'Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves!' Andre Gide

So I've been watching this amazing documentary Everest: Beyond the Limit following an odd collection of people trying to climb Everest.  There's a fire-fighter who lost friends during 9/11, a biker who's spine is encased in metal from previous biking accidents, an asthmatic who wants to reach the summit without using bottled oxygen, a doctor who specialises in altitude sickness.  All going up the mountain.  All fixed on the top.

They are all headed the same way.  They share one dream.  They have spent all their savings, mortgaged their houses, given up work, left behind everyone they love to do this one thing. It has become their lives.  They have to spend 40 days on the mountain just to get their oxygen deprived lungs used to working harder.  Every part of their being becomes entwined with the mountain.  With all this effort, sacrifice, money, ambition and personal pride at stake they have to make it.

Like any good story, you get involved with the people.  You want them to succeed.  As they get nearer the summit you watch with bated breath as their oxygen starved brains and frozen limbs begin to flounder.  You see a man's face turn purple and blue as mountain sickness takes hold.  Another climber cannot move as he becomes utterly disorientated and the sheer and icy mountainside spins and flips in his head like a child on a see saw. When a climber gets to this stage, he faces three critical life changing choices.  Do I climb on?  Do I stay here? Or do I use all the will power left to me and make my perilous way down?

There is no guarantee that a climber in this state will make it down.  At this stage, experience shows that climbers who refuse to give up their personal ambition and pride to stubbornly climb on, die.  They will make a mistake, slip and fall or just sit down and never get up again.  The mountain is home to many people who got stuck there forever.

Someone once said that the difference between a rut and a grave is only in their dimensions.  In other words, sometimes painful as it is, you have to move on.  Change seems to be very difficult for lots of people.  Some would rather live in dead places, doing dead things that deep down they know aren't doing them any good.  They will refuse to leave and gradually become so set in their ways that the door to the light closes and they do not even realise it has dimmed.  Or they see that the light is fading but they are too afraid, too proud or too arrogant to do anything about it.

It is better to live lightly, to live humbly and to trust in new beginnings than to get stuck in an old castle full of reasons why you didn't leave. It is better to pass through fear and realise that it is just a shadow.

Jesus said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 9 v59-62, NIV

Don't get stuck. It can be a matter of life and death.

About the Author:
Claire Vorster is a Professional writer with 20 years successful Corporate writing experience, both in the US and the UK. She specialises in inspirational and motivational writing and editing for Corporate clients, magazines, newspapers and online markets. 

Claire writes a daily inspirational Blog and is equally at home with WordPress, social networking including Facebook and Twitter, list building and SEO.

Claire writes persuasive and precise motivational copy.  With your voice, to your brief, to your deadline