Just climb through it | Ashima Shiraishi | TEDxTeen

Summary

In this engaging speech, a young rock climber reflects on overcoming obstacles, both physical and personal. She shares her journey from learning the basics of climbing in New York City to attempting a nearly impossible challenge in South Africa. Through her experiences, she highlights how falling and failing repeatedly is a significant part of eventual success. She draws a parallel between climbing and life’s challenges, emphasizing perseverance and determination. Whether it's rock climbing or daily tasks like homework, the speaker encourages everyone to push through their 'V14,' representing their toughest challenges.

Takeaways

• 💪 The speaker feels overwhelmed by problems, comparing the feeling to physical sensations like knots in the stomach and weight on the shoulders.
• 🧗‍♂️ Despite being small, the speaker surprises others by being a rock climber, having climbed for over seven years.
• 🗽 The speaker's climbing journey started in Central Park, where they learned that climbing is about solving 'problems' on rocks.
• 🧩 Climbing is like solving a puzzle, and the speaker had to master hand and foot placement due to their small size.
• 🌍 Climbing has allowed the speaker to travel the world, including places like New York, Spain, and South Africa.
• 🎯 The speaker set a goal to raise the level of female climbing by achieving a V14 difficulty, a level only one other woman had completed.
• 👊 Through persistence and trial, the speaker realized that climbing success is 99% falling and learning from failure.
• 📝 The speaker struggles with balancing school and climbing, comparing homework to their personal V14 challenge.
• 📱 Social media often shows the highlights of life, but the reality behind climbing is tough and involves a lot of falling.
• 🏆 The speaker emphasizes that enduring failure is crucial for success and that everyone faces their own challenges, or 'V14,' in life.

Q & A

What feelings does the speaker describe at the beginning of the speech?

The speaker describes feelings of being overwhelmed by problems, negativity, frustration, having knots in the stomach, and a weight on the shoulders, making them feel trapped or like they're facing a wall.

Why are people surprised when they find out the speaker is a rock climber?

People are surprised because the speaker is small, and they expect a rock climber to be a strong, muscular man with shaggy hair.

Where did the speaker first learn the basics of rock climbing?

The speaker learned the basics of rock climbing in Central Park, New York City, from a man named Yuki.

What is the grading system in climbing, and what do the numbers represent?

The grading system in climbing consists of a 'V' on the left and a number on the right. The lower the number, the easier the climb, with V0 being almost like a ladder and V16 being nearly impossible.

How does the speaker's size influence their climbing approach?

Because the speaker is smaller than other climbers, they had to master hand and foot placement, approaching climbing like solving a puzzle.

What significant goal did the speaker set during their trip to South Africa?

The speaker set the goal of raising the level of female climbing by attempting to climb a V14 problem called 'Golden Shadow,' a difficulty level that only one other woman had achieved.

How does the speaker describe the process of climbing the 'Golden Shadow' problem?

The speaker describes breaking the climb into sections to test themselves and repeatedly falling, climbing until their hands were bloody and their eyes full of tears, showing determination despite setbacks.

What realization does the speaker have after finally succeeding in climbing the problem?

The speaker realizes that 99% of climbing is about falling and what might be considered failure, but the 1% of success makes all the effort worth it.

How does the speaker compare their experience of climbing with their daily life challenges?

The speaker compares climbing to their daily struggle with homework, describing homework as their V14. They find it difficult due to a hectic schedule but recognize that enduring the challenges will pay off.

What message does the speaker convey about facing challenges and failure?

The speaker conveys that failure is a major part of success, and just like in climbing, it's important to persist through challenges because the effort leads to eventual success.

Outlines

00:00

🧗‍♀️ Overcoming Challenges through Rock Climbing

The speaker opens by discussing the feeling of being overwhelmed by problems, likening it to the physical sensations of frustration and negativity. She introduces her passion for rock climbing, a sport she’s been involved in for over seven years, despite surprising people due to her small size. The speaker explains that in climbing, each obstacle is referred to as a 'problem,' which can be approached in different ways regardless of physical attributes. Through mastering techniques, she embraces rock climbing as a puzzle-solving exercise.

05:03

🌍 A Journey of Climbing and Growth

The speaker describes how her love for climbing, which began in New York City’s Central Park, has allowed her to travel around the world. She shares her experience of attempting a V14 graded climb, a particularly difficult challenge for climbers. Despite being physically and emotionally drained, she persisted in trying to complete the 'Golden Shadow' problem in South Africa. With resilience, she finally succeeded, realizing that 99% of climbing is about falling and learning from failures before reaching that 1% success.

