Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - Confidence Classic: Conquer Your Mind and Redefine What’s Possible with Colin O’Brady
Episode Date: December 16, 2025The same thoughts that surface when you avoid silence are often the ones quietly controlling your confidence, decisions, and direction. In this episode, I sit down with mindset expert Colin O’Brady ...to talk about how the thoughts you avoid in silence are often the same ones quietly shaping your decisions, confidence, and direction in life. We dive into why most people fear stillness, how responsibility and fear can disguise themselves as “logic,” and why being uncomfortable is often a sign you’re right on the edge of a breakthrough. Get ready to confront your limiting beliefs, reconnect with your intuition, and reset the way you approach big decisions. In This Episode You Will Learn How to identify the LIMITING BELIEFS quietly running your decisions. Why discomfort is often the fastest path to CLARITY and GROWTH. Why being a BEGINNER is not a weakness. How to shift from a fixed mindset to a POSSIBLE mindset. How to STOP living other people’s expectations. Check Out Our Sponsors: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/monahan Quince - Step into the holiday season with layers made to feel good and last from Quince. Go to quince.com/confidence Timeline - Get 10% off your first Mitopure order at timeline.com/CONFIDENCE. Northwest Registered Agent - protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes! Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/confidencefree Resources + Links Grab your copy of Colin’s book, The 12-Hour Walk HERE Learn more + sign up for the walk HERE Learn more about Colin O’Brady HERE Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553! Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/ Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn Colin on Instagram & LinkedIn
Transcript
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I don't have enough money.
I don't have enough time.
I'm not strong enough.
What if I fail?
I hate being uncomfortable.
Generally, one of those 10 limiting beliefs
are actually what are holding you back from living your best life.
But I bet if you're listening to this podcast right now,
and you just heard me say, walk in silence for 12 hours,
some women in beliefs popped up in your mind around the 12-hour walk
that you're assigning to the 12-hour walk.
Those same limiting beliefs that are popping up for you
when thinking about the 12-ire walk
are the exact same limiting beliefs
that might be holding you back
from having breakthroughs and other aspects of your life.
Come on this journey with me.
Each week, when you join me,
we are going to chase down our goals.
We'll overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow.
That's your next to be a good.
for my closer. Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus confidence classics episodes we've
been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So these
bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one
as much as I do. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet our guest today, although he has
been on the show before. And if you haven't caught that episode, go back and consume it, but you're
going to love this one. Colin O'Brien.
is a 10-time world record-breaking explorer,
speaker, entrepreneur, and expert on mindset.
His speeds include the world's first solo,
unsupported, and fully human-powered crossing of Antarctica,
which is insane.
Speed records for the Explorer's Grand Slam
and the seven summits
and the first human-powered ocean row across Drake Passage.
Collins' highly publicized expeditions
have been followed by millions,
and his work has been featured on The New York Times,
It's The Tonight Show, Joe Rogan Experience, and The Today Show.
He's the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Impossible First,
and now The 12-hour Walk, Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life.
Colin, thank you so much for being here with us today.
So great to be here with you.
Thanks for having me.
Oh, my gosh.
So as I was mentioning to you before we started recording, I read a ton of books, you know, for the podcast.
And I was so blown away by how different.
how differently you did this book versus your last one and how much work you put into this thing.
I mean, this is massive.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's certainly a book, but I think of it even more so as a global movement.
So really trying to inspire people to take that action in their life.
And the book is really a blueprint to what they can do and invest one single day to make a sweeping and monumental change in their life.
So, guys, he didn't just write the book.
Every chapter has key takeaways.
Every chapter has ways you can apply it back to your actual walk, which we'll get into what that means in a minute.
but he also created videos for every chapter so that you can reference and go back.
You know, so often when we read a book, we forget, oh, what was that about?
And now you have videos that are really short.
There are a minute, two minutes, and you can go check them out to help support you when you want to stay committed on this journey.
So I want to start, Colin, I love the opening of the book when you tell the story.
I'm a super visual person, so I'm thinking of it right now, of walking into that really intimidating, like gorgeous New York, really incredible.
incredible event that you were going to with all billionaires and you show up in a t-shirt.
And what struck me from that evening was the conversation that you had with that older gentleman
at the end because it really hit so close to my heart.
And I was hoping you could share it with everybody.
Yeah.
So, you know, I do a lot of public speaking.
And in this sense, I was invited to give a speech for a Wall Street group.
And I was giving the speech the following day.
But the day before they kind of invited me to a small, intimate gathering with like eight or so folks.
