The climbing mindset shift that changed me forever (2025)

Yes, shifting your climbing mindset can improve your climbing — and no, this ain’t some woo-woo nonsense.

Hear me out. I know it’s already 4 months into 2025 but maybe this climbing mindset shift can help with your goals.

We’ve all heard of the infamous climbing plateau.

Mindset Block

It usually happens around grades V3-V5 for most new climbers. Understandably, grading systems are subjective, but as long as it’s not based on Japan’s insanely sandbagged routes, the V-scale system is usually somewhat consistent in every country.

Here’s a graphic courtesy of ChatGPT showing what most people think they go through.

But is this even accurate?

I would say: no!

The climbing mindset shift that helped me break this plateau, or at least come to a realisation that this plateau wasn’t even occuring in the first place, was simple.

When you start counting your small wins, you start to realise that: hey, I’m actually improving!

Count small wins

After all, you cannot base your climbing progress solely on completing a new grade — doing so is a very narrow way of viewing progress.

Did you manage to do that dyno even though you didn’t complete the route? Did you get to a higher point on your project? Did you learn to heel hook or swap feet in a more technical manner?

These, too, are small wins that translate to improvement.

And so, here’s what climbing progress is actually like:

Of course, not everyone improves at the same rate.

For some talented climbers, they are able to reach a far higher level in a much shorter amount of time.

But these climbers are anomalies.

For the rest of us, we just have to change our climbing mindset from a stiff, fixed way of thinking towards one that is more growth-oriented. Progress is happening, just slowly!

In the first two years of my climbing journey, I truly thought that my ‘ceiling’ was around V4-V5.

I would climb around 4 times a week, trying to break that ‘ceiling’. In the back of mind, however, I kept telling myself that I had already reached my best.

This was not the right climbing mindset to have.

Luckily, in my third year of climbing, I began to count the small wins. I worked on my technique. I truly believed that although I didn’t really see progress, progress was still happening in small ways.

One day, I did a V6, and I was ecstatic.

The Truth

Of course, you might still say that there is an upper limit for every human being, and I don’t dispute that. Not everyone can do Silence like Adam Ondra.

But at the lower levels, especially at the infamous climbing plateau range, you shouldn’t see yourself as a gone case. Most people give up around that time, but that’s when progress merely slows down, not stops.

Another question naturally follows: but what if I’ve already hit my ceiling or upper limit?

Fair enough: but is that even a valid question?

Unless you’re an athlete, it’s unlikely you’ve hit your ceiling.

Have you hired a coach to polish your moves? Did you take a break from bouldering to practise top rope climbing? Have you tried a houndini switch (hehe)?

There’s always something to improve on, especially if you’re like me, an average human being with other commitments outside of climbing.

So, my friends, I hope this little mindset shift helps you in your climbing journey.

Allez!

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Psst… If you want more information on changing your climbing mindset, I strongly recommend Dave MacLeod’s ‘9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes’. (No, I’m not sponsored, but that would be cool.)

And if you’re looking for some dope climbing gyms in Singapore, check out: houdiniswitch.fun/best-climbing-gyms-in-singapore-2025/.