I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about the upcoming comp season. This past year was hugely successful for me. I placed 8th in the Canadian National Bouldering Championship, 8th overall in Canada and got to attend my first world cup event. (Oh, and of course joined the Five Ten Team!!!) I learned a lot from my coach and teammates that I trained with. The biggest success of all was that I worked really hard at being open to listening to others and what they felt I was doing wrong. Constructive criticism. When I was having a hard time sending a problem, what did they think I was missing? What did they think I should try instead? It really helped. I still have room for improvement, but I’m happy I’ve taken a step in the right direction.

This season, I really need to work on the things that worry me or make me nervous. I need to change my mentality. If I think a problem ‘isn’t my style’, why do I think that? I need to identify the issue and then figure out a way to change it. I need to stop being afraid to try something because I don’t want to fall off before the point that everyone else does. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, theirs are different than mine.

It’s going to take a lot of work, but I need to push myself to remember this. Most importantly, I need to remember this so I can push myself to be the climber I want to be and hopefully inspire a few others along the way!