Intention

CHAPTER 7High Performers Have Nonlimited Willpower

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

—Louisa May Alcott

Our story here begins with someone you might never have heard of: Warren Harding. We don't mean the 29th U.S. president, although it would be funny if it was the same Warren Harding. This Warren Harding was one of the most influential rock climbers of all time. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, he revolutionized and even co-created the sport. He was the first person to ascend El Capitan, a 3,600-foot granite monolith that towers over Yosemite National Park. At the time he did this, in 1958, most considered it to be an impossible feat. El Capitan was too tall, the granite was too slippery, and the climb would take way too long.

This was the 1950s, so wall climbing was still in its infancy. The limits of the sport hadn't yet been tested. Like in any sport, climbs that many amateurs can accomplish today were considered world-class back then. But this doesn't hold true for El Capitan: it's still considered to be one of the most difficult climbs in the world, over 60 years later.

At the time, Harding—also known as Batso due to his uncanny ability to hang off walls—was a young man looking for a challenge. He took up mountaineering because, as he put it: “It was the first thing I was ever good at. I couldn't catch a ball or any of that stuff. I could only do what required brute stupidity.”¹

Whether it was brute stupidity or just a suspension ...