The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

attention into negative work. They create illusions, making it more difficult or even impossible to analyze what really happened in the experience and to learn from it.
    Face Reality
    The action word for the third warrior process is Accept . This word will remind you of what Accepting Responsibility encompasses: clearly grasping the reality of a challenging situation by collecting objective information and dealing with that information honestly. This accepting process will help us understand the ways we often delude ourselves and choose a passive role instead of taking charge of our destiny. By accepting responsibility for as many factors as possible we maximize our field of influence and minimize the power lost to factors beyond our control. By accepting things as they are and discovering exactly how they are, we gain power. We stop wishing holds were better, stop hoping to miraculously make it up a climb, stop blaming poor performances on weak forearms, inattentive belayers, or global warming. We accept responsibility in order to claim power.
    As we accept these responsibilities, we grow to accept a great truth: life is difficult. Once we fully accept difficulty as natural and normal, we cease to be offended or daunted when we encounter a struggle or a test. We can embrace these tests as opportunities. Difficult experiences are the way we learn, and they also are the way we can appreciate ease. We understand brightness by its contrast to dimness, happiness by its relationship to sadness. By embracing this duality of experience, we allow ourselves to find peace within our difficulties rather than wasting our power on trying to escape them. We shift to a position of power by focusing on seeds of opportunity within difficulty and staying curious, by exploring reality instead of avoiding it.

Chapter 4
    Giving
    The Accepting Responsibility process examined reality. We discussed being honest about our role in events in order to claim power, and how to recognize traps set by the Ego tempting us to shirk responsibility. We discussed the art of gathering objective information in order to dispel phantom fear. The warrior process of Giving uses discovered facts, and the acceptance of them, to actively create a powerful attitude for entering the challenge. The Giving process helps us focus on what we have to give to the effort rather than on the difficulty of the challenge. Giving is our last preparation step before beginning the transition into action.
    Our society encourages an achievement orientation, but is less effective at encouraging the effort that leads to achievement. We love “get-rich-quick” schemes. We play the lottery. We indulge in dieting schemes that promise we will lose weight while sleeping or by simply drinking a chocolate shake. Perhaps human beings are inherently lazy, but these pervasive influences in our society conjure up a false reality in which results can be achieved with no effort on our part. Many of us grow up believing we are “owed a living,” that it is society’s obligation to offer us a satisfying way to make a living rather than our own responsibility to invent one.
    In general, we are socialized to have a receiving mindset. Driven toward the imaginary American Dream, we are not encouraged to be appreciative and grateful for what we do have. We’re conditioned to think we will be happy when we obtain: that new car, that promotion, our lottery check. The same mentality appears in our climbing. We think we will really enjoy climbing when we get something: stronger forearms, more free time, the redpoint on our project.
    With a receiving mindset we slip into thinking we have a right to be happy, and we are somehow entitled to what will make us happy. We may work diligently, but in our minds we are waiting—waiting to receive what we think we deserve. The real world doesn’t work that way. We don’t have a right to be happy. Nor will any specific outcome automatically make us happy. What we do possess, that no one gave us or can take away, is an ability to learn and grow. Taking advantage of this ability, however, always requires real effort. We have to give something. The more we give, the more we will receive—regardless of the specific outcome. It is the combination of giving and learning that brings happiness. This is the essence of the warrior Giving process.
    The Giving mindset is rooted in an attitude of being grateful for what we already have. We can’t manifest the giving