You are whatever you pretend to be

What would happen if we pretended to be Jimmy Webb for a day?

Would we eat our usual breakfast? Or order fries at the pub?

How would we warm up for our bouldering session?

Would we try our project when conditions are bad, or explore and come back in the evening?

Would we focus differently, or try a bit harder? Perhaps notice our skin, and make every try count?

Would we climb with the same people?

What if we kept on pretending? For a week? Or a month? Or a year?

Of course, a year of pretending to be Jimmy Webb would not turn us into Jimmy Webb. That’s not how it works.

But we’d probably get a lot better at climbing.

“You are whatever you pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut