The Moment Before You Fall

There are a few types of rock climbing – the one most people probably first think of when picturing rock climbing is called “top-roping”. You are attached to a rope with a harness and climbing up a very tall wall. I have recently gotten into another type of rock climbing, which is called bouldering. While bouldering, you don’t have a harness and are not secured in any way. You climb shorter routes that usually only extend to 10-15 feet, close enough to the ground that you can safely drop when you reach the top (onto a soft mat).

I think rock climbing has been growing in popularity around the nation, and this is certainly the case in my social circle. I got into it because of my friends; most of them got memberships at Central Rock Gym (CRG), a company that has multiple climbing gyms throughout Boston – they just opened one up across the street from 20 Overland Street. I went a few times for fun and got hooked, so I got a membership as well.

I really enjoy bouldering, but I wasn’t sure why I found it so fun. I typically like to start new activities, though I can get bored quickly – but something about bouldering kept me going back three times a week, and I haven’t tired of it yet. When I thought more about why I was so addicted to it, I concluded that it was the adrenaline rush from the moment before you fall.

When you’re bouldering, there are two ways you can fall. The first is the “bad” type – you’re trying to grab a hold on the wall that is difficult to reach, and you slip and lose your grip. The second is the “good” type – you successfully reach the end of the route, and you release your hold on the wall.

Both moments have a certain addiction and adrenaline associated with them, and I think this is really what hooks me. When you slip, you feel a moment of irritation (usually you can tell a second before you’re going to fall). This is followed by the falling, where you do your best to land safely and minimize any injury, and then a rush of frustration and annoyance, and usually a desire to try again and figure out how to move past the section that you just failed on the route. When you reach the end of a route successfully, just before you let go, you get a rush of exultation and achievement, as all the hard work you put in has paid off, and any previous failures have been overcome. You then drop to the floor and revel in your accomplishments (or just try another route if you’re not one for reveling).

That moment before you fall is highly addicting, especially when you’ve succeeded. Dropping down after completing a route and feeling such a sense of accomplishment – I think this feeling is what keeps me coming back over and over, and upon further examination, I’ve realized there’s a similarity between this and my job, which might explain why I like managing projects so much:

1. While bouldering, you spend most of your time not actually climbing – you sit on the mat and examine the route. You plan out where you’re going to put your feet and hands and identify the areas that look the most challenging. This is similar to planning in a project – identifying all of the work in the project, and then identifying any risks that you can see.
2. Then, you put your plan into action. You begin to climb the route. Usually, unless it’s a very easy route, you won’t succeed the first time. You might get past some of the initial steps in the route, but you’ll generally fall once you get to a hard part. You then sit on the mat again and re-examine: what went wrong? What can you do better next time to get past that part? In a project, you might consider this your pilot: you’ve created a plan, you run it on a pilot group to determine if it works. Sometimes, it works well, but generally, you hit some roadblocks and update your plan based on feedback, to prepare for your go-live.
3. Finally, the go-live: You’ve climbed your route a few times, fallen a few times and you’re pretty confident you know how to navigate the terrain now. You’re ready to give it a shot and are hoping to succeed. You begin your climb, and hopefully, all goes well, and you reach the top – you feel a sense of achievement as all the work and planning you’ve put in comes to fruition, very similar to how a successful go-live will feel in a project.

Through this self-reflection, I’ve realized that I tend to get hooked on these sort of high-intensity interval activities – ones with peaks and valleys rather than activities that have a more consistent tempo, like a long-distance run. What “moments before you fall” do you all experience in your lives? Do you seek out activities that have these rushes of adrenaline, or are the ups and downs not your style – do you prefer activities that are more consistent?