Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Work it!

Hiking Mt. Baldy…..Hiking Mt. Corporate


Last Saturday, my friends and I accomplished an amazing goal. We climbed Mt. Baldy in winter conditions reaching up to 8,500 feet. If you had asked me to climb a peak like that in high school, I would have laughed at you and asked you to pass me the Chips and Tapatio. Now, ten years later, I can’t believe I can say I’ve climbed Mt. Baldy, not once, but twice, and in the snow the second time!
During the hike, I found a lot of parallels to achieving the goal of hiking Mt. Baldy to reaching career goals in the corporate word.  And here they are…
Get a Mentor…
One of the most valuable actions you can take to propel your career is to find a mentor that can show you the way. Others have achieved great things before you; why not connect with them to have them guide you.  I was fortunate enough that my good friend Keiko’s dad is an experienced…no wait...addicted…hiker who has hiked Mt. Baldy every weekend for over a decade. When he learned that I was organizing a group to hike the mountain, he volunteered to be our guide. And what a blessing it was to have him as a mentor. He helped us prepare by telling us what to expect and what equipment we would need to be successful. He guided us and told us where to step and what to avoid, just like a mentor tells you who to connect with and who isn’t worth your time. Without our guide, the hike simply would not happen. We would have reached the beginning of the trail and turned around.
Get the right tools and prepare…
To reach your career goals, there are many tools and resources that help you succeed.  Some are quite obvious such as going to college, internships, licenses or certifications. But some of the steps you need to take are not quite as obvious.  For example, knowing how to connect with the right people or how to practice skills no college class could prepare you for such as e-mail etiquette or how to speak to a variety of levels of management. You pick up these skills with practice and of course through guidance from your mentor. I wanted to hike Mt. Baldy for years, but I knew it wasn’t something that could be done without preparation.  I was able to hike Mt. Baldy successfully because I was conditioned. I began hiking trails in 2007 having very little introduction to the world of hiking.  But over time, I picked up the skills and the right tools to view hiking as less intimidating. I learned that the right tools, like appropriate hiking shoes, trekking poles, a water pack, really make a tremendous difference.


Adapt to Harsh Conditions…
The hike on Saturday was my first introduction to hiking in snow. A few years back, I hiked Mt. Baldy with an experienced hiker but it was at a time when there was hardly any snow on the peak. It was definitely challenging, but hiking in the snow was a whole different experience. I should also share that I am afraid of heights and do suffer from occasional mini-panic attacks when I hike very steep hills. Did I also mention I hate the cold? But if we were going to achieve what we set out to do on Saturday, I was going to have to put fear aside, bundle up and adapt to the harsh conditions. Learning to adapt has been critical to my career success. I work at a large corporation that recently merged with another nearly equally large corporation. The merger forced all of us to adapt to a new work environment. I’ve learned that you cannot change other people, but you can only change yourself, so you have to know how to adapt and work with change and not against it. I had to give myself this mini pep talk at various points during the hike when I was out of my proverbial comfort zone. For instance, very narrow parts of the trail or when going over a stream…I am terrified of jumping rocks on a stream! But I overcame my fears, I adapted and learned on my mentor and team for support, and together we did it, we hiked Mt. Baldy!

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