One of my favorite inspirational sayings, and the one that I am most stoked about at the moment as I sit in the hotel room in Ouray Colorado for the Ice Fest, is in this image I put together quick.

It’s a photo of my wife, who is a great figure skater reaching out of her box with this great stemming move in the Scottish Gullies area of the Ouray Ice Park. In my life she’s like a living breathing inspirational saying. I took a lecture session with Steve House, who spent almost three years writing a book on Training for the New Alpinism [Pre-Order HERE]. As a former certified personal trainer, a lot of the more technical details of the book were good solid basic information.

What appealed to me most were his thoughts on specificity in training and the various training zones, and his motivational goal setting suggestions. I loved that, and am contemplating ways to incorporate those snippets into my own life and training. It would be tough at this time to narrow it down to any inspirational sayings and make some more of these posters, but I totally have a slew of them in mind if you want to drop by or subscribe to the blog to get them as soon as they are published.

The Power of Inspirational Sayings

Do Inspirational Sayings have power, in and of themselves? If you don’t believe in magic, then no, it would have to be the power you give them through repetition and belief. As a coach I don’t advocate any type of magic, but I have seen the benefit, even in my own life and training and expeditions, of repeating simple inspirational sayings like a mantra in times of need.

In my bleakest moments, trekking in a downpour on steep wet slippery muddy boggy almost invisible trails through the Indonesian jungle, I kept repeating the Brian Tracy inspirational sayings:

I am responsible
I can do this

And it worked. I did Carstensz Pyramid in spite of a serious rib/sternum injury because I believed that I could, I knew that I could, and that gave me the power to do it. Check out the book [HERE] If you need help with setting and keeping your goals, let me know and we’ll see how I can help with coaching and accountability services.