Build Confidence and Motivation for Your Walking Holiday
Prepare yourself for the best walking year of your life, with confidence in your fitness and motivation to go further than ever before.
Build Confidence and Motivation for Your Walking Holiday
https://www.contours.co.uk/how-to-build-confidence-and-motivation
By Sarah Rowell
Can I do that?
It is a question that most, if not all, of us have asked ourselves when contemplating a new challenge, whether at work, with family or for leisure. It is a question that anyone who exercises with seriousness will be familiar with:
“Can I do a walk that rough/long/many days/hilly/exposed?”
These are questions that many readers of this blog will have asked themselves, and it is a question that I am asking myself right now, having committed to trying to climb the Matterhorn later this year. It is also a question that every elite sportsperson faces in their never-ending quest to be better and to do what has never been done before.
On its own and without help, your ‘can I do that?’ can feel daunting, scary and even unachievable. By breaking the task down into its constituent parts, not only can it add a degree of perspective but it can also highlight where the most effort is needed to ensure success. That’s why elite sport uses a model often called ‘what it takes to win (WITTW)’ to help athletes, if not to totally remove the uncertainty from what they are aiming for, then at least to reduce it significantly, so that ‘can I do that?’ increasingly becomes ‘I can do that’.
The principle behind WITTW is one which can be used by anyone facing a similar question, and it is what I will explore further in the rest of this article, using my own ‘can I do that?’ as a working example.
The premise behind WITTW is simple; by breaking down what you are trying to achieve into the core components that you need to have in place to succeed, you can then work on each of these individually in training/as you prepare for your challenge, making sure you have the requisite level of skill or knowledge in that particular area. As a result, when you come to attempt your ‘goal’ you do so with the confidence that you have the complete skill set needed to succeed.
Let’s look at climbing the Matterhorn as a working example. A summary WITTW model would show that to succeed you need to prepare in the following areas: physical fitness, mental strength, nutrition and hydration, route knowledge, quality guide, climbing ability, comfort with exposure, altitude acclimatisation, the right kit and equipment and how to use it, comfort with weather and trust in your climbing team.
Taking these one by one and applying them to myself:
Having created my WITTW list and then considered and planned around each area, it gives me confidence (not however arrogance) that I have a goal which is not easy but should be achievable. I have a plan which will ensure that I tick all the right boxes around what is needed to succeed.
Hopefully I have also outlined a process that is simple in its concept, but done diligently, effective in its outcome and application, which can be used by anyone contemplating their own ‘can I do that?’