When in doubt, activate your mountain goat mode
Have you ever thought that the best animal to want to have as a spirit animal is a Mountain Goat?
Hey everyone! Happy mid-week!
I’ve had this post on the drafts for a while. Given how people are feeling regarding yesterday’s election in the US, and part of my subscribers is currently located across 9 US states, I figured I’d give you some light reading! It was a tough couple of months with quite overwhelming news…
Let’s go for this week’s post, shall we?
At work, it’s normal to come accustomed to use acronyms - so much to the point that everything has an acronym, right? I’m not going to make it easier today, ha! I’m introducing you to a new one!
Some time ago, during a hike / walk, I was talking with a friend and ended up jokingly coining a new acronym for myself: SLTs—Self-Limiting Thoughts.
We’ve all had these SLTs, right? - Those nagging doubts that creep into our minds, telling us we’re not ready, that we might fail, that it’s too risky.
This September, just before turning 29, I took on something I’d never done before: I went on my first actual hike - not a short walk in the mountains throughout a path, but an actual hike, lasting hours and under various types of terrain, in the High Tatras, in altitudes higher than Portugal’s highest point.
And, no surprises there, my SLTs were there in full force. Would I make it? What if I got tired halfway and couldn’t come back? What if I lost my balance? My mind was racing, filled with everything that could go wrong.
Somehow, due to understanding I couldn’t really go back without seeing the views, or just thinking I deserved to fight against my own fears and achieve new things, I put my fears aside and I realized I could do it! It felt like my inner mountain goat had been activated, and suddenly, what felt scary began to feel possible.
Hiking and Innovation: It’s All About Iteration
When you’re out hiking, you can’t spend your time thinking about falling. Sure, you take precautions—you watch where you step, you give yourself a little more balance when things get steep—but you don’t let the fear paralyze you. And if you do stumble? You get up, dust yourself off, and learn from it for the next part of the trail.
Innovation works much the same way.
In both hiking and innovation, iterations (experiments) are key. You learn as you go. Sometimes, you’ll stumble. You’ll misstep. But each time you do, you get a little smarter. You take shorter steps, you walk with more care, and you adapt as you move forward. It’s about failing fast and cheap, learning from each small fall without letting it stop you. (Take it from me: I’ve fractured my foot twice in the past 6 years, not when hiking in the mountains, but when going down the stairs or when mis-stepping one single step in an unsuspecting balcony!)
And suddenly, you start having ways of walking up and down the mountains to prevent bad falls, you also don’t put your hands in your pockets, you take smaller steps, those are all instinctively done by your body, you barely notice you’re doing those things.
Be the Mountain Goat of Innovation
So, what does it mean to be a mountain goat in innovation?
Mountain goats are sure-footed (FYI their feet are made of a type of rubbery skin, and they have more red cells, which carries more oxygen in their blood), capable of navigating steep, rocky landscapes where most other creatures wouldn’t even attempt to go. They aren’t thinking about how far they have left to climb, nor are they worrying about the consequences of slipping. They just keep moving forward, step by step, trusting their instincts - it’s their nature, after all.
In innovation, get inspiration from mountain goats. Try focusing on what you can control—the next step, the next idea, the next iteration—without letting the fear of consequences weigh you down. Of course, risks are involved. Sometimes the terrain is tricky. But if you’re constantly preoccupied with everything that could go wrong, you’ll freeze before you even begin.
Self-Limiting Thoughts and Innovation
Back to my SLTs—those Self-Limiting Thoughts that tell us we’re not ready to innovate, that we need more time, more resources, more certainty. They’re sneaky, and they show up when we least need them. But like hiking, innovation requires moving beyond those thoughts. It requires believing that you can do it, even when you’re not completely sure of the path ahead.
When I finally committed to my hike, I stopped letting my SLTs control my progress. Instead, I focused on one step at a time, trusting that each step would take me closer to where I wanted to be. In innovation, the same rule applies: stop thinking about everything that could go wrong. Focus on the next step, the next experiment, and keep moving forward.
At some point, I remember saying to my hiking mates:
“I’ve activated mountain goat mode. I’ll see you up there”. (…)
“It gets sooo much easier when you’re mountain goat mode.” - I commented, 2 minutes later.
What I didn’t know at that time is that I was activating mountain goat mode in an easy path… The worst was still to come - at least my feet were trained to be more steady and confident of loose rocks :) So I don’t regret those mountain goat sprints up the mountain.
Innovation Isn’t an Impossible Climb
Innovation doesn’t have to be a near-impossible feat. Sure, it can seem daunting at first, much like standing at the foot of a mountain, looking up at the long path ahead. But once you start, once you get your footing and begin moving forward, you realize that it’s not as terrifying as it seemed.
Innovation, like hiking, is about resilience, trial & error, minor missteps, but above all, knowing that each small step brings you closer to the summit. You don’t need to have the entire path figured out before you begin—you just need to start, trusting that with each step, you’ll learn and adapt along the way.
Conclusion: Climb Without Fear
So, the next time you’re faced with a challenge, whether it’s a hike or an innovation project, remember to be the mountain goat. Don’t let your SLTs hold you back. Don’t overthink the consequences of every step. Instead, trust your instincts, take things one step at a time, and let each iteration lead you forward.
The real reward comes not from standing at the top of the mountain, but from learning to climb without fear.
Enjoy your Wednesday, guys. Just goat for it (sorry). 🐐
And try to innovate in one little thing today :)
I'll never see SLT as anything other than Senior Leadership Team. So I'm going to call them SLB's: Self Limiting Beliefs.
Most people don't know they have them and it needs someone else's perspective to let them know.
Just today my 10 year old made Spaghetti Carbonara pretty much on his own, he asked if he could help, I told him he could just do it.
He followed the recipe, told me what he wanted me to do to help him, I called him Chef (It's a sign of respect) and he smashed not only the meal but also one of his SLB's.
Thanks for outlining something we might not have thought about.
Great post Francisca. You are right, usually when we are in the thing we were thinking so long about, it is much easier and all those SLTs seem to disappear.