📚 Balancing School and Climbing: Finding Strength in Struggles

Drawing a parallel between her climbing experiences and her everyday life, the speaker reflects on her struggle with balancing schoolwork and training. Describing homework as her personal V14 challenge, she shares the difficulties of maintaining focus while juggling a busy schedule and distractions like social media. She emphasizes that success is hard-earned through persistence and that even daily tasks, like homework, are part of the 99% struggle that eventually leads to the 1% of success.

🚀 Lessons from Climbing Applied to Life

The speaker concludes by explaining how rock climbing has taught her valuable life lessons about perseverance and success. She encourages the audience to think of their personal challenges as a V14 climb, reminding them that everyone faces obstacles in their own way. Through her experiences, she illustrates that overcoming difficulties is essential to achieving goals and that climbing, in a broader sense, is a metaphor for life.

Keywords

💡Overwhelm

The speaker describes feeling overwhelmed by problems, a state of being mentally and emotionally overloaded. This connects to the theme of facing difficult challenges in life, where problems can feel physically and emotionally burdensome, much like being weighed down. The speaker relates this to personal experiences of frustration and physical pressure when tackling tough tasks, both in climbing and life.

💡Climbing Problem

In rock climbing, a 'problem' refers to the path or sequence of moves needed to climb a rock or boulder. The speaker compares these climbing challenges to life’s difficulties, suggesting that just as a climbing problem can seem insurmountable, life problems also require strategy and perseverance. This term is central to the speaker's metaphor of overcoming obstacles.

💡V14

V14 is a highly challenging level on the bouldering grading scale. The speaker uses it to describe one of her goals in climbing as well as a metaphor for life challenges, like completing homework. V14 represents something incredibly difficult, requiring not only physical strength but also mental determination to overcome, symbolizing personal ambitions and struggles.

💡Falling

The speaker emphasizes that '99% of climbing is falling,' illustrating the idea that failure is an integral part of success. In the context of the video, falling is a metaphor for the setbacks and failures people face in life. Despite falling repeatedly, the speaker explains how it's important to get back up and continue trying, reinforcing the theme of resilience.

💡Persistence

Persistence is demonstrated in the speaker's repeated attempts to climb difficult routes and her refusal to give up, even when advised to move on. This term highlights the main message of the video—success is achieved through perseverance and effort, even when facing what seems impossible. The speaker's persistence led to the realization of her dream of climbing the V14.

💡Success

The speaker describes success as the rare outcome after much failure and effort, representing only '1%' of the journey. This concept is central to the video’s message that success, while rewarding, is a small part of the overall process, and the struggle and effort (the 99%) are what truly matter. The speaker's success in climbing and life is the result of enduring many failures.

💡Puzzle

The speaker likens climbing to solving a puzzle, where precise hand and foot placement are critical to success. This metaphor suggests that, like a puzzle, life challenges require thought, strategy, and patience to solve. The speaker’s enjoyment of solving climbing problems reflects her approach to life’s difficulties as puzzles to be figured out.

💡Training

The speaker outlines her rigorous training schedule, where she dedicates hours each day to climbing practice. Training in this context represents the hard work and discipline required to achieve difficult goals. It parallels her struggles with balancing climbing and academic responsibilities, showing that success requires sustained effort in multiple areas of life.

💡Distraction

Distraction, particularly in the form of social media, is mentioned as a challenge the speaker faces while trying to focus on her homework. This term points to the broader idea of modern life's constant interruptions and how they can hinder progress. Overcoming distractions is part of the speaker's metaphorical 'climb' toward personal achievement.

💡Failure

Failure is portrayed as a necessary and frequent part of both climbing and life. The speaker repeatedly refers to falling during climbs and describes how each failure is a step toward eventual success. The concept of failure reinforces the video’s message that setbacks are not final but are part of the learning and growth process that leads to achievement.

Highlights

The speaker describes feeling overwhelmed by problems, a common human experience.

The metaphor of being trapped or facing a wall reflects the physical sensation of struggling with challenges.

The speaker's unexpected role as a small climber surprises others, breaking common stereotypes.

Rock climbing is introduced with the notion that the difficulty level of climbs is called a 'problem,' which is graded on a scale from V0 (easy) to V16 (near impossible).

The speaker highlights the importance of adapting one's approach to climbing problems, as the size of the person doesn't change the difficulty of the problem.

The speaker's passion for climbing is framed as a puzzle-solving experience, which appeals to their love for challenges.

The speaker has been climbing for 7 years, traveling to various places, including New York, Spain, and South Africa.

The speaker's goal in South Africa was to push the limits of female climbing by attempting the difficult V14 grade.

The speaker shares their process of breaking a big problem (Golden Shadow V14) into smaller sections to test their ability.

Despite making progress on individual sections, the speaker struggled to piece it together in one complete attempt, climbing from sunrise to sundown.

Facing constant failure and frustration, the speaker continued to persist despite their father suggesting they find a new project.

