Hey 👋
I have an activity for you.
This activity had a profound impact on me when I did it. So big that it was one of the reasons I took the step to resign my corporate job last year.
So, grab a pen and paper.
Or your Remarkable / tablet if that’s your way of working.
Take an A4 page.
Divide it into 3 sections.
For each section draw 3 “mountains”.
Here’s an example:
Each section represents a third of your life – if you’re 45 years old:
🕐 Section 1: will be your life from 0 – 15 years.
🕓 Section 2: 16 – 30 years.
🕗 Section 3: 31 – 45 years.
Now for each of the mountains, write down a challenge that you faced during that period in your life.
You’ll end up with 9 challenges, 3 for each period in your life.
The challenges that you list can be (and probably should be) both “negative” AND “positive” mountains.
(ps. for clarity I’ll call it “negative” and “positive”, which isn’t the best description. You can also think of it as “wanted” or “unwanted” challenges).
Here are a few of my mountains to give you some examples:
🏔 Won the 1st prize as the best student in my 2nd year in school.
🌋 Experienced extreme bullying in primary school. It was rough.
🗻 Bought my house when I was 23. Fighting every month to pay all the bills 😅 but I did it.
🏔 Parents’ divorce. Not a great time for anyone.
🌋 Moved to Singapore.
🗻 Moved to Germany.
🏔 Every promotion. And every promotion I didn’t get.
Go ahead and write down your 9 mountains.
You done? Yes?
Now comes the best part: go on.
Take another 10 minutes and continue to write down the mountains you faced during the different time periods.
Write down as many wanted and unwanted mountains you’ve faced so far.
Here’s where the aha moment came for me: I realised I’ve climbed, walked, hiked so many mountains in my life!
And that I can do hard things.
I’m sure it’s the same thing for you. When you look at all the mountains that you listed in the short 15 minutes, I hope you can see that you can do hard things.
Whether you’re someone who sets New Year’s Resolutions or don’t. Or if you like to set yearly goals, or not.
Whichever camp you fall into, please remember whatever mountains 2025 brings – wanted or unwanted – you can do hard things, my friend.
I wish you the happiest, healthiest year ahead. With lots of money. And endless adventure!
Let’s go!
Jeanette 💛
ps. here are all my mountains.👇
pps. I got this activity from Susie Moore – her content is fantastic
