4 Endurance Leadership Lessons I Brought Home from Japan
Earlier this month, I completed one of my 100 goals by reaching the summit of Mount Fuji on a gloriously clear day, after starting by the sea nearly 14 hours before.
It was my first time in Japan (unless you count a ten hour stopover in Tokyo!), and it’s not like anywhere I’ve ever been before. Here’s 4 endurance leadership lessons I took home from the trip.
1. Mount Fuji: the power of rituals.
Mount Fuji had stunning views as far as the ocean, ancient forests, endless climbs and an epic crater- but it’s also stark and not the most beautiful hike we did in Japan.
What it did have in abundance though is ritual and tradition.
There’s huts approximately every 200-300 metres in elevation from station 5, giving hikers a welcome chance to rest. What I loved about these huts though is that they’d been in families for generations, held a range of nutrition that I would never normally have in an event (fermented rice drink anyone?!) AND they were a place to have the famous hiking sticks stamped at each point. My little stick is now in pride of place amidst some other travel mementoes, forever a reminder of the trek.
There was also a beautiful shrine at the top in which we engaged in a gratitude ritual for reaching the summit. These practices showed the power in leadership and in life of anchoring practices to celebrate how far we’ve come and wire our brains to remember- before we move on to the next thing!
2. Novelty and the importance of play
I spent 2 days in Tokyo doing things I would NEVER normally do! A micro-pig and a Samoyed cafe (not together!), go- karting in Asakusa, Team lab borderless digital art museum, a sushi making class. And I was reminded yet again how powerful play and novelty are for stimulating our creativity and problem solving skills. Although I was exhausted from Mount Fuji, I felt my eyes open and ideas start to flow again. Great leaders and teams realise new experiences stimulate new thinking.
3. The Onsen and the Spotlight Effect
Walking into an onsen feels incredibly exposing… until you realise nobody is looking at you because everyone is worrying about themselves.
The same is true in leadership. We often hold ourselves back because we imagine everyone is judging us. This is the spotlight effect- we imagine there’s a spotlight on us where the reality is, most people are too busy worrying about themselves!
4. What you see determines what you miss
A thought provoking quote on the wall at Team Lab borderless reminded me of the importance of decision frameworks, priorities, boundaries- and the opportunity cost that exists with everything we choose.
Every decision is an act of attention. Saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else. Leaders often think the challenge is making more decisions, when it’s actually deciding what deserves their focus. As leaders- it’s our role to constantly choose what matters most to see and act on.
I touched on some of these further on my daily podcast- ENDURES, over the week of July 13th. If you’ve been to Japan- what have I missed?!
Originally published in my 20% More newsletter on LinkedIn on 22 July 2026.
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