You said all, you know, billionaire, hedge fund manager, investor, you know, big hot shot guys in Wall Street.
Older gentlemen, kind of average age was mid-60s, maybe early 70s.
And it was a very interesting night.
I certainly maybe was a little bit of fish out of water, as you mentioned, walking up in a t-shirt and jeans and low-top Jordan sneakers.
But, you know, they made me feel welcome.
And we had a really interesting conversation just around hopes and dreams and aspirations and goals.
But they really wanted to hear about my expeditions.
Oh, what was crossing an article like?
what was it like being on Everest? Do you see dead bodies? And every single time I try to kind of
pivot questions back to them about sort of their life philosophies or really their goals,
aspirations, or more deeper, vulnerable questions around that, they sort of kind of push,
you know, pivoted off of that. And so at the end of the night, as I was getting ready to leave,
an older gentleman, I guess his age around 75, kind of pulls me aside. We have this short but
very memorable conversation that really stuck with me where I love to ask people, you know,
from school kids all the way up to CEOs, you know, what's your Everest? For me, that's metaphor for my
childhood dream. I always wanted to climb Everest and I've been fortunate to summit that mountain
twice, but I recognize that most people don't necessarily want to go climb mountains or walk
across the continent, but we all have huge, you know, goals, I think, in our life. And I'd ask that
question and no one gave me response. And he pulls me aside and he says, you know, Colin, I'm sorry
myself and none of my friends answered your question. It's a super important question. And he says,
I feel like I want to share this with you, which is when you ask that question to me,
I keep thinking about this moment I had in summer camp
when I was 14 years old
and I was sitting quiet alone on this peaceful mountain lake
and he goes, you know, I have made more money
than you can possibly imagine in my life.
But there's not a day in my mind
that I don't go back to that mountain lake
as a 14 year old kid and wonder what would have happened
had I actually allowed myself to ask this question.
He said, I got so caught up in the rat race
and what was expected of me.
And by everyone else's measure,
I've been quote unquote successful, but there was something in the way he told me this story that
he was like he felt like he had kind of missed out on something that life had to offer without
having asked him this question. So it's an interesting moment. I chose to open the book with
that just as I think we all have an idea of what success looks like externally. We look at somebody
on television or on our social media feeds or in any sort of context and say, oh, he or she
has it figured out. And this guy would be like the most obvious sort of archetype of a person
and were like, well, that guy did it. He crushed it life. He made so much money. I had this impact
and whatever. And even for him to share with me like, hey, I'm not sure I actually summited my
Everest. I summoned a bunch of other mountains, but it wasn't my personal Everest. And so I open
the book asking people, you know, what is your Everest? You might be down pretty far down a path.
You might be wondering what your purpose is, what you're driving towards. And it is vulnerable to
actually ask yourself that question. And then of course, this book doesn't just ask you that question,
but allows you to answer it and gives you an action towards actually how to move towards it,
how to actually reach that summit.
But I think it's important.
I think it's super important to be vulnerable with ourselves and actually say, you know,
what is my Everest?
Even if that's not what other people around you think you should do.
And this book really starts to break down the limiting beliefs that pop up for us.
Well, my Everest is this, but then you start going, oh, but I don't have enough money.
I don't have enough time.
But what if people criticize me?
What if I fail?
These limiting beliefs and the book really goes through the lens of really exciting adventures
stories, but through how we all have these limiting beliefs, myself included, but how I figured
out how to overcome many of them and thrive and how you can as well. So, you know, I love everything
you're saying. I know everyone that is listening loves it too. And so my Everest, I guess, I didn't
even really know when I was back in corporate America, to your point, I was caught up in the rat
race, caught up in the paycheck, trying to get, you know, upgrade the car or do, I never even thought
about things like this, literally up until I was 43 years old. But I remember at one point in time,
I was taking a stage speaking a huge event back years ago,
and I might have been 40 years old.
And I remember the day I got at that stage feeling like I was flying,
like I'm magic.
And I never felt like that before it worked ever in my life.
And I said to someone, oh, I wish to God,
I got to do this for a living.
I'm like magic right now.
And someone said, oh, yeah, that would be so cool.
And then I forgot about it.
You know, I went back to work.
I got fired three years later.
And then randomly I found my way into speaking business.
and that's, you know, what I do now for a living, and it's so crazy.
So I feel like I found my Everest, but it took a weird way to get there.
Your way of finding out what your Everest was to begin with was a little different,
but it was still, it was harder than mine because I got fired with, which pushed me out the window.
