My Bad Habits
When I think about my life I think about what it has to offer. Life is so much more than the bad habits I’ve picked up along my journey. When I don’t rock climb for a couple of days, I fill that time with unhealthy habits of mine. I find myself drinking more often. Rough day? Pour a glass. Getting together with a friend? Meet at a bar for a drink. Seeing family for the holidays? Drink all day. While I enjoy the beer after climbing and the glass of bourbon with my friends and family, if I don’t climb or do anything healthy beforehand I find myself getting carried away. When I don’t climb I forget where I find value and push my goals to the side. Climbing helps me create healthy habits, build strong relationships, and find balance in my life.
Rock climbing has an amazing impact on me. I avoid bad habits and am more likely to stay in line with good ones. I meal prep more often, drink less, and have more energy. When I am climbing a route my goal is to get to the top in the best way possible. Just because I get up that route one time doesn’t mean I will climb it the same way the next. That correlates with my life as well. It teaches me that I can always be improving on a goal and that if I complete a goal, there is room to keep improving. When climbing up a new and more difficult route, I will fall, then try again. If I feel like I am struggling with other aspects of life, I do the same thing I do in climbing and get right back up and try again. If I don’t accomplish the goal the first time, as long as I keep trying I will eventually achieve my goal whether that goal stays the same or moves on to a different one. In climbing I have goals and once I accomplish one goal, I move onto the next. That reminds me to not stay stagnant in my life. To keep creating goals for myself and to keep achieving them. There will always be new routes that are more difficult than what I have done before. Through life, I can grow and improve.
Climbing helps my relationships on and off the wall. It creates bonds that are indescribable. The amount of trust that’s needed with the person who is belaying me teaches me how to trust others outside of climbing. My friends in the gym guide me to be more efficient on the wall and let me know when I need to be doing a certain move to get to another hold. They help me see holds or moves that I wouldn’t notice by myself. They let me know where I need improvement and what they are seeing from their perspective. I look towards my friends and family to bring awareness to my actions when I can’t see them myself. I appreciate all the friends and family that will let me know when there is something I can improve on or change in the way I speak or in my way of being.
This last month I put my indoor climbing account on a freeze so I could focus on studying for the test that I have coming up. When I took something out of my life that I get immense value from, I found myself going back to old bad habits. I found I was more judgemental, I was more uptight, and my mind was cloudy. I drank more alcohol, ate more unhealthy foods, and had less energy. I thought it would be best for me to take climbing out of my life to focus on other important aspects and instead started losing myself. I am realizing how important it is for me to have that activity in my life, something to express myself and strive to be better at. When I first started climbing a year ago, I never thought it would make such an impression on me. I had no idea how much it would help me grow into who I want to be.
Climbing helps me feel inspiration consistently. It gives me something to talk passionately about, and something to look forward to throughout my week. Climbing and backpacking have given me trips that are worth something with people I find important instead of vacations and weekend trips filled with drinking and hanging out. I have been able to see animals I don’t get to see all the time and experience crazy weather situations. I have stories that I love to share and memories of moments that make me laugh so hard. I have been able to see beautiful landscapes I thought were only available in pictures. Climbing helps me stay balanced and makes me feel good. It adds value to my everyday life I cannot ignore or let go of. It teaches me how to have patience with myself which in turn gives me more patience for those around me. Climbing might not stay in my life forever, I may move on to another hobby or find another interest but I know it will be something that holds as much value as climbing does in my life right now. Having a hobby is so important and helps me stay healthy.
What are your bad habits and do your hobbies help you with avoiding those habits or do they feed into them?
P.S. When you don’t have rocks or a gym close by, climb a tree with your friend.
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