What’s the first thought that comes into your head when I say wake up at 3:30am? 

Mine was: I don’t want to do that, this is going to be hard, I’ll be so tired, I might sleep through my alarm. 

Amazing really what our ego mind likes to tell us so that it can keep us stuck in our comfort zone and not let us grow and develop. 

Amazing also how we believe that chatter and do it it’s bidding. “Yes Sir, three bags full Sir, I won’t get up at 3:30am Sir because it’s too early and I might not like it, just like you say Sir.”

The thing is our ego is full of bollocks.

It can’t predict the future. It has no idea what you might feel like at 3:30am. It has no idea whether you will find it hard or easy to get up. Our ego also has no idea how amazing and capable we actually are.

Our ego has been programmed to keep us safe from an evolutionary point of view and as a result it doesn’t like the unknown, change or anything new. This is why, in order to keep us safe, it likes telling us that lots of things are really bad ideas without having any actual proof. 

But a so-called “bad idea”, as according to our ego, might actually be an amazing idea once we’ve acted on it. 

Like getting up at 3:30am on a Sunday morning to walk the 19.4Km Tongariro Alpine Crossing in New Zealand, another volcano is my #40by40 volcano challenge.

One word – epic! 

That word is not in my ego’s dictionary. 

The original plan had been for a night crossing starting around 6pm to experience the moon rise and first full moon of the new year and finishing sometime after midnight. (Funnily enough my ego didn’t like that option much either).

But the weather wasn’t playing ball except for a mint weather window between 4am and midday before more rain came through. 

How convenient; the perfect length of time to do the crossing. 

It was on. My ego was quivering. 

My alarm went at 3:30am. I didn’t sleep through it. I didn’t feel tired. It wasn’t even that hard to get up and get ready in half an hour.

My ego had lied to me. In fact, I actually felt excited and couldn’t wait to attack the crossing. 

At 4am when we left the hut the sky was dark and clear, sprinkled with a million pinpricks of star light. 

We started walking before 5am, using head torches to guide the way over the volcanic landscape. 

Slowly the sky lightened. We approached the notorious devil’s staircase, an uphill stretch of seemingly never-ending steps. 

“This is going to hurt,” my ego said.

Once I got to the top: wow, that actually wasn’t that bad. 

And then the sun was kissing the top of Tongariro and we walked towards its warmth. Across the empty South Crater and up to the high point of Red Crater. All the while, Mount Ngauruhoe, the inspiration for Mt Doom in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, loomed over us. 

Volcanic plains and hills rippled out around us as the morning sun welcomed the new day. 

It was barely 7am. 

Then there was the scree slope, the dazzling Emerald Lakes and then the long zig zag back down.

We finished the walk about 11am just as grey clouds were starting to pull in.

Mission complete.

#ownyourawesome

PS – Interested in understanding how your ego mind is holding you back and how coaching might help? Then get in touch. I’d be happy to help.

PPS – If you know anyone who might benefit from coaching or this blog, please share!