One Step after Another

Hundreds line up each year to climb Mount Everest; but there is an important difference between Erik and every other climber who had attempted to ascend before: Erik is totally blind.

When Erik was 13 years of age, he lost his sight. Although he could no longer do many of the things he wanted to, he was determined not to waste his life feeling depressed and useless. He then began to stretch his limits.

At age 16 he discovered rock climbing. By feeling the face of the rock, he found handholds and footholds that allowed him to climb. Sixteen years later, he began his ascent up Mount Everest. The story of his climb, as you might imagine, was filled with many harrowing and life-threatening challenges. But Erik eventually scaled the south summit and took his place with those who had gone before him, one of the few to stand on top of the highest mountain on the face of the earth.

When asked how he did it, Erik said, “I just kept thinking … keep your mind focused. Don’t let all that doubt and fear and frustration sort of get in the way.” Then, most importantly, he said, “Just take each day step by step.”

 "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.

 

The same principle applies to how you and I can climb to higher spirituality.

We know it is worth the effort, for the prize, which is eternal life, is “the greatest of all the gifts of God.”And to qualify, we must take one step after another and keep going to gain the spiritual heights we aspire to reach.

 “It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize.”

We don’t have to be perfect today. We don’t have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can.

This wonderful talk from the January 2002 Liahona by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin *one of my favorites* can be found here