SMART Climbing

The other day I gave a talk to a group of business people about how climbing could help their business. Not surprisingly they were a little skeptical at first, especially after I showed them the intro to the Progression DVD – What could this have to do with them?

So what strategies do climbers employ? An example is when you’re at the crux of a climb, your gear is way below your feet and you’re tired do you?:
A) power through the crux hoping for better holds and protection
B) stay where you are until gravity makes the choice for you
C) down climb
D) whimper and ask for a rope?

As I’m sure you know, climbers have to make decisions very quickly and under pressure – Useful in both the climbing and business worlds. There are many other similarities between being successful in climbing and business including: determination, focus, training, commitment   and hard work.

Not only can business learn from climbing, but climbers can learn things from business too.  For those of you involved in project management you will be aware of S.MA.R.T. For those of you who aren’t it stands for:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

There are variants around this acronym but these are the ones I use the most and although they are usually applied to specific projects; from construction to finance, they can also be used to help achieve your climbing goals whatever they may be.  Let’s start with:

Specific

Have you thought about what you want to achieve this year? Maybe you have a number of climbing goals. It could be to reach a certain grade or maybe there are particular climbs you would like to do. It is worth having a proper think about this as it can help focus your training and the type of climbs you would like to do to build up to achieving your desired end goal(s).  It is a good idea to have short, mid and long-term goals, which leads on to the next part….

Measurable

How do you know that you’re improving? This isn’t always as simple as “I climbed steady 6b and now I’m able to climb 6c” Smaller improvements can be just as important, such as, “I struggled on a 6b and it took me a few goes before red-pointing it now I can often on-site 6b”. I often find it useful to write down extra information about a climb – Have I done it before, if so did I find it easier or harder than last time, did I feel strong, was I feeling good…? Keeping a log with additional information can give you a useful and objective way of seeing where your strengths and weaknesses are and this should help keep you on track.

Achievable

Are your goals achievable ‘in theory’ and do you have the necessary resources, such as; equipment, finance, transport, people to climb with?  There is no point in starting something if you have no chance of finishing which brings us nicely to the next point.

Realistic

If you climb 6a now and want to climb 7a do you have the time and commitment to achieve this? It is worth pointing out that just because something is achievable in theory it doesn’t make it certain in practice. Being very honest with yourself at this junction is a good move. I know many talented climbers who would climb a lot harder if they didn’t have family and work commitments, niggling injuries and a penchant for good beer!

Timely

How long are you going to give yourself to achieve your goals? Giving yourself a time-frame can help with focus and motivation, however, be careful to set a time-frame which is: Realistic, Measurable and Specific.

For the above exercise I chose sport climbing to highlight each part of SMART as it this genre seems to be the best suited for SMART method, although, it can be useful for any genre including bouldering and trad climbing.

Next time mental rehearsal…..