'Cause I'm a climber, I'm a camper, I'm a quitter, and I'm a riddle. I play my music in the sun.

"If I Sound Emotional About This, It's Because I Can Still Hear My Father Saying, 'Son, No Matter What You Decide To Do In This Life, Always Try To Come In Tenth.' I Think We've Done It Here, Dad."*

This month's HR Newsletter contained another one of those motivation "we should all be striving to reach the top" pieces. It gave me a bad flashback to the days when we were required to set our own work goals at our performance reviews. Since we don't actually get to decide what work we're going to do, this didn't seem to make sense to anyone, and I wanted a red light over my desk to go on every time I scored a goal. The next year it was changed to our boss having goals for us. My goal is always to have a neater work area. It's convenient, and I don't believe anybody expects it to happen, although I do try.

The article was made up of pieces and synopses from the book Adversity Quotient, by Paul Stoltz, Ph.D. He compares life to climbing a mountain, an analogy that makes me tired just to consider. In Paul Stoltz's world, people break down into three categories: Climbers, Campers, and Quitters.

Climbers"are dedicated to the lifelong Ascent. Regardless of background, advantages, disadvantages, misfortune, or good fortune, they continue the Ascent. They are the Energizer™ Bunnies of the mountain. Climbers are possibility thinkers, never allowing age, gender, race, physical or mental disability, or any other obstacle to get in the way of the Ascent."

(Climbers are either on uppers, or they're manic.)

Campers are people who "go only so far and then say, this is as far as I can (or want to) go. Weary of the climb, they terminate their Ascent and find a smooth, comfortable plateau on which to hide from adversity."

(When did knowing your limitations become a defect? As a person who could, right now, go home and empty out all her closets but find herself unable to deal with the resultant mess, I want to speak up in favor of knowing what you can't do and not doing it. I wish more people went into the important things—like parenting—with that attitude. And when did wanting not to tilt every windmill and fight every dragon become "hiding"?)

Quitters have "chosen to opt out, cop out, back out, and drop out. Quitters abandon the climb. They refuse the opportunity the mountain presents. They ignore, mask, or desert their core human drive to Ascend and with it, much of what life offers."

(Do they live in their parents' basements, watching TV all day and writing fan fiction?)

Which one are you? Which one would you like to be? According To Stoltz, we all have the capacity to be Climbers. To achieve success, Stoltz says we must learn to deal with adversity, turn obstacles into opportunities, and continue the ascent, always moving forward toward your goals no matter what.

Let's consider that last phrase: always moving forward toward your goals no matter what.

There's a very important word in there, and that word is your. Your goals. If your goal is to lead as happy and comfortable a life as you can, the obstacle is people like Stoltz telling you you're hiding. You should be doing more! Why aren't you at the top of the mountain yet? You aren't allowed not to want to be there.

What if you believe the whole game is rigged? Most of the people you know think your ideas are cracked, and the only people who listen to you have no authority to make changes. How much energy does Stoltz thing you should expend tilting without ever seeing progress? What if opting out is the only way not to have your blood pressure skyrocket every time you think about how you're living the life of Sisyphus? What if you've found that the best way for you to find happiness is to drop out, with or without the turning on and tuning in? In Stoltz's eyes, this makes you less than human.

I'm a library clerk. I've been a library clerk since 1979, and I'll probably be one until I die. I have no authority over anyone, and very few people listen to my ideas. In the last few months, I've watched the few ideas I had taken to the trash because they didn't fit into the vision of those higher up the mountain than I am. I have no hope for advancement, and no desire for it. Since I know TPTB have no interest in my personal life, this whole attitude of trying to push us to want to climb the mountain makes no sense to me. I can’t imagine why they would think that trying to make us feel like failures for not wanting to reach the top is good for us or the library. Discontented employees who feel TPTB consider them inferior are bad for the whole organization.

Even being generous and assuming this is about personal rather than professional goals—well, I think they should mind their own business. They're not interested in us personally, so telling us how we should be living is intrusive and insulting. What do they know about me that they feel they have any right to suggest I'm the wrong kind of person? Except for making my cat happy and taking care of my mother, I don't see myself as important. My goals are very, very small and personal, and they have nothing to do with becoming more important. There are things I'm supposed to want to do that I have no interest in.

Mostly, I'm a Camper. I try to keep my Climber impulses in the do-able range, and slog through my Quitter periods with my head down. I'm on the mountain; I see no reason to fight to get all the way to the top.


*Dr. Johnny Fever

Posted simultaneously on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth.

