of a picture

Disclaimer: Even though I love the outdoors, I'm not a particularly athletic type. I'm more like an accidental adventurer who is drawn to crazy adventures way beyond my comfort level. Case in point: rock climbing at Seneca Rocks West Virginia. Here's what happened...

Many years ago, while visiting some offices in Washington DC, I glimpsed a poster of a beautiful rock formation. Turns out it was a poster of Seneca Rocks. It also turns out that the poster belonged to a new acquaintance of mine who with his wife operates a wilderness retreat at Seneca Rocks called On Belay. When I heard that, I thought "No way! They are insane. I would never do anything like that!"

Fast-forward a few years--I am now friends with this couple-- and I find myself at their home politely flipping through photo albums of past On Belays. That's when it happened. I saw that the participants weren't these amazingly young and fit athletes that you typically see in rock climbing pictures. They were, in fact, all ages and all sizes. And I began to visualize myself among them. Slowly the idea crept into my head, "Well, gosh, I think I could do that, if they could do it."

Within a year, I was among the "insane" team who willingly trudged up the side of a rock face at Seneca Rocks that rises nearly 1000 feet from the valley floor. The night before our summit, I was making my way in the darkness of the campground from the bath house to our tents and I encountered one of the other new participants on the path. We both stood in silence for a while looking up at the peak looming above us in the moonlight, and finally we uttered in unison--"we must be out of our minds!"--and broke into laughter.

What would prompt a mild-mannered Midwesterner who had never climbed a rock face in her life to take on such a challenge? I am convinced it was the visualization of it. I pictured myself doing it, and before you know it I was doing it. There have been countless studies of visualization techniques particularly among athletes--you know, visualize yourself making the basket and such--but it was the first time in my life that it actually worked.

So, if an accidental adventurer can view forest-blanketed valleys from 1,000 feet up simply by visualizing herself doing it, just imagine what you might be able to accomplish if you begin to visualize your own goals.

Oh, and you may not be surprised to know that to this day, a poster of Seneca Rocks graces my office wall. A visual reminder to me that I can overcome obstacles and continue to (sometimes vertically) march forth!