The second mountain, and why I keep walking up it

The first climb is towards success. You know the one: the promotion, the company, the title that finally sounds like you've arrived. The second one is towards significance. Most of us never notice we've reached the saddle in between, because the view from there looks a lot like the one we were promised.

I've spent a fair share of the last twenty years on that saddle with other people. Boards, teams, founders. People who are objectively doing well and subjectively feel like they're carrying a rucksack of somebody else's stones. What I've learned is that the second mountain doesn't ask for more effort. It asks for a different kind of attention.

Nothing to add. Plenty to remove.

Which is why I keep walking up. Literally, in the Alps. Not because the summit is worth it (it usually is), but because the walk itself does something no workshop or retreat can replicate. It slows my thoughts down to the speed of a footstep. Until they disappear altogether in the rhythm of the movement. Swept away by the mountain views, the heart fills with a natural in-spiration. Accumulated breath by breath. Step by step.

You climb a mountain with your feet, but you move it with your soul.

This summer I set up a hiking retreat, Walk your Talk. The first edition is planned for soon. Because from time to time, we all need a breath of fresh air. And a mountain to mirror where we stand, and where to move.

To be continued.