You quit, so maybe you can take everybody down that road a little bit.
Yeah, you know, you said something that really strikes me, which is you kind of felt it in that moment.
You were on a stage and you were like, this is what I meant to do, you know, you felt that.
But then it's hard to listen to that echo.
One of the chapters of this book,
I'll talk about kind of quitting my job,
but there's another chapter that's really about intuition,
you know, listening to our gut
and being able to say,
oh, wait, recognizing those signs.
It's so easy to go, oh, one day, maybe I could speak again.
One day I could this, you're like, wait,
this is what's lighting me up.
How can I do more of this?
You know, like you said, it's a throwaway comment.
Like, God, I'd love to do this for a living.
It's like, actually, turns out, Heather, you can.
And I love speaking myself.
I've had that same feeling on stages.
But it's interesting, you know,
when we ask ourselves that question, we kind of, oh, if only I could do that.
But we think for some reason that, that life or that better life is reserved for somebody else.
Oh, that somebody else is a public speaker.
Somebody else is that entrepreneur that I want to say, no, that can be you.
Any person listening, like whatever that, there's no reason that that cannot be you.
Absolutely.
For me, you mentioned quitting my job.
You know, early on, I have an economics degree from Yale.
I grew up as a public school kid in Portland, Oregon.
So, you know, an Ivy League economics degree was not necessarily in the
cards for me, but through swimming and academics ended up out there. It was a great opportunity for
me and exposed me to kind of a whole new world, you know, New York City and the, you know, the big,
you know, fast-moving, past high-paced life of that. But there was something sort of in my intuition
that was like, I don't know if this is for me or not, but certainly the money was enticing,
of course, right? Like, I had never, you know, been around money like that. And so, you know,
I ultimately took a job in commodities trading, you know, rewind from that. We imagine we talked
about on our last podcast, but I was severely burning a fire when I was traveling in Thailand,
I was told I would never walk again normally. So that's a whole other part of this. But recovering from
that injury and ultimately getting my first real job out of college, I took a job trading commodities
in Chicago. And I thought that that would sort of be my path. But because I had just been burning this
fire, I had set myself this goal to recover from it by racing a triathlon by saying, hey, you know,
doctors say I might never walk again normally, but I'm going to figure out a way somehow to get back on my
feet, literally start moving my body.
You know, I said, maybe I should race a trifle and that was my goal.
And certainly there was- I need to interrupt, but your mom played a big part in that.
I love that.
Huge.
Huge.
Yeah, yeah.
So I was just going to say that, which is there were many around me that said, oh, that's a
crazy.
That's a ridiculous goal.
But my mother, and ultimately this entire book is really about mindset.
And my mother said to me, you know what?
That's your goal?
Let's start training for it right now.
Let's start working on it right now.
Like, why not?
And she instilled in me what I call a possible mindset.
which is a core component of this book, what I define as an empowered way of thinking that
unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. So even when the doctor was saying, you would never
walk again, normally. And I said, well, I'd like to raise a traathlon. My mom was like, great,
with a possible mindset, you know what, anything's possible. So I started training for this
trathlon, take this job in commodities trading. And it took me a year and a half. I mean,
I was in a wheelchair, had to learn how to walk again. You know, I had to wear slippers on my feet
to my first job interview for this job. I mean, I couldn't wear shoes. But eventually,
18 months after being burned this fire, I did race the Chicago triathlon.
And it's my complete another surprise.
I didn't just finish the race that day, but I actually won the entire Chicago
triathlon placing first out of nearly 5,000 other participants on the day.
Now, you might be thinking like, oh, that's where I might be thinking, well, I'm just going
some superhuman athlete, but it's the opposite for me.
It's the moment I went back to that moment in the hospital where I could easily have given
up, where I was going in the depths of despair, emotionally, physically.
you know, people were telling me, hey, your life's going to be this way because you screwed up and, you know,
burned yourself in this fire because of a mistake of my own. And instead, my mom forcing me to set that
goal, forcing me to believe that I could do more beyond this tragedy, forced me to sort of open up to
these limitless possibilities and ultimately win this triathlon. And so with that same mentality,
I said, well, what more am I capable of?
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I recount this in the book. You know, each chapter is a short story.
Like I said, it brings you right into adventure story or a story for my life and then kind of zooms out and talks directly to the reader because ultimately I'm not the hero of this book.
I'm not the hero of this story. I'm using my life as some examples.
But you, the listener, the reader, you are the hero of this story.
This book is geared around getting you to unlock your best life.
And I'm just teaching through some stories from my own.