'Cause I'm a climber, I'm a camper, I'm a quitter, and I'm a riddle. I play my music in the sun.

"If I Sound Emotional About This, It's Because I Can Still Hear My Father Saying, 'Son, No Matter What You Decide To Do In This Life, Always Try To Come In Tenth.' I Think We've Done It Here, Dad."*

This month's HR Newsletter contained another one of those motivation "we should all be striving to reach the top" pieces. It gave me a bad flashback to the days when we were required to set our own work goals at our performance reviews. Since we don't actually get to decide what work we're going to do, this didn't seem to make sense to anyone, and I wanted a red light over my desk to go on every time I scored a goal. The next year it was changed to our boss having goals for us. My goal is always to have a neater work area. It's convenient, and I don't believe anybody expects it to happen, although I do try.

The article was made up of pieces and synopses from the book Adversity Quotient, by Paul Stoltz, Ph.D. He compares life to climbing a mountain, an analogy that makes me tired just to consider. In Paul Stoltz's world, people break down into three categories: Climbers, Campers, and Quitters.

Climbers "are dedicated to the lifelong Ascent. Regardless of background, advantages, disadvantages, misfortune, or good fortune, they continue the Ascent. They are the Energizer™ Bunnies of the mountain. Climbers are possibility thinkers, never allowing age, gender, race, physical or mental disability, or any other obstacle to get in the way of the Ascent."

(Climbers are either on uppers, or they're manic.)

Campers are people who "go only so far and then say, this is as far as I can (or want to) go. Weary of the climb, they terminate their Ascent and find a smooth, comfortable plateau on which to hide from adversity."

(When did knowing your limitations become a defect? As a person who could, right now, go home and empty out all her closets but find herself unable to deal with the resultant mess, I want to speak up in favor of knowing what you can't do and not doing it. I wish more people went into the important things—like parenting—with that attitude. And when did wanting not to tilt every windmill and fight every dragon become "hiding"?)

Quitters have "chosen to opt out, cop out, back out, and drop out. Quitters abandon the climb. They refuse the opportunity the mountain presents. They ignore, mask, or desert their core human drive to Ascend and with it, much of what life offers."

(Do they live in their parents' basements, watching TV all day and writing fan fiction?)

Which one are you? Which one would you like to be? According To Stoltz, we all have the capacity to be Climbers. To achieve success, Stoltz says we must learn to deal with adversity, turn obstacles into opportunities, and continue the ascent, always moving forward toward your goals no matter what.

Let's consider that last phrase: always moving forward toward your goals no matter what.

There's a very important word in there, and that word is your. Your goals. If your goal is to lead as happy and comfortable a life as you can, the obstacle is people like Stoltz telling you you're hiding. You should be doing more! Why aren't you at the top of the mountain yet? You aren't allowed not to want to be there.

What if you believe the whole game is rigged? Most of the people you know think your ideas are cracked, and the only people who listen to you have no authority to make changes. How much energy does Stoltz think you should expend tilting without ever seeing progress? What if opting out is the only way not to have your blood pressure skyrocket every time you think about how you're living the life of Sisyphus? What if you've found that the best way for you to find happiness is to drop out, with or without the turning on and tuning in? In Stoltz's eyes, this makes you less than human.

I'm a library clerk. I've been a library clerk since 1979, and I'll probably be one until I die. I have no authority over anyone, and very few people listen to my ideas. In the last few months, I've watched the few ideas I had taken to the trash because they didn't fit into the vision of those higher up the mountain than I am. I have no hope for advancement, and no desire for it. Since I know TPTB have no interest in my personal life, this whole attitude of trying to push us to want to climb the mountain makes no sense to me. I can’t imagine why they would think that trying to make us feel like failures for not wanting to reach the top is good for us or the library. Discontented employees who feel TPTB consider them inferior are bad for the whole organization.

Even being generous and assuming this is about personal rather than professional goals—well, I think they should mind their own business. They're not interested in us personally, so telling us how we should be living is intrusive and insulting. What do they know about me that they feel they have any right to suggest I'm the wrong kind of person? Except for making my cat happy and taking care of my mother, I don't see myself as important. My goals are very, very small and personal, and they have nothing to do with becoming more important. There are things I'm supposed to want to do that I have no interest in.

Mostly, I'm a Camper. I try to keep my Climber impulses in the do-able range, and slog through my Quitter periods with my head down. I'm on the mountain; I see no reason to fight to get all the way to the top.


*Dr. Johnny Fever

Posted simultaneously on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth.