Welcome to 2023!
As we begin the new year, it's a natural time to reflect on the past and think about the future. For most of us, one way or another, 2022 was a year filled with many unexpected challenges, but it was also a year of growth and resilience. And so as we enter 2023, like most of you, I see this week as a chance to set my *intention* for the year ahead.
Rather than be absorbed by the “Resolution Industrial Complex” by making rigid, specific commitments for how I will fundamentally change my life for the better—I already have a gym membership and exercise bike, btw—I prefer a more “yogi-like” and “intentional” approach. Rather than setting a specific goal, I feel it’s important to focus more on the attitude and mindset I bring to my work and my relationships.
So naturally, I am thinking A LOT about the South Pole!
Failure is Fun, Luxe and Reduxe
When the great British Polar explorer and hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton, drafted the plan for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), he wrote in his proposal, “From the sentimental point of view, it is the last great Polar journey that can be made.”
Shackleton’s previous journey, the Nimrod (1907-1909), returned home to England without achieving its main objective of being the first to reach the geographic South Pole. Although this expedition ultimately failed, it achieved so many great feats. The crew traveled further south than anyone before it and made the very first ascent of the Antarctic Mount Erebus (they were also thought to be the first to have reached the “south magnetic pole,” though there has since been some debate as to whether their location was correct). Shackleton returned home to a hero’s welcome and was knighted. Reflecting on having to make the difficult decision to turn around short of achieving the ultimate prize, he told his wife, “I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.”
The race south continued without him and on 14 December 1911, another expedition, led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, became the first-ever to plant its flag into the southernmost point on earth. With the race for the South Pole lost, Shackleton, sensing that the “heroic age of Antarctic Exploration” was headed for its final chapter, realigned his objectives. The grueling transcontinental march he planned—from the Weddell Sea, over the South Pole, and into the Ross Sea—was, in his words, "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings" and, it was as much an exploration of the human spirit, fortitude and the will to survive as it was a journey of polar discovery.
Not unlike many explorers before him, Ernest Shackleton is famous for having a quite notable and rather successful career in exploration without actually ever achieving his primary objectives. But, he was far from a failure. In fact, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest explorers of all time. Shackleton's expeditions were marked by his incredible leadership and determination, and his ability to keep his team alive and motivated under extremely difficult circumstances. He is remembered for his bravery, resourcefulness, and ability to make difficult decisions in the face of extreme adversity. His incredibly unflappable leadership has inspired so much respect and admiration that there have been several business management books written about his leadership and management techniques. One well-known book that examines Shackleton's leadership style is "Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer," by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell who discuss several strategies and tactics that Shackleton used to lead and motivate his team during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917 (a book probably worthy of its own post, one day).
That expedition, which proved to be his most famous, not only failed in its main objective, but Shackleton and his crew never even reached its planned landing site in Vahsel Bay, a 7 miles wide bay in western Antarctica. The expedition’s ship, Endurance, became beset—overwhelmed by ice in the Weddell Sea, trapped and adrift through much of the Antarctic winter of 1915, she was inevitably crushed and swallowed by the ice pack, stranding its 28 men on the ice. Although the expedition ultimately failed, Shackleton and his team were able to survive for two years in the inhospitable Antarctic environment and eventually make it back to civilization.
Shackleton was deeply committed to the idea of exploration and he believed that its challenges could be transformative for individuals. While the central aim of that expedition was to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent, a feat that had never been achieved before, it is also true that Shackleton saw the expedition as an opportunity for personal growth and self-discovery. "I am not going south for a holiday, but because I feel that I ought to do so. I want to test myself and see what I can do. This is not a matter of ambition. It is a matter of finding out what I am made of."
What is your intention?
So as I think about setting my intention for this year, I want to try new things, I want to take more risks. As someone who already identifies as both a lifelong learner and serial hobbyist, this is not necessarily a leap I am taking, but rather a more focused and concerted effort to do so. Most of us reading this are not oceanic explorers and, while extremely fascinated by mountaineering, I will not climb Kilimanjaro this year. But, there is still plenty of self-discovery one can make from the comfort of her desk chair. So try some new shit! Big or small. Try skateboarding, learn how to solve the Rubik’s cube, go to Canada (it’s not Antarctica, but pretty cold!). It need not be a matter of ambition, fame or fortune. It’s a matter of finding out what you are made of. After all, from a sentimental point of view, it might just be the last great journey that can be made.