Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Its elevation is about 8,849 metres.
If you are aiming for the world's highest peak, it seems best to climb as quickly and as high as possible.
That feels like common sense.
If you have the strength, keep moving.
If the weather is good, keep moving.
While you can climb, gain as much elevation as possible.
But high mountains do not work that way.
In fact, climbing too high simply because you can is dangerous.
The reason is oxygen.
The higher you go, the more time the body needs
As elevation increases, air pressure falls and the oxygen available to the body decreases.
At around 3,050 metres, for example, the partial pressure of oxygen in the air you breathe falls to about 69% of its level near sea level.
The human body can adapt to this environment to some extent.
Breathing changes, as do the body's responses as it tries to take in oxygen.
This is acclimatization.
But it takes time.
If elevation increases too quickly, the body cannot adapt in time, raising the risk of acute mountain sickness and other conditions.
In other words, on a high mountain,
being able to go higher and being ready to go higher are not the same thing.
Aiming for 8,849 metres, while gaining only a few hundred today
High-altitude climbing has a somewhat interesting guideline.
Above roughly 2,500 to 3,000 metres, the UIAA Medical Commission recommends that the next sleeping place should be no more than 300 to 500 metres higher than the previous night's sleeping place.
It also recommends spending two nights at the same elevation after climbing for two to four days.
You may climb higher during the day.
But you come back down to sleep.
You are aiming for a summit at 8,849 metres.
Yet your sleeping elevation rises only a few hundred metres a day.
It is strange.
Even if you have the strength to climb farther, you deliberately do not.
The summit is above you.
And yet you descend.
You willingly give up the elevation you worked to gain.
On the map alone, you are moving away from the summit.
But that too is part of the process of reaching it.
Spend time at a higher altitude.
Descend.
Rest.
Climb again.
Go higher than before.
Return again.
Little by little, that is how you build a body capable of attempting 8,849 metres.
Being higher than yesterday is not always the right answer
This is quite interesting.
Normally, we want to think:
Higher than yesterday = progress
Lower than yesterday = going backwards
But Everest is not that simple.
Today, you climb.
Tomorrow, you rest.
The next day, you climb higher.
And then you descend.
If you look only at elevation, you move forward and backwards.
Yet across the climb as a whole, you are getting closer to the summit.
You do not need to set a new personal best every day.
In fact, trying to keep doing so can be dangerous.
Heading for the summit and getting closer to it every single day are not the same thing.
Life feels similar somehow
Perhaps the same is true when we try to do something big in life.
Become a professional athlete.
Learn to speak a foreign language.
Earn a qualification.
Start a company.
When we aim for something big, we inevitably look at the summit.
Then we compare the summit with where we are now.
It is still so far away.
I have to do more.
I have to move farther than yesterday.
But people climbing Everest do not climb that way.
They look toward 8,849 metres, and
today, gain a few hundred.
After climbing, they rest.
If necessary, they descend.
Then they climb again.
Perhaps in life, too, we do not need to get closer to the summit every day.
We only need to climb as high as we can today.
Choose today's elevation
For example,
“Release my own app”
is the summit.
You cannot reach it today.
So you create several elevations along the way.
Release my own app
↓
Finish the first version
↓
Complete the necessary features
↓
Build the login feature this week
↓
Build the registration screen today
The distance to the summit feels vast.
But,
“Build the registration screen today”
is something you can do today.
If it lies on a path that continues to the summit, that is enough for today.
And tomorrow, you do not absolutely have to gain more elevation.
It is fine to have a day of rest.
It is fine to realize your approach was wrong and go back.
It is fine to spend a day looking for another route.
What matters, I think, is not your elevation each day, but where the path leads.
I want to see the summit and today's elevation together
Look only at the summit, and it feels too far away.
Look only at today's tasks, and you lose sight of where you are going.
Then it would be better to see both.
At the top, a place you want to reach someday.
Below it, a place you want to reach along the way.
Below that, somewhere a little closer.
And at the bottom, the elevation you will climb today.
In this way, connect the summit to today as a single path.
Route to Me is that idea given form.
You do not need to reach the summit today
Even people who climb Everest do not reach the summit all at once.
They climb.
They rest.
Sometimes, they descend the path they worked so hard to climb.
Then they climb again.
With 8,849 metres ahead of them, they climb as high as they can today.
Perhaps that is enough when we try to do something big as well.
You do not need to reach the summit today.
It is fine to have days when you are lower than yesterday.
Simply climb again on a day when you can.
Keep looking at the summit while raising today's elevation little by little.
By repeating that,
perhaps one day you really will stand on the summit.