Over the weekend we took the kids to Rock-Up indoor climbing centre. One of the challenges there is the Stairway To Heaven — a series of thirteen vertical poles where climbers need to reach the top without holding onto the safety rope.

The Stairway To Heaven challenge

Both kids made it up the first 10 steps fairly easily but the final 3 were where the nerves and wobbly legs kicked in.

As they froze and started telling themselves they couldn’t go any further, I was stood on the ground below shouting encouraging them to take another step.

“It’s exactly the same as the last one”

“You’ve already done this 10 times… you can do one more”

“Just do the next one then you can come down”

…

A couple of attempts later and both kids had made it to the final pillar and stood victoriously 7 meters in the air! 💪🏽

—

You see, the difference between failure and success is often just staying with a problem a little longer.

• One more rep.
• One more step.
• One more minute.
• One more revision.
• One more attempt.

The difference between average and outstanding is often just one more.

Go take that extra step

Ajay 🪜

Some inspiration for your weekend.

“Perhaps millions of people, in the last few thousand years, have had ideas for improving it. All I did was take things a little further than just having the idea.”

— James Dyson, Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson