review Archives - CLIPPING CHAINS

May 30, 2022May 29, 2022

Mettle, By Steve Bechtel: A Book Review

I’ve recently finished reading the latest book from Steve Bechtel, Mettle: Lessons from the Gym and Crag in the Pursuit of Better Climbing. Drawing on over 20 years of blog and newsletter content from specific training protocols to invaluable life lessons, Bechtel’s latest book is an introspective examination of key foundational principles to athletic and personal improvement. Mettle walks a fine line between memoir and training guide, providing actionable content while reminding the reader why this action is essential for our physical and emotional longevity as athletes and humans.

December 28, 2021December 28, 2021

2021: A Year of Accelerated Change (and Top Posts)

I’ve thought a lot this year about the pace of change. We know from the study of ancient civilizations that multiple generations could pass with only the most modest and trivial changes in tools and methods for survival. You might have a lived a life shockingly similar to your great-great-grandfather, swinging a very similar hammer.

Yet as 2021 comes to a close, I can attest that my grandfather looks upon the world with dumbfounded astonishment, unable to clear his full voicemail inbox on his now ancient flip phone that, only a little over a decade ago, felt like the dawn of a new era.

December 28, 2020December 28, 2020

2020: An Unusual Year We Won’t Forget

So…2020. To say this year has been unusual, trying, or downright depressing at times would be…well…a start. On any given year, some of us will suffer. All of us will face tough times to some degree. This year, well, we all took one on the chin.

But with so much change, certainly there were some silver linings, no?

Today we reflect on a trying, yet eventful year. How does it feel to be living history in real time?

December 23, 2019December 30, 2019

A Decade In Review: Reflection and a Look Ahead

The holidays mark a unique time of the year — a time of reflection. Perhaps this is the only time when we are more likely to consider where we’ve come than where we are going. As we mark the end of a decade, I feel an even stronger sense of reflection, and I’m sure you do too.

How do you feel about this past year, or the past ten years?

Will 2020 be the beginning of the best years of our lives, or more of the same? For most of us, there’s far more of that trajectory that we can control than we might first consider.