The line at the top of the world

"“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

At 29,031 feet, you have to wait in line.

It’s sort of like the DMV, but colder. More snow. Less oxygen. About as deadly.

Recently, a video of climbers on Mt. Everest swirled around the internet. It shows a traffic jam of humanity lined up bumper-to-bumper in a precarious area of the mountain known as the “death zone”.

To put it another way:

All these people climbed to the top of the world.

And when they got there, there was already a line.

Funny how that works.

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In life, lofty goals can lead to lofty letdowns. Aiming high leads to climbing high. And the higher you climb, the further away the ground falls.

To the people on the ground, you’re ascending to breakneck heights. But no matter how high you go, you never find yourself alone.

Even at the peak of your personal Everest, there’s a line. Flags flap in the wind, left at the summit by people who have been there before and have since departed, descended, and been forgotten about.

To anyone watching your journey from base camp, your accomplishments are superhuman.

But to you, it feels the same as it did when you were starting your journey. Crowded. Congested. Common.

The only difference is now you have nowhere else to go.

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Ambition is a self-punishing trait. I’ve spent my entire adult life with one dream: I wanted to write for a living.

For the last 2 years, I’ve been writing for a living.

I’m here!

At the summit!

I made it!

And as I look around, all I see are people who made up here faster. People who did it without oxygen. People who did it once, headed back down, and came up for a second or third time, just for fun.

And it leaves me with one thought …

“Is this it?”

Ambition drives you to push and push and push, always fixated on a goal. If you’re fortunate enough to reach that goal, your ambition is going to convince you that it’s not OK to be satisfied. It’s not OK to be proud of yourself. It’s not OK to relax.

Because you have to do more. More. MORE!

But remember:

Even at the top of the world, there’s a line.

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The old aphorism tells us to shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

I get it. But when you’re shooting for the moon, the constellations are a lousy consolation.

Instead of being satisfied with landing among the stars, continue to shoot for the moon. But understand that even if you make it there, you’re not the first person to do so.

Is that discouraging? I don’t think so.

I think it’s freeing.

Even if you slip and tumble, there are always people around you ready to help — no matter how high you climb. The weight of the world is not on your shoulders. The survival of humanity does not depend on your success.

To no surprise, John Steinbeck said it best:

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”