Five Lessons Learned from Climbing the CN Tower

On April 27th, we set out on a family challenge to climb the CN Tower. The initial thought was to get our children involved in goal setting, charity and doing something physically challenging. Our daughters are 8, 10 and 13 years old.

The goal was laid out: climb the CN Tower (a challenge over 4000 people a year undertake). The charity was a wonderful lesson for the children as it required they learn about the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and then approach teachers, friends and family and “ask” for their support.  For the physical challenge, the children were excited and ready to climb the 1776 vertical steps from day one. I had envisioned climbing the steps together, all of us sticking together urging on the slowest climber.

It’s interesting, upon reflection, that we all set out with a “team plan” that was
quickly thrown out the window!

Lesson One:  MAKE A COMMITMENT AND START MOVING FORWARD
Initially, I thought this would be a great experience for my older daughter Tiffany and myself as a duo challenge to get her and me more physically active. After mentioning it to my husband, he wanted to climb with us. Then the younger girls Gabriella and Cristina didn’t want to be left out. We sat down at the dinner table and explained to the girls that if they were going to participate, it would require their commitment to get physically ready, mentally ready and take the initiative to sign up sponsors for their climb. They all agreed.

This would mean “homework” but they eagerly committed. 
 
Lesson Two: ASK AND BELIEVE TO RECEIVE
Part of our challenge was to ask others to sponsor/pledge for our climb. As the girls set out to ask neighbours for pledges, it reminded me of my own childhood days when I sold Girl Guide cookies door to door. I realized that between the Girl Guide cookies and having a paper route, I had developed a strong work ethic as a child with the ability to “ask” for what I wanted, sell (sometimes in a VERY creative way), handle rejection and spot a lie a mile away (like when I had to collect money door to door and got excuse after excuse and “come back next week”).
 
If the girls wanted to receive a pledge, they had to be enthusiastic and be able to communicate effectively the “what” and the “why”.
  
Lesson Three: ALLOW THE BIRDS TO FLY
The morning of the climb was very well organized. We had a light breakfast, talked about “the climb plan” and had an easy drive to the CN Tower with the tunes pumping us up in the car. Once there, the area was well signed and there were loads of volunteers in bright green shirts leading us from space to space right up to the official “time card stampers” at the starting line.

As we approached the time stampers, volunteers were wishing us luck and giving thumbs up and high fives. The closer we got to the start, the more my heart raced. I had assumed that I would be helping pace my children: I couldn’t have been more wrong! As soon as they arrived at the first step, my two youngest daughters took off running vertical like their lives depended on it.  It was a bittersweet moment for me as it hit me like a brick wall; I can’t hold them back, I must let my little birds fly. It was a foreshadowing into the not too distant future when I will need to let go and encourage my daughters to take flight in life without looking back, without holding back and without worry or regret. The sweet part was the crystal clear validation that nothing and nobody was going to keep those little birds from flying. They had no idea what they were up against but they took off running with sparks shooting off their heels.
 
Plan B set in….try to keep up with the kids and let them pace me! 
  
Lesson Four: ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO ENCOURAGE YOURSELF
Initially, my husband was staying back with me, encouraging me like a drill sergeant, goofing off and teasing me. This is not how I am motivated, so I told him to start running and keep up pace with our youngest daughters who were already a number of flights
above. My oldest daughter Tiffany was about 12 steps ahead and had subscribed to the strategy I had given of just keeping the same pace all the way, slow and steady, one step at a time, just thinking about the next step.

As we climbed each flight, there were colourful pictures taped to the concrete walls that had been painted by children. Each picture had a motivational message on it “keep going”, “you can do it”, and 'you’re almost there”. By about the 13th floor, this wasn’t working for me anymore. There were people running past me two steps at a time and people who had stopped on landings between flights to catch their breath.  Every couple of flights I would see a paramedic standing there, looking closely at the climbers to recognize anyone in need of help. 

Flight after flight, everything started to look the same. Then I passed a paramedic who shouted out “30% done” WHAT? Only 30%, this was harder than I remembered. The last time I climbed the CN Tower was 15 years ago and I was in amazing shape then. My legs were burning but the hardest part of the climb was actually my breathlessness. Even though I kept the same pace, each flight got harder and harder on my lungs. I started to see people who had run past me, sitting down or wheezing on the landings. There were people of all shapes, sizes and ages on those stairs. 

