Five tips for success with Bonita Norris, who climbed Everest aged just 22



When you see the sun rise from the top of the world, it was just the most beautiful thing you could imagine.



(In 2010, Bonita Norris became the youngest British woman to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. She was 22.)



My first tip would be to just start. The difference between most successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people just gave it a shot, and they just took that first step. Small steps make the biggest difference. There were so many moments, when I've been in the Himalayas, where I've felt like I couldn't take another step, I couldn't do anything more. And it's so easy to get paralysed by the enormity of the challenge, and lose sight that the step in front of you is all you have to ever worry about.



My next tip: Visualise. I'd make a playlist of music that will transport me to the mountain as soon as I put it on, shut my eyes, and I can imagine myself climbing that peak. Just taking the time to really visualise what it means to achieve it. I think that most people give up because they lose sight of their dream, they forget why they started.



Spend more time in nature. I always ran as a way to get fit and I would go to the forest, the things that became really highly emotional and I'd get really upset about suddenly weren't such a big dea.l.



Stop letting your ego get in the way. Your ego can be the biggest wall that you have to climb. The most successful people in life are the ones who are able to be honest, and vulnerable with others. The more you build up a wall around you, the more you have to pretend to be someone that you're not.



I don't think that just getting to the top of a mountain makes you a good person, or a successful person. For me, success comes down to, can you get to that point by being a compassionate person to others, by being in touch with yourself, and being respectful of the environment around you. I don't believe that you have to be ruthless to get what you want in life.



My final tip is you have to trust in something. Whether it's yourself, whether it's in God, whether it's in nature or the universe, but just having that trust that it will work out somehow, and if it doesn't work out in the way I want, then maybe I'll learn something from it.



When you have been to the top of the world, you appreciate such simple things, you don't want to have power of money or status or material items. You want to have great connections with your family, because when you think you're going to die, they're all you think about. You want to feel that feeling when you've been on your feet for 24 hours and you're still climbing, and you think, "wow, the human body is amazing."



Those are the moments, I think, that have made me feel most successful, and, ultimately, those are, in some ways, some of the hardest moments in life to find.



词汇表

summit [ˈsʌmɪt] 山顶，顶峰；顶点，最高点

Mount Everest [ˈmaʊnt ˈevərɪst] 珠穆朗玛峰（世界最高峰）

Himalayas [ˌhɪməˈleɪəz] 喜马拉雅山脉（世界海拔最高的山脉）

paralysed [ˈpærəlaɪzd] 吓倒的，惊呆的；麻痹的，瘫痪的

enormity [ɪˈnɔː(r)məti] 艰巨性，严重性；巨大，庞大

visualise [ˈvɪʒuəlaɪz] 想象，设想，使形象化

playlist [ˈpleɪlɪst] （音乐）播放列表

lose sight of 忘记，忽略，不再看见

be vulnerable with ['vʌln(ə)rəb(ə)l] 向…展现脆弱（或弱点）

compassionate [kəmˈpæʃ(ə)nət] 有同情心的，怜悯的

ruthless [ˈruːθləs] 冷酷的，无情的，残忍的



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