You don’t need to conquer the whole mountain to celebrate a victory.
This morning, I set myself a goal.
Before work began, I wanted to have climbed my local Mt Parihaka and stand at the lookout, victorious.
But the morning did not go to plan!
I set off, determined to reach the top. Five mins in, I reminded myself that I had 25 mins and so much of the 1.4kms, grade three track to go.
Ten mins and the weight of the remaining climb, as well as two months of little exercise and naughty summer snacking, dropped onto my back.
It was too much. Where was my fitness? My stamina?
Oh no! I can’t do this. I’m not able!
I stopped moving. I took a breath in and filled my body with smells and sounds.
Chirping birds, cicadas and snapping branches. And the sound of my own breath – gasps and long, full breaths.
At that point, I wanted to give up. But I choose not to.
It was time to reset my plan, change my goal to suit reality.
I chose to go an easier way and I chose to change my goal from the lookout success to just doing 30mins of awesome climbing.
I went back down that track and began up the track beside it, which I discovered later is actually a harder track.
Fifteen mins in and I was tired again, but hey, I had been climbing and walking a total of 30 minutes now.
So what, I didn’t get to the top. But I did climb for 30 minutes and worked up a good sweat and burn. And heck, that’s bloody good!
I can choose to feel defeated or see the achievement in what I managed to do. It’s all a matter of mindset!
Media fit
What does this have to do with media relations, you ask?
Well, sometimes clients really want to reach the top of their media mountains straight away but they’re just not fit enough.
They want the nationals and the glossies – all in their first week.
While this is possible for some clients, very few clients can achieve this.
Perhaps they’re not newsworthy enough right now, or they don’t have the solid media relationships, skills or knowledge that they need to get to the top.
It’s ok to grab some free publicity in your community paper, or your local daily, and stop for a breath.
It’s ok to climb halfway up today and be cool with that.
Sure, national exposure in papers and magazines would be awesome. The view from the top must be spectacular.
But once you change your mindset, you realise that further down the mountain is pretty amazing too and it’s ok if you conquer your media mountain another day.
After all, it’s a heck of a lot better than sitting on your toosh and doing nothing at all, right?
If you want to know how media fit you are, drop me a line and schedule a free, 20-minute discovery call with me.
