[W Forum] Caution and Hesitation Are Different

Writer Kim Sooyoung

I once researched all the exercise and diet methods in the world. But knowing too much actually made it harder to make a decision. Yoga is said to shape the body beautifully but doesn’t burn many calories; Kendo is good for mental training but seems like it would only develop arm muscles too much; I like dancing but the academy is too far away, and so on. I just kept worrying and weeks passed by. One day on my way home, I saw a gym right in front of me and thought, "Shall I just check it out once?" I went in and immediately bought a membership. Since I had already paid, I forced myself to go to the gym and start exercising, and naturally, I lost weight.

"Is this the best method?", "Can I do well?", "Will it be hard?", "Someone tried and failed." The more you think about these things, the less likely you are to take action. Fear reduces courage. It’s better to be ignorant and brave. So I want to encourage you to just go for it. If the chance of success is 99%, but you cling to the 1% chance of failure, you will end up being that 1%. On the other hand, even if there are 99 reasons why it won’t work, having just one reason why it will is enough to succeed.

It was the same when I climbed Kilimanjaro. Suddenly, I thought, "What if I spend the last day of my twenties at the summit of Kilimanjaro?" As soon as that thought came up, I booked a plane ticket to Tanzania and found friends through Facebook. I became the leader of an expedition team of five and climbed Kilimanjaro.

However, once the hike started, it was extremely tough. From the first day, heavy rain turned the ground into mud, and our tents and clothes were soaked. At night, the temperature dropped below freezing, and we almost froze to death. Exhausted, we kept climbing and I suffered severe altitude sickness. I had a fever, headache, nausea, tremors, and couldn’t sleep. Later I learned that the altitude sickness I experienced was serious. Usually, mountaineers who die on mountains pass away as if falling asleep. Nevertheless, with the promise to my friends to "take a smiling photo at the summit," we all overcame our physical limits and reached the top. A year later, I climbed Everest. Again, I got altitude sickness. But having experienced it once, I thought, "This too shall pass," and was able to endure it.

Later, while searching the internet, I found out that many people give up climbing the summit because of altitude sickness. If I had searched the internet on the day I bought the ticket to Tanzania, I might have hesitated. But ignorance was bliss, and because I just went up the mountain, I was able to reach the summit despite severe altitude sickness.

I have lived achieving many dreams. The dreams I achieved easily did not greatly change my life or myself. On the other hand, extreme experiences like climbing Kilimanjaro became the foundation for my growth. Likewise, valuable and grand dreams sometimes require tremendous effort and pain. But still, you must courageously try. Whether it will succeed or fail, or how many have succeeded or failed, does not matter. If you only do things that are easy to achieve, your life will always stay in the same place. If a goal is easy to achieve like eating a meal, it wouldn’t even be called a dream in the first place.

Even after climbing Kilimanjaro and Everest, climbing mountains is still not easy. Or more precisely, deciding to go to the mountain itself is not easy. I still find it hard to climb the hill behind my neighborhood. But the moment you take the first step, there is no difference between the hill behind your neighborhood and Everest. Once you start climbing, you will keep going somehow. So what you need to do is just step outside your house.

Writer Kim Su-young