I don't usually read random articles on new sites but this morning a BBC article on the overcrowded lines at the peak of mount Everest caught my eye, mainly over the surreal view of mountaineers waiting in an hour and a half line.
Towards the end of the article, right when I was about to remind myself the reasons I don't read random articles on the internet I ran across this quote from German climber Ralf Dujmovits:
"I lost so many friends who died during the descent over the years - many accidents happen during the descent because people are just not concentrating enough anymore..."
This 'climbing down from the Everest' scenario is something I've noticed about other people and myself and goes beyond climbing mountains: The month of April was a great month for me from a habit forming perspective and even though a lot of habits I formed during March and April stuck around May was somewhat of a relapse and I spent the past couple of days to figure out why and what are the main contributing factors.
Telling the story of climbing down from mount Everest isn't the thing people would want to hear. They want to hear about the summit, the feeling of relief and exhilaration on the highest peak in the world. But once the novelty runs out, you still have to make the journey back down with as much concentration and intention, only slightly more experienced and motivated.
I think one important component of understanding that post-novelty timeframe, between the last exciting activity and the next is to try and make the descent a part of the journey with as many takeaways and information retention is possible. Not a cool story to tell for sure, but could be good against falling back into comfort zones and habits.