Joe Simpson has a lot to teach us about focus and the power of small, manageable, smart goals. Goals saved his life.
When faced with an enormous task, smart goals can break it down to manageable pieces. Joe Simpson instinctively knew that he must save himself with specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. These small chunks helped him to crawl to safety in a story that is extraordinary and unbelievable
A Broken Leg, a Blizzard and a Cut Rope
In 1985 Joe Simpson was 19,000 ft. up at the top of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes on the 4500 ft. West Face. He fell, severely breaking his leg. Storms were coming; he and his partner, Simon Yates, were out of heating fuel; and Simon and Joe were climbing Alpine style, which means that they had no camps along the climb, no extra supplies, no help.
They were alone.
Their story is heroic and unbelievable. Simon lowered Joe with a rope 300 feet at a time down the mountain. He lowered Joe over and over until he accidentally lowered Joe off a cliff. Joe hung on the rope looking at a 100 foot drop below him, unable to move up the rope or get down to the bottom. And at the same time, Simon hung onto Joe for hours, not knowing what had happened to Joe, and not knowing why Joe did not release the rope so he could climb down the mountain and meet him. Simon hung on during a storm until he, too, began slipping down the mountain.
Simon made a terrible decision. He cut the rope and let Joe fall.
Joe fell into a crevasse and landed on a ledge. After realizing that Simon would not find him, he lowered himself 150 more feet to the crevasse floor, and climbed up 130 feet through a side passage out of the crevasse.
He crawled, slid, hobbled and fell for miles and miles, across glacier and rock bed to get back to the basecamp.
And he did this all with no water, no food, frostbitten fingers, and a leg that was completely shattered.
How did he do it?
“And then it occurred to me that I should set definite targets”
Joe Simpson from “Touching the Void” directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced in 2003.
Joe’s story is a gut-wrenching example of SMART goal setting. And while it may seem incongruous to compare how Joe survived his life and death ordeal to setting goals in our small, ordinary lives, I believe that Joe’s story is a testament to how powerful this technique is.
Over and over, Joe set small, doable goals to get his life back. He clung to these little tasks and had laser focus in their completion.
He got his life back 20 minutes at a time.
“I started to look at things and think, ‘If I can get to that crevasse over there in 20 minutes, that’s what I’m going to do.’ … And it became obsessive. I don’t know why I did it. I think I knew the big picture of what was happening to me, and what I had to do was so big, I couldn’t deal with it.”
Joe Simpson from the movie “Touching the Void”.
Never have I heard such dramatic and poignant use of SMART goals. Crawl for 20 minutes to the next rock. Then crawl for 20 minutes more. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Timely. Over and over. Joe focused his mind on the small goals he could manage instead of being overwhelmed at the enormity of his situation.
“I’d look at a rock and go, ‘Right, I’ll get there in 20 minutes.’ Once I’d decided I was going to get that distance in 20 minutes, I bloody well was gonna do it. And it would help me because I’d get halfway through the distance and I would be in such pain, I just couldn’t bear the thought of getting up and falling again. But I’d look at the time and think, ‘I’ve got to get there.’ ”
Joe Simpson from the movie “Touching the Void”.
His focus was complete. His goals were his only attention.
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
One of the ways to face a stressful situation is to break it into smaller tasks, and have each task very attainable and with measurable results.
This technique, called SMART goals, stands for
- Specific,
- Measurable,
- Attainable,
- Realistic, and
- Timely.
While most people use this method to manage normal life circumstances or to complete a project at work, Joe Simpson did exactly this when is saved himself in 1985.
Joe crawled off a mountain, with a leg that was so badly broken that his lower leg was pushed up through his knee, splitting the bone above. He crawled for miles until he finally reached safety.
For Joe, his SMART goals literally saved his life. Unlike most of us, Joe’s stress was not a function of modern life–stress which has perceived negative consequences but not actual life-threatening risk. Despite the difference between Joe’s circumstances and ours, Joe’s story offers great help to us all.
S.M.A.R.T. Goals Reduce Stress
Extreme stories like Joe’s are beacons to what is important in less extreme circumstances. Whenever I feel a task is too big or against all odds, I remember Joe crawling 20 minutes to the next boulder. Completing one simple job within a big project, making it through one difficult day during an emotional crisis, reacting one time with patience and humor instead of anger, one step at a time, we can all make our bigger goals.
Joe Simpson’s story is told in his book “Touching the Void”, published by Harper Paperbacks in the revised edition in 2004. It is also told in the movie “Touching the Void” directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced in 2003.
