The Art of Dogging gets its name from the rock climbing term hang dogging (or just dogging). Rockclimbing.com defines hang dogging as, “repeatedly rest[ing] on the rope while climbing.”

Now, you would think that because I am a rock climber, that I would actually rock climb. But honestly I spend most of my time hanging at the end of a rope trying to figure out how the hell I am going to do the next move.

To a spectator this process is utterly boring, because it doesn’t seem like anything is happening. And yet, this is where all the work is going on.

This is the process that gets distilled into a movie montage, like in Rocky IV, when he’s training to fight that Russian dude. Movie montages are great — the music, the intense action packed into short, inspiring clips — and, best of all, all of the hard work is done in a flash.

The problem with the montage is … that’s not life. Rocky wouldn’t be as fun if the montage was expanded to an hour. That would be a boxing training video.

Early in my climbing career, I thought dogging was embarrassing and synonymous with failure. The whole point of rock climbing is to finish a route without falling.

“What the hell am I doing on this route? I have no right to be on this. I must look an idiot,” I thought to myself as I fell all over routes that other climbers thought were easy. Thankfully, my mentor taught me to use dogging as a method of continuous improvement.

Though I’m a lot stronger than when I started climbing, I haven’t stopped dogging my way through routes, in fact, I’m more committed to the process than ever. I feel comfortable and confident as I dog through a route. It’s no different than when I started. I’m still falling all over routes that are just above my limit, but now I know that I’m not just falling, I’m improving.

For me, dogging is more than just hanging at the end of a rope. It’s the attitude you have to have as you go through life to achieve mastery at anything. It’s the casting away of your self-conscience ego and of your embarrassment as you struggle in the pursuit of your goals. It’s the embrace of purpose, of routine, of the montage, and the ultra-repetitive, because you want it so bad, you love it, and you have to do it.