Today I want to share with you a story about overcoming weakness.

It is a story of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. I went on the Kili expedition with 12 women from my association called Kilimanjaro 8 months ago. The whole trek was 8 days down to top and back. On the road, I was feeling great and strong, excited about beautiful nature, enjoying camping and sleeping in tents, chatting with our Tanzanian guides and learning about their country, culture and dreams. We moved forward smoothly.

The real challenge for me stared on the 6th day, when climbing from the last base camp (at the elevation 4800 m n.p.m.) to the summit (5895 m n.p.m). It is called the summit night. We left the base at 1 am. It was snowing, the wind was whipping our faces and I felt very cold. After 2 hours of hiking I was feeling so weak, so cold and so dizzy that I could hardly move. Every 2-3 steps I was stopping and breathing heavily. I was slowing down and the distance between me and the team was rising. My head was bombarded with negative thoughts and scenarios: should I stop, quit and move back. I doubt I could reach the top. It looked so far and high.

And then my strong will started fighting. I said to myself: “Okay, just few more steps forward”. And I started focusing on the next step and the next breath, and the next step and the next….

When I changed my focus, the perception of height, cold and time changed.

At 6.30 am, after almost 6 hours of climbing, together with my team, I reached the top of Mt Kilimanjaro. At that moment that was my dream come true, but it was not the end of the journey, it was just one of the stages.

Today I realize that it is the road that teaches us the most and changes us the most. And every time I come across obstacles to reach my goal and I am stuck on the road and I feel down, I start thinking

Okay, what is the next step. Focus on the next step. And don’t give up