Often if things are going well, or we win, or we achieve our goal/complete the project, we then go into "cruise mode".  

We lose our sense of creativity to try new approaches and even more common, we lose our desire to take risk (with risk comes failure, stress and often finger pointing so lets just do the same old thing as long as it works - don't touch/play with it).

After seeing a show about rock climbing, it reminded me how humans have some type of inner desire, to constantly grow.... it is an exciting aspect of our species. But we can always learn to be more comfortable with risk and innovation.

A famous rock climbing site is in the USA, called Nose of El Capitan (Yosemite National Park).

The site was considered one of the top challenges a climber could face.  Then, people started to set their focus on it and finally, someone set a new record:

1 - an assisted climb was completed in 45 days (this made the news and he became famous, he dominated the sport and stated how it had to be done)

then, years later,

2 - an assisted climb was completed in 1 day (how is this possible, people could not believe it, again, the climber became famous and legendary... obviously that record will not be broken)

then, years later,

3 - a free climb (no ropes/assistance) was completed in 1 day (now this is making people think differently about the sport, and what people used to think, how is that possible). Also, even more troublesome for some people to wrap their brain around it, is that the climber was a woman (Lynn Hill).

then, years later,

4 - a free climb was completed in 12 hours (wow, what next......)

I was amazed, so many stories are right there in front of us, constantly teaching us about continued growth, learning and advancement. Look at old problems from a new angle, things can always be better.

I had to read more about the sport and the stories and the history, since it is a fairly new sport.  It consisted of so many people that went into a new level of thinking, innovation and creativity will lead down paths that the previous project/person had not even considered - and could lead to earth shaking results.

Somehow, people find a way!   How do they find a way.......  after reading more about the climbers that broke the records, and continue to do so, a few things I believe they all had (tools that they posses to break into new levels of success):

- persistence 

- passion

- creativity 

- confidence

- collaboration

- discipline

- understanding the important link between physical body and mental mind

- non-judgemental and open

Lynn Hill

On May 9, 1989, she fell during a climb in Buoux, France; after forgetting to tie a safety rope, she fell 85 ft (25 m) into a tree, and was knocked unconscious, dislocated her elbow and broke her foot. She had been training hard for the World Cup and had to stop competing for a few months to recover; she was devastated to miss the first World Cup in the sport. This is where she could retire and live out her life.