Earlier this week, Jim Whitaker died. If you are asking yourself “Who is Jim Whitaker?” then I accomplished my goal of grabbing your attention. LOL. I didn’t know who he was either until I was sitting in my mother’s living room watching World News Tonight, and heard David Muir close his 30 minute award-winning recap of the day’s news with the observation that Jim Whitaker had died.

His death was newsworthy because Jim Whitaker was the first American to scale the heights of Mt. Everest, a feat that he accomplished in 1963. Mt Everest is the tallest mountain peak in the world. It rises 29,037 feet above sea level, which is almost five and half miles. Climbing Mt. Everest requires an enormous amount of courage, stamina, and endurance.

And while I’d like to think that I have ample supplies of all three of the aforementioned attributes, I have absolutely zero desire to climb Mt. Everest or any other mountain for that matter. My interests heavily incline toward indoor sporting events lol. However, I do find those who pursue outdoor adventures like mountain-climbing inspiring and the lessons on how they approach their craft instructive.

One of the lessons that I have learned from mountain climbers is the process of acclimatization. Acclimatization is the process of adjusting and adapting to different altitudes. As Sahil Bloom put it, “if you got dropped off on the top of Mt. Everest, you would die immediately because you are not acclimatized to the altitude.” That is why training is so important. The “climb,” he says, “prepares you for the summit.”

And that is a lesson that applies to more than just mountain climbing. So many people want to immediately ascend to the summit of their desires. But without the proper preparation—without the climb—without the proper acclimatization, you will not succeed. The climb prepares you for the summit. I once heard the popular pastor of one of the largest churches in America say that if there was a young preacher that he wanted to kill that he would give him his church. That statement is based on an understanding of the principle of acclimatization. To step into an area of large responsibility with enormous pressure without adequate preparation is a recipe for failure. The climb prepares you for the summitt.

So here is today’s question: are you trying to reach a summit without the climb?

When the children of Israel were preparing to enter the Promised Land, God gave Moses the following instructions to share with the people:

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. [Exodus 23:20-29]

God told Moses to tell the people that they would not arrive at the summit of the Promised Land all at once. God told Moses to tell the people that he would not eliminate all of their enemies in one fell swoop. To the contrary, they would be eliminated “little by little,” until their strength, endurance, and courage was increased. God was going to take them through a process of acclimatization.

Whatever mountain you are trying to climb, don’t expect to climb it all at once. I know that some of you are disappointed because it is already April, and you had planned to lose 30 pounds, fix your credit, be engaged, and write your first book in the first 90 days of 2026. LOL.

Unfortunately, that is not the path to sustainable success. Climbing your Mt. Everest will proceed “little by little.” The climb prepares you for the summit.

Little By Little