Confronting our limiting beliefs
If you have read any firsthand accounts of mountaineers who chronicle their ascent to the top of Mt. Everest, you may have heard of the "Khumbu Krud." Khumbu is a region of northeastern Nepal on the Nepalese side of Mt. Everest. The term “Khumbu Krud” is used by mountaineers to describe a sickness brought on by a combination of high altitude, dirty food, fetid water, intestinal parasites, and an utterly alien ecosystem.* It is described by many climbers in graphic terms: nausea; diarrhea; a deep, high-altitude cough that's hard to shake; dysentery; fatigue. It's not the kind of thing you want to have while climbing the tallest mountain in the world amidst a snowstorm in temperatures that reach thirty degrees below zero.
In the dry air of Mt. Everest, a painful cough can be disorienting. When it is already difficult to breathe, the Khumbu Krud can force you to consume extra amounts of oxygen that you need to reach the summit and return safely.
What makes the Khumbu Krud dangerous is that it is a common experience while climbing the Khumbu Icefall, one of the longest and most dangerous stages of the climb. Not only is it difficult to endure, but it often hits climbers during a critical transition from the base camp at the bottom of the mountain to the first of four camps on the way to the summit. Experienced, acclimatized climbers can ascend the icefall in a few hours, while inexperienced or non-altitude-acclimatized climbers may take ten to twelve hours to complete the passage.
At this stage, not only must a climber be a great mountaineer, but he must have a mindset to endure. To push through the difficult and disorienting environment of the Khumbu Icefall takes a combination of developed skill and mental toughness.
Not only must you have the right equipment and the right team, but you must be able to take thoughtful steps forward through tremendous amounts of cold, discomfort, and physical pain.
The lessons men can learn from elite mountaineers are abundant. Like all difficult periods of transition between critical points of development, we must find a way to move forward in faith one small and thoughtful step at a time. When life is disorienting or discouraging, we must cultivate a mindset to endure. To overcome the mountains above us, we need a combination of developed skill and mental toughness.
In times of difficulty, we must believe that we can overcome even the tallest mountain one step at a time.
Carol Dweck, in her classic book on mindset, suggests that the view a person adopts for themselves profoundly affects the way they lead their life:
Scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought. Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way. The major factor in whether people achieve expertise is not some fixed prior ability but purposeful engagement.*
Dweck's research has indicated that people with a growth mindset view their ability, intelligence, and talents as things they can develop and improve over time. This mindset leads to a desire to learn and, therefore, a tendency to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, and find inspiration in the success of others.
As a result, they reach high levels of achievement.
In contrast, those with a fixed mindset view their ability, intelligence, and talents as static in nature. This mindset leads to a desire to look smart and, therefore, a tendency to avoid challenges, be defensive, see effort as fruitless, ignore feedback, and feel threatened by the success of others.
As a result, they may plateau early and achieve less than their full potential.
Pause and Consider
Do you have any unhealthy beliefs that limit your potential?
What limiting beliefs may have prevented your progress in the past?
As men, we can allow our mountains to define us, or we can view them as obstacles to overcome. When a man is actively working to improve himself, he must assess his mindset and determine if his limitations are self-imposed. If there are self-imposed barriers in the way of his progress, they often come in the form of limiting beliefs.
A limiting belief is a judgment about yourself that you think to be true that restricts you in some way.
These beliefs often come from a place of negativity and fear that keep us from experiencing new opportunities. They are based on how we perceive ourselves or the world around us.
In the Old Testament, after the people of Israel were released from their bondage in Egypt, they journeyed to the border of the land of Canaan. At this point, their leader, Moses, appointed twelve spies to secretly survey Canaan and return with a report of their findings. (See Numbers 13.)
If you are familiar with the story, you know what happened next. The twelve spies, one from each tribe, surveyed the land. When they returned to describe their experience, ten of the twelve spies convinced the entire nation that the land would devour them.
In Numbers 13:33, a phrase spoken by the ten spies illustrates the nature of limiting beliefs. As they recounted the height and might of the “giants” who lived in Canaan, they declared,
There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.
Notice the defining phrase in the text: We were like grasshoppers in our sight. In other words, when they viewed the giants in the land, they perceived themselves, in comparison, to be small. Feelings of ineptitude and inadequacy came to the surface, and the task of conquering the land promised to them by God felt impossible.
In time, this limiting belief became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In Proverbs 23:7, King Solomon wrote, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” In this verse, Solomon described the bridge that often separates what we say from what we do. To see what a man will ultimately do, look not at the words coming out of his mouth but at the content of his heart and the thoughts in his mind.
Writing about this verse, James Allen said,
It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that they themselves are makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that the mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.
By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the divine perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.
Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.*
When the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church and described the process by which we are made new in Christ, he emphasized the renewal of our minds:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2.
How sad would it be if, in eternity, we were able to see all that was possible if we had only broken free of our limiting beliefs? As Michaelangelo so aptly stated, "The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed."
Footnotes
*Karl Taro Greenfield, "Adventure: Blind to Failure," Time Magazine, June 18, 2001.
*Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (New York: Ballentine Books, 2006), 5, 245.
*James Allen, As a Man Thinketh (New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1902), 1, 7-9.
