20 minute rules for living in the big picture

Last night we watched the movie "Touching the Void" about two mountaineers who almost died while climbing a mountain in Peru.

One of the guys, Joe, breaks his leg on the decent. This is not simple fracture either - he pretty much takes the everything below his left knee cap and shoots it up through his thigh (ouch)...then his climbing partner is helping down the mountain by "sliding him" down the face of it on a rope. Well that was all good until he got to a "cliff" on the mountain that his partner can't see and he slides right off it.

Eventually his partner not getting any response from him because he is dangling off this cliff and unable to hold him, cuts the rope. At which point he falls into a huge Crevasse. Well then the rest of the story is how he survives this ordeal and lives to tell the story.

I think the thing I liked best about this movie was that it reminded me that whenever you are in place in life that isn't working out the way you want - set some short term goals and stop yourself from being overwhelmed by the BIGGER picture.

For certain Joe had his moments of total overwhelming sense of doom - and he has some breakdowns along the way. But then he'd just set a task for himself and he'd just force himself to work on that task. Once he escaped the crevasse (a miracle all on its own) he sets these 20 minute mini goals. For example, he says to himself in 20 minutes I will be to that rock. Then he'd get to the rock and say - in 20 minutes I'll be at that rock. If he made it in 18 minutes he'd celebrate if it took him 24 minutes he'd remind himself to try and do better in the next set.

Remember this guy is like basically lost the use of his left leg, his partner leaves him and thinks he is dead, and he is sitting in freezing mountain conditions with no food or water.

I would not recommend anyone test themselves under this type of condition but if you are feeling a bit blue about your life and overwhelmed by the whole big picture of life - maybe you need 20 minutes - work on those 20 minutes. That's where I am...20 minutes and I've just written this blog!