The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

Soon thereafter I moved back to Tennessee to work odd jobs and finally take a position at my father’s industrial-tool business. One feeling kept nagging at me: I needed to align my work with my passion.
    Working in the tool business was frustrating. I was in a state of divine discontent. I was hitting bottom. The situation was so stressful that changing my beliefs and perceptions suddenly didn’t seem so scary. I knew I needed to do something different, so I started looking for help. On the commute to work I began listening to informational and inspirational audiotapes. At home I read numerous philosophy and self-help books. Some of the authors were, George Gurdjieff, Carlos Castaneda, Charles Tart, Robert Spencer, Dan Millman, Chögyam Trungpa, Miyamoto Musashi, M. Scott Peck, Wayne Dyer, Michael Murphy, George Leonard, Jerry Lynch, Gary Zukav, Rick Fields, Anthony Robbins, and Deepak Chopra. For a more complete list of authors, please see the reading list at the end of this book. What I found in my search for meaning was this:
    It’s our responsibility to create our life’s work in something we are passionate about because that is the most effective way we can create happiness in our life. A life’s work in “that something” is the best path to challenge us and it’s the most effective way to serve others.
    I was working in a job that wasn’t aligned with what I loved to do, which was climbing. Perhaps I had a negative impression about climbing careers. I felt I was too old to be a top climber. I didn’t want to own a climbing store or gym. I didn’t want to be a guide all the time, nor did I want to be a manufacturer’s representative. I didn’t want to do these things, but that didn’t change the reality of what I had discovered, which is to create my life’s work out of my passion.
    So I looked deeper. I looked at my specific talents in climbing. What did I excel in? I decided that my greatest strength was my ability to deal with fear.
    By 1995 I had mountains of notes, books highlighted, and stacks of favorite audiotapes. Could I synthesize all this information and create a course to teach fellow climbers? Would anyone be interested in what I had to say? These questions permeated my consciousness. Going through all my material, I looked for core themes. I found them. Key processes kept recurring in slightly different forms. If a person went through one of these processes effectively, he was empowered. If ineffective, he experienced self-limiting thinking and fear. I also recognized that the mass of people do indeed think in a self-limiting way. It made sense that climbers wouldn’t be exempt from such behavior.
    I identified seven distinct processes. From these discoveries, I began to create my course. I set the goal: to find a way to teach my insight to climbers.
    I had exposed myself to many different authors, all of whom had their own particular way of understanding truth and the world. They had their methods and beliefs for the best way to interact with the world and what was most effective. There was the religious approach, the philosophical approach, the scientific approach, the psychological approach, and others. What approach would I use? After reading and listening to overwhelming amounts of information I felt I was drowning in it. I needed some guide for my material.
    I read Dan Millman’s book Way of the Peaceful Warrior and saw strong similarities to the books of Carlos Castaneda. I wrote Dan to ask him where he came up with his approach for his books. I didn’t really expect him to answer my letter but one day I received a phone call from him. “Sometimes it’s easier for me to just make a call rather than respond by mail,” he said. “Did you follow the teachings of don Juan, as Carlos did?” I asked. His answer surprised me; at least it was somewhat unexpected.
    “The truth is out there,” Dan began. “Look for the truth that underlies everything. Everyone just has a little different way of expressing it. Listen and pay attention.”
    I paid attention and received an insight early one morning as I was waking up. It would be a powerful clue—one that not only directed me how to proceed, but also showed me the mechanism. As I was waking, in that sometimes-lucid state of half-sleep, I had a persistent thought. I don’t know if my higher self was speaking to me or if it was divine intervention, but there it was. “Follow the warrior’s way that don Juan talks about in