My son is not afraid of heights.

I found this out a year or so ago when I took several of my children with our church’s children’s ministry to the City Museum in St. Louis for the day. They had a huge metal… thing outside that had tunnels and catwalks and places to climb and explore. It’s pretty hard to describe.

Titus climbed straight to the top area that was nothing more than a huge caged ball that was three or four stories above the ground. He camped out there for quite a while, loving every minute of it.

At that point, I had the idea for this post, capitalizing off of that event.

But I never got around to writing it. No particular reason kept me from it, I just had other topics that I wanted to cover, and this idea slid off my radar.

Until last weekend.

I took Titus with me to the father/son retreat at Lake Aurora Christian Camp. We had an excellent time, and had the opportunity to do a lot of incredible things. You will have the opportunity to read more about this in the very near future.

One of the opportunities we has was on the climbing tower at the camp. During summer camp, the tower and the ropes course are usually reserved for high school students only. But last weekend, they allowed anyone who wanted to climb it the opportunity to do so.

Titus wanted to try.

So we signed up, headed down to the tower the next morning and harnessed up. Titus has never climbed anything like this before, so I wasn’t sure how he would do. I suggested that he start on the easiest of the three sides of the tower.

He said no. He chose the medium difficulty side.

And he did it. Quickly. He had a bit of trouble leaving the rope ladder portion for the rock wall part of the climb, but once he got his foot into a place where he could get some leverage, he made short work of getting to the top.

Once there, he sailed down on the eighty foot zip line.

He loved it, and wanted to do it again.

Watching my son fearlessly climb a thirty foot rock wall tower revealed a few things about leadership to me.

Jump in

Titus was one of the first people to grab a harness. He was the first one to grab the rope to help belay when another person was climbing. And once it was his turn, he started right up the tower, without any hesitation.

The same is true in leadership. Don’t hesitate to jump right into a new opportunity. Often there is only a short window of time before you start to loose the opportunity, so take advantage of it while you can. Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.

Also, with many new endeavors, there is an element of fear. This can cripple you if you allow it to. There were several kids who froze up before they even started to climb the tower. Titus started up before his fear could paralyze him.

Don’t accept no for an answer

I was a little concerned that Titus wouldn’t be able to manage the medium side very well. After all, he is only eight, and doesn’t have the reach most of the climbers had.

His response? “Dad, I know I can do this!”

All too often, we allow ourselves to get into a rut, thinking we can’t do something because we’ve never done it before. Instead, accept the challenge to go after something new, and see what can happen. You may be surprised at the results.

Persist

Titus wouldn’t take no for an answer when we got to the camp and saw the opportunity to sign up.

He persisted until I agreed to let him give it a shot. Once we signed up, he kept asking me if it was time to go to the tower yet.

He was on this idea of climbing the tower like a dog on a bone.

And the same was true on the tower itself. Once, when he got to a tight spot, he stopped for a few minutes, evaluated where he was and where he wanted to go, and took off up the wall again.

As a leader, sometimes we need to pause to take stock of where we are, but then we need to keep plugging away until we accomplish our goal.

Don’t give up.

Celebrate your victory

You should have seen the grin on Titus’ face when he made it to the top. I could see it from thirty feet down on the end of his belay rope.

He was so proud of his accomplishment. After a few minutes of soaking up the views from the top of the tower, Titus was attached to the zip line and took off, again without a second’s hesitation.

Laughing loudly all they way down, he reveled in his accomplishment.

We must do the very same thing as leaders. Celebrate our victories. Enjoy the successes we see. I would also suggest that you document them; write them down. That way, you can remember these moments, especially when times get tough or discouraging.

After finishing with the zip line, my son was more excited than I’ve ever seen him. And I was as proud as I’ve ever been of him. He accomplished something significant, especially in light of the fact that he’s only eight years old.

But what he taught me was just as valuable as his own experience. Titus’ victory here is an experience that the two of us won’t soon forget.

What is something significant that you’ve accomplished in your life? You can share your thoughts in the comment section below.