April MuseLetter Series 5/5
Adventurer, we have reached the final ridge of April.
Together, we’ve mapped the logic of the trek, leaned into the thick fog of the English moors, practiced our rest steps, and performed a rigorous audit on the Shira Plateau. You have survived the Middle Miles… and I hope you have discovered how to thrive there.
But as the calendar turns toward May, there is one final piece of the map I want to leave you with. It is the secret to staying upright when the wind is howling, the trail is narrow, and your goals are finally coming into view.
It is your Center Within.
While this idea is seen across various traditions, we borrow the Japanese word, which is known as the Hara → your internal center of gravity.
At Mountain Peak Strategies, we believe that a successful and sustainable journey isn’t about looking for balance “out there” in your external environment; it’s about maintaining your center “in here.” When you act from your center, the Middle Miles don’t drain you. Instead, they become the place where you embody the 3-Ps:
- Productivity: Creating meaningful results with clarity and focus.
- Prosperity: The experience of well-being and joy, even while you’re working hard.
- Play: Using rest as the fuel that makes the ascent possible.
Listen, I get it… especially right now. I am walking this path right alongside you.
As April closes, I am emerging from my own “Middle Miles” in writing my new book, Rise. Discover. Emerge. So, over the last few months, I have felt the weight of the pack and the uncertainty of the fog just as you have… And as I move into May, I am preparing for my own final push to the finish line, fueled by the very same determination we have cultivated together this month.
And, in that spirit, next month, our theme will shift. We are moving out of the plateau and into the Final Push, where we will discuss what it takes to dig deep when the summit is finally in sight and the air is at its thinnest.
Before we leave the plateau of April, I want to give you a different way to look at the progress you’ve made.
We often give the mountain all the credit… We think, ‘I’m only strong because I’m chasing this promotion,’ or ‘I’m only disciplined because I have this goal.’ We treat our strength like it’s on loan from the summit.
But finding your Hara,your center, means realizing that the ‘Middle Miles’ have actually rewired you. Think of it this way: You chose the mountain. It was just the training ground and it was the heavy lifting you did in the fog and the persistence you practiced on the plateau that built a ‘muscle’ of character… one that is now yours to keep.
Ask yourself this: If you reached your summit today and it was stripped away tomorrow, who is the person left standing in those boots?
You’d find that you are no longer the person who started the journey and are now a person who knows how to breathe in thin air… one who knows how to find a rhythm in the mist.
And, I want you to know, from the bottom of your heart (and your Hara) that the capacity doesn’t belong to the project or the title… it belongs to you. So, as we prepare for the final push in May, don’t just focus on what you are getting from the climb… focus on who you have become because of it.
So before I leave you today, and we move from April to May, I’d like to remind you, and myself, of something→ we must not leave the lessons of April behind… We must carry the grit that we built through the fog, keep the “Three-Foot Rule” in our pockets… And above all, stay connected to our center.
The mountain is never just the mountain. It’s a mirror. Today, I hope you look in that mirror and see a climber who is stronger, lighter, and more centered than the one who stood at the trailhead on April 1st.
I’ll see you over the next hill. Be Still. Be Focused. Be Free.
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