I was lying in bed last night when my motivation post came into my mind. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have made the post more relatable. I felt like the post was more “teachy” than genuine. I realized that the pictures that I included really should have been the foundation of the post. 

My husband and I visited Thailand earlier this year. In preparation for that trip I made the goal of being able to climb temple stairs, and let me tell you, there are a ton of temple stairs. One of the famous temples has 309 stairs!  I made this goal because I didn’t want to miss out on seeing things that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. I didn’t want to come home from an amazing trip and say “Oh we skipped that because of all the stairs”. An important factor for me was that I set the goal on my own. No one told me that I needed to. My husband even asked me if I was sure, and I was! I had genuine interest in making it happen.

To prepare, I started to climb the stairs at the beach (sub-goal/baby step). I worked up to about 160 stairs, doing it slow and steady, focusing on my breathing, taking breaks as needed, and enjoying the view each time I reached the top (acknowledging my progress). 

When we reached the base of the first large temple, my husband turned to me and asked “You want to do it?” and I hesitated at first because of how many stairs there were. After a second I said “Yes! But can we take it slow?” I was overwhelmed to see the goal right in front of me and I had to fight my brain’s initial fear of failure. My husband took my hand and we walked the stairs together, taking a break mid way and turned to look how far we’d gone, appreciating that we were doing it. As I stepped on the last stair, the Buddhist monk that was sitting on that stair gave me a big smile. It felt like an unspoken blessing. I turned and I looked at the view.It was a view that I wouldn’t have been able to see had I not pushed through the fear and achieved my goal. 

I have to admit that I didn’t climb up the stairs at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep where the 309 stairs are. Part of that decision was due to who we were with at the time and part of it was the insecurity of being able to reach the top because we were already up in the mountains and the air was pretty thin. Instead we used the cable car that takes tourists up the mountain. But I think goals are allowed to evolve, so I decided that I would climb down the stairs and that would make me happy. 

I set my goal, did research, completed baby steps, appreciated the process, surrounded myself with people that supported me, fought the fear, acknowledged the accomplishments, enjoyed the view, and adapted the goal to my changing needs.

There! That feels much more genuine.