Ian Wallace Interpretation:
Dream: You are on your way to somewhere important and have to ascend a steep hill in order to reach your destination. As you progress, you often find that the gradient gets steeper and the going gets rougher. Your route often narrows to a track or a stony path and you may end up trying to climb a steep cliff. As you cling onto this sheer rock face and try to make progress, you might find the rock becoming loose and starting to crumble around you. You may also find yourself climbing up an ever-steepening staircase.
Meaning: Dreaming of climbing uphill indicates that you are making a sustained effort to obtain a particular level of achievement in your waking life. Like ascending an incline, trying to achieve a higher level of success often requires a greater commitment of energy and determination. The gradient often becomes steeper in the dream because you may have underestimated the effort and resources required to reach your objective. The steeper the ascent, then the steeper the learning curve you have to negotiate as you progress towards your goal. The going underfoot may become rougher as you find it more challenging to gain traction and maintain momentum in waking life. The path may peter out as your ascent takes you off the beaten track and into unknown territory. Your way forward often becomes a sheer rock face as you come to terms with the hard realities and sheer effort involved in making further progress. Clinging onto the cliff face shows that you are trying to keep a tight grip on your situation but are concerned things might get out of hand. The rock crumbling around you indicates you feel that some of your previously solid support is crumbling and this is making you feel desperately insecure. Climbing a staircase shows that you are thinking about a particular career path and your steady upward progression. A spiral staircase suggests that, even though you are making continued upward progress, it often feels like you are just going round in circles.
Action: The message from this dream is that you will achieve your ambitions but it will probably require a steady plod at a measured pace rather than a shortterm all-out effort. Rather than rushing at the tasks ahead of you, it may be better to slow your pace and change down a gear so you can keep moving, no matter how steep the challenge ahead of you seems. You may have to take it one step at a time and if you are feeling insecure, don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone to guide you to safer and higher ground.
Background: We often describe our potential to succeed in terms of height and so we speak about being a ‘high achiever’ or having ‘lofty ambitions’. From the first time we ascend a staircase, however, we know that climbing uphill takes more effort than walking along the flat. This leads to our vocabulary containing phrases such as ‘an uphill struggle’ or ‘having a mountain to climb’. We also describe reaching higher levels of achievement as ‘raising our game’ and ‘gaining the higher ground’. As you ramp up your efforts, however, it often gives you a much better perspective on the new horizons that are opening up for you.