Training is at the core of achievement.

People can train to withstand great hardship in order to achieve their goals.

Fictional characters like Batman can provide inspiration to help shape a resilient mindset.

The inmates chant, and a cauldron of bats roils around him as Bruce Wayne ditches the rope and finally climbs out of the pit where Bane imprisoned him in The Dark Knight Rises. It's a triumph heralding a return to Gotham City and imminent reckoning, leveraging training with an iron will.

While it works on screen, it's not exactly the way Sam MacIlwaine, elite climber, adventurer, and associate editor at Climbing magazine, would play it.

Fear of Failing and Falling

EPZ: You recently completed an epic “urban climb” at Autobahn in Germany. How does, or maybe doesn't, fear play a role in preparing for and then doing a challenging climb?

Sam MacIlwaine: Fear is definitely part of climbing. There's the basic fear of heights, which everyone has. I thought I didn't, but when I climbed El Capitan at about 2,000 feet, it kicked in, and I started thinking, I can't look down; I have to restrict myself and just stare at the wall. But there's a difference between fear and risk. In climbing, risk is very much acknowledged as something that is objective and something you can choose to take or not. Fear is a tool to alert you to risk, but it also can hold you back.

EPZ: I really like this idea of fear as a kind of early warning signal to acknowledge........

© Psychology Today