The speaker finally succeeded in completing the climb after one last attempt, showing the importance of perseverance.

The speaker compares the 99% of climbing, which is falling, to the one percent of success, highlighting that failure is a necessary part of success.

The speaker's daily life, including a hectic schedule with school, training, and homework, is described as their 'V14 problem.'

The message of enduring and pushing through problems, both in climbing and life, is emphasized as crucial for success.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Jerson Partible Reviewer: Denise RQ

Have you ever felt as if you're overwhelmed by problems?

Well, if you feel like you're surrounded by negativity and frustration,

and you have knots in your stomach, and you have a weight on your shoulders,

like I'm feeling right now,

sometimes, you might feel like you're trapped,

or like you're facing a wall.

It's a very physical experience,

and the problems that I attempt to conquer are just that,

very physical.

What do you think when you hear rock-climber?

Probably someone like this,

a strong man who's muscular with shaggy hair?

(Laughter)

And when people find out that I climb, they're surprised,

because I'm so small.

And they think, "You climb?"

To answer that, it's "Yes. I do climb."

And I've been doing it for a little while now,

about 7 years, so more than half of my life.

(Laughter)

Well, this all began in the heart of New York City, Central Park.

This guy name Yuki, he just told me all the basics of climbing.

He told me that all you needed

was a pair of climbing shoes and a chalk bag to have fun.

He also told me that the pathway to get on top of the boulder is called a problem,

and there's also a grading system in climbing.

So there's a V on the left side and a number on the right side,

it's pretty simple.

And if the number is lower, it's easier,

so for example, V0 is almost like a ladder,

while a V16 is nearly impossible.

One of my favourite parts about climbing is that no matter what your size,

if you're small, big, light, or heavy

the problem is never going to change,

but you can approach the problem differently.

Well, back then, I was smaller than any of the other climbers around,

so I had to master the skill of hand and foot placement.

And I like to think of it as a puzzle, and I love solving puzzles.

(Laughs)

What began as a hobby,

soon, allowed me to travel around the world.

Well, do you know where this is? Any guesses?

No? OK.

Well, this is New York actually.

I was pretty small back then.

(Laughter)

I've also traveled to places like Spain.

But my most recent trip was to South Africa.

And my goal there was to raise the level of female climbing

by climbing the difficulty of grade V14.

(Cheers) (Applause)

And only one other woman had accomplished this grade,

and only a handful of men.

On the first day I tried this problem, Golden Shadow,

I decided to break it into pieces,

and by breaking it into sections, I would be able to test myself,

and see if this is possible for me.

And even though I surprised myself by being able to climb all the sections,

I was left with the impossible task

of piecing it all together, and doing it in one go.

Well, during the next few days, I climbed from sun up till sundown.

Or even afterwards, with a headlamp!

And I climbed until my hands were bloody, and my eyes were full of tears.

I was really desperate for this. And stubborn.

I would fall, and fall, and fall, but I'd always just hop back to my feet

and think to myself, was it my hands, feet or shall I reposition my body?

And eventually, my dad suggested that I should find a new project

because he thought that this one was just out of my reach.

But I knew that I had to try at least one more time,

so I said, "Why not? Just give it one more go."

So I put my shoes back on and chalked up my hands.

And it just happened! I don't know how.

I just got on the wall, and I seemed to just execute.

I was able to realize my dream; and I was standing on top of a boulder.

And then I realized that 99% of climbing is falling,

and what you might consider failure.

That means I just fall on my butt over, and over, and over again.

And that success, that's only one percent.

It's so worth it! At the end, it's so worth it.

I agree with what Bill Gates said,

"Success is a lousy teacher."

This also ties into my daily life.

I've been having trouble doing homework

because I have a pretty hectic schedule.

So I wake up at 6 a.m. in the morning, go to school,

and then I train at the climbing gym for about 4 hours,

and then I'm back home when it's about 10.30.

And then I start doing homework.

For me, homework is also my V14.

(Laughter)

That's just how much I struggle with it.

It's also really easy to get distracted when your phone is just a pocket away.

And on social media like Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat,

people only post things that are happy,

like eating food, which is what I post a lot.

(Laughter) Yeah.

Or just like traveling.

And this is how people see just me having fun and me climbing.

But in reality, this is sort of what happens.

Yeah (Laughter)

I hate it so much!

(Laughter)

But from climbing,

I've learnt that homework is a part of the 99% to success.

And I've learnt that nothing worth doing is going to be easy,

but the effort that you put into it, is going to pay off at the end.

And I think that it's important

to endure and climb through your problems

because failure is a huge part of success.

You don't have to be a rock climber to understand this,

but I like to think that everyone in this room is a climber.

Think about it. What's your V14?

Because after all, we are all climbers at heart.

Thank you.

(Cheers) (Applause)