Drinkin every night because we drink to my accomplishments

Yeh, joking, of course.  Just a heads up, no pics in this post, so all you people who spend 20-30 seconds on this page for the 'eye candy', go ahead and bail.  The focus of this post is to observe [one of the] personal motivations for climbing.  While there are many reasons to devote our lives to the seemingly insignificant and largely misunderstood action of climbing a rock, some are far more inspiring and less selfish than others.  Those are the ones that tend to get more coverage (like Sharma stuff (being one with 'the nature')), as they portray the sport in a positive light, and provide a positive influence on new climbers.  While i respect all of that to the fullest (and try to live by a personal moral/ethical code that adheres to the highest of standards), let's be honest with ourselves for a minute or two.  People are selfish and have motives that we don't like to share with others (and not just in climbing).  Personally, one (among many (don't judge me)) of the reasons that i became very involved with climbing was to gain the approval of others.  i met a lot of people that i respected and admired and envied, and i decided that these were the people that i would like to be friends with.  i thought that being a good climber would translate to being able to gain the respect of those people.  While i did improve quickly for a while, it was ultimately an effort in futility.  i find that most of the people that i had aspired to be like (the people that i thought that i had formed solid friendships with), have disparate viewpoints.  i feel pretty disappointed when i don't recieve a call from a friend who is visiting town (or whatever; i guess i'd rather not provide copius examples from my personal life).  Anyways, i guess my point is that pushing yourself to gain the approval of others (sponsors, strong peeps, ladies, etc) may lead to rather evanescent and ultimately disappointing results.  Climbing can be the most therapeutic form of recreation, and the most torturous.  Find what works for you, and stick with it!!  Forreal.
*Also, to any gumby out there who may think that climbing is perceived as desireable by an attractive female (or any female, for that matter), just do yourself a solid and quit.  Devote yourself to something like basketball, baseball, football, weight lifting, fraternities, tanning, lots of money, puppies, tanktops, drinking way too much, and being a bit of a douche.  That seems to work wonders.  Cheers