I could hear my husband way above us chirping his little love call “woo, woo” to let Tiffany and I know that he was still there. I was calling out to Tiffany on the flight above me telling her to keep going even if she doesn’t see mommy anymore. “You can do it honey, one step in front of the next, just keep moving”. At this point, I’m wondering, who am I encouraging here? Light bulb! I am encouraging myself, because Tiffany is doing just fine. I really wanted to stop and join the others that were on the landings if only just to catch my breath. My throat was as dry as the Atacama Desert and all I could taste was iron. 

As I passed the halfway mark, I overheard the conversation of two men standing on a landing. One was a heavy build and surely this was a big physical challenge for him. He turned to his friend and said “you keep going on without me, it will be easier for me to
quit that way”. Well, I didn’t even hear what the other friend said…my posture got straighter, my lungs opened, my eyes as wide as saucers and I yelled at this man as I continued to climb “DO NOT GIVE UP, NEVER GIVE UP! EVEN IF IT TAKES YOU ALL DAY…DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP, YOU CAN DO THIS!” As the words left my mouth I felt the surge of adrenaline shoot from the top of my head like fireworks and then down through my body.  It felt like my words were played over a loud speaker for everyone to hear and for a moment everyone stopped talking and all that could be heard was the sound of climber’s feet pounding the metal steps.

As I passed the 70% mark, I got into a zone where I started to chant “ohm” then take 4 steps then chant  “ohm” again and so on. I have no idea where this came from but it helped to get me (and a number of climbers around me) in a rhythm and keep going. 
 
Encouraging someone who was ready to give up, I really encouraged myself to keep going. 

Lesson Five: CELEBRATE YOUR JOURNEY WHEN YOU ARRIVE AT YOUR DESTINATION

I reached the top (144 flights, 1776 steps) a couple of seconds behind my eldest daughter. The last two flights she was stepping faster and encouraging me “come on mom, run, we’re there!” 
 
Crossing the final door out to the observation deck, crowds of people were clapping, cow bells were ringing, sweaty red faced and exhausted people were all around me and I was elated to be done. Navigating through the crowd I was looking for my other daughters and husband. I found them sitting on the glass floor with a clear view to the ground (no fear of heights there) and asking other people young and old what their times were as they shared their achievement. What a moment this was for me, to witness my children being so proud and also congratulating others on their accomplishments. Once I got close, my baby asked me “what took you so long?”  I was speechless, so I just smiled and hugged her tight. 
  
Gabriella, our 10 year old completed the climb in 20:35. Cristina, our 8 year old in 20:40, Duarte, 20:44, Tiffany our 13 year old in 24:18 and I completed with a time of 24: 22

The great surprise to me, which made me cry tears of joy and relief, was that Gabriella, our only child to be diagnosed with asthma in infancy, who needed puffers a couple times each day up until a year ago, completed this climb without any respiratory distress at
all! I’m happy to report that the Dr. proclaimed her asthma free a couple of months ago and this climb was a wonderful validator for all of us. 
  
Our times were not remarkable. There were so many people that completed the climb in less than 20 minutes and some that took much longer than us. I'm confident my husband would have easily completed in 15 minutes or less had I not asked him to stick with our girls. But, we were an entire family that climbed. We planned together; we climbed and reached new heights together and individually.
 
Crossing the finish line wasn’t the most rewarding part. That’s the way it is in life too! It’s our journey that is challenging and it is our journey that we learn from. We celebrate the accomplishment of the journey. Just bearing witness to my own journey and the journey of those I love the most was incredibly powerful. We had a plan and a destination carefully blueprinted with the way we thought things would work that day. 

When the plan changed, we all embraced our individual paths  naturally and without resistance, knowing that we must do for ourselves  first, challenge ourselves first, motivate ourselves first. Through that we are each able to look back on the journey and know that we were part of  the successful team or “big picture” by doing our personal best.
 
Enjoying a feast of Sushi as our reward for a job well done, we talked about our next family challenge. We are looking to go a little further and a little higher next time ;-) 

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"Isn't it time you stop following your life, and start creating it?"