Some time back I was watching TV, and saw this memorable bit, of one of those rescue shows depicting the story of a wife and husband and their miraculous survival.
They went in a remote part of the UK to do some climbing and one day the memorable event happened. I will be brief in my description not to bore with too many details.
The essence of it is that they were both using the same climbing rope, the husband was lower on the rope and the wife higher, they were going down a huge cliff. Under them just rocks and the sea.
Because of the strong wind, the rope swayed and the wife tried to hold on to the cliff, but her foot got stuck in a crevasse and she broke it. As they were on the same rope, the husband could not climb up on it, as it would have meant to move it and injure his wife even more.
His only option was to free climb the side of the cliff so he can get to the top and call for help.
As you can imagine he was afraid, but also desperate to help his wife.
He went on telling the story of how he felt this internal urge to go as fast as possible, but he realized that if he does that, there is an increased risk of falling.
He told the story of how during the free climb he encouraged himself by repeating 'Climb slowly!'
He did make it to the top, called for help and saved his wife.
I found this so moving and impressive.
His words 'Climb slowly!' for some reason stuck with me, maybe because I always try to go fast, to rush things and get disheartened when they do not go as fast as I would like, so I have adopted this as one of my mantras:
'Climb slowly!'