My 50th birthday is approaching and I’ve been even more introspective than usual lately. In many ways I have a dream life: I’m healthy, I have a thriving coaching practice, I continue to learn and grow and have agency over my time and attention, and have many dear friends amongst many conscious, loving communities. I’ve radically transformed many lives, both directly and exponentially through my clients. My life is in some ways masterful, and suspiciously comfortable — and I also know that I’m just getting started.

David Brooks talks about the metaphor of the ‘second mountain’ — where the first mountain is the pursuit of success, and from that peak is revealed the second mountain: the commitment to serve beyond ourselves, to live a moral life. It’s a beautiful metaphor for illustrating the evolution from getting to creating, from individual to interdependent, from hedonic to eudaimonic, from self to service.

But, it’s rarely that neat and tidy. Your life isn’t necessarily going to be a stage of ‘success’ then ‘service’. The next mountain is really just what’s next. Sometimes the next mountain is an evolution, building on top of everything that came before. Sometimes the next mountain is filling in something that was missed.

Some of my clients learned to serve everyone, and their next mountain was to serve themselves. Some developed spiritual connection, and their next mountain was to develop personal power. Some thrived on growth and service, and their next mountain was to reclaim playfulness.

There’s always another mountain.

There isn’t just one calling for you to figure out — there is the current one, and the next one, and the dance between.

Part of thriving is committing to your mountain. Not chaining yourself to expectations (yours or others’), but accepting what you know to do and committing to doing it well. You’re climbing enthusiastically and continuously, as if to reach the top, while also holding your work lightly. Because we rarely reach the ‘top’ of a mountain before the next mountain starts to call.

You can get a feel for when the next mountain is calling, for when a paradigm shift wants to happen. In S-curves of innovation there’s an art to knowing when to hop off one curve that’s getting stale and onto another one. When your mountain starts to feel more like protecting the past than creating the future, you can tell that the days on this mountain are numbered.

Most people get trapped on their mountain, because they are in the business of gathering more beliefs, rather than questioning or looking beyond beliefs. They’re trying to solidify their current paradigm, rather than allowing paradigms to shift.

And yet, there is a calling. Maybe it’s restlessness. Maybe frustration — what used to work often stops working. Sometimes emotional or physical symptoms, or random misfortune. The world is moving on, and the old way is no longer aligned. They probably don’t even recognize it as a different mountain calling to them; they just know that neither up nor down feels like the right path anymore.

Thriving is a living paradox. It involves leaning in and creating structure and momentum as if your current direction is your one true purpose in the world. And simultaneously staying open to something subtler, something emergent that feels fundamentally different.

Learning to dance between mountains taps you into a life that’s bigger than you.

Maybe that’s the real ‘second mountain’: not what you do with your life, but that what you do with your life keeps evolving.

Michael McDonald :: Transformational Coach :: authenticintegrity.com​
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P.S. If this points towards a new possibility for you, I’d be happy to arrange a conversation. I'm here to help.