And after that triathlon victory, I got offered a sponsorship.
Now, being sponsored in triathlon is not like the NBA or the NFL or a secure Wall Street future or anything like.
like that. And so I call up my grandmother who lived in Chicago where I was living and she was a
huge influence on my life. And I said, hey, grandma, I think I'm going to quit my job tomorrow.
And she's like, what? No, you're not. Like, that's what are you talking about? I'm like,
yeah, I think I might try to like race triathlon professionally. She's like, that's not like,
what that's not even a professional? What are you talking about? You know, just trying to knock some
sense into me. She's like, look, you, you work so hard to get this education. You have a bright
future in front of you. And she gives me all the reasons, which honestly are pretty reasonably
good logical reasons as to like why what I'm thinking is not the best idea for, you know,
this sort of secure well-off financial future. But I won't give way the whole story,
but the long story short is I think people are giving good advice, particularly people that
love you. There's certainly people are giving you bad advice. But at the end of the day,
it's your life. It's your life. And so if you're trying to do things to please every other person,
that's your grandmother, your colleague, your sister, your best friend, whatever, but it's not in alignment
with your truth, then you start living other people's lives.
And so this chapter in the book breaks down this limiting belief, like, what if people
criticize me?
And I break down the different types of criticism.
One's like random people on the internet or on social media criticizing you.
Like, that's easy.
Like, you know, throw that aside.
Like, that doesn't matter.
But it's harder to be discerning about my mother, your grandmother, giving you advice.
But in this case, I said, I love you, grandma, but I'm going to follow this path.
And I ended up quitting my job, racing trothball professionally.
And it's a long road from that that I explore in the book of ups and downs and success and failure,
but ultimately sitting here with 10 world records.
And, you know, I should say for the entrepreneurs on the phone, you know, I don't think of myself as just an athlete, but also an entrepreneur.
You know, I've started and co-founded business.
I've had an eight-figure exit with a business I bought and sold.
I speak.
I write books.
You know, I've turned this into a very lucrative career, but by virtue of following my heart and by following that Everest, it's not a tradeoff, so to speak.
a say of like, oh, I could either do what I love or make money.
It's like, can I do what I love and make money, right?
Can I have those things work in symbiosis?
And don't get me wrong.
It's not like that happened overnight.
That happened because I kept doubling down on my intuition and my passions.
But I honestly believe that like, just like I said, I don't think I'm a superhuman athlete
and that's why I won the Chicago Traffle on.
I don't think I possess skills any different than anybody else.
You know, I think we all have this capacity inside of us to unlock this possible mindset,
to conquer our minds and really live our best lives when you sort of take the time to think about
that when you take the time to commit to those goals. So I think we should talk about what the large
call to action is at the center of this book, which is called the 12-hour walk. So the book's called
the 12-hour walk. I crossed Antarctica. I was the first person in history to cross Antarctica
solo unsupported and unassisted. So nearly 1,000 mile journey pulling a 375 pound sled with all my
food and fuel across the frozen continent. No one had ever done that before. And people had
attempted it and people said this is going to is impossible you'll never make it across and so that I didn't run out of food and I was racing another guy I started pulling my sled every day for 12 hours so 12 hours every single day in an article pulling my sled with just so people know it was usually 10 was the max correct yeah yeah so going in I had this plan which was I'm going to pull it 10 hours per day and there was another guy out who ultimately I was trying to raise history but it turned out and this is what I wrote my other book the impossible first about there was this other guy this British military sort of
special versus military guy named Lewis Rudd, Captain Lewis Rudd, who we got dropped off
on the same day, same moment to start this race across Antarctica. And in the first day, he kicks
my butt. I mean, he just takes off. I'm nowhere to be found behind him. And I think, man, I'm never
going to catch up to him. And I eventually do catch him on the sixth day. And we have this kind of
standoff between each other. And we're walking side by side, ignoring each other. But it's
this intense battle. And I say to myself, I'm not going to stop until he stops. And
10 hours, I thought, was my absolute maximum. Keep in mind, it's minus 30, minus 40 degrees outside.
You know, it's brutal weather, winds blowing in your face. I mean, we're in Antarctica alone with no
external inputs. And I get to 10 hours and he's still walking. I think, man, I didn't think I could
ever go further than this, but I'm going to keep walking. 11 hours goes by, 11 and a half hours
go. Eventually, I see him sit down and pull out his tent. And I'm exhausted at this point, but I think
I'm going to take a little bit further and I complete a 12-hour day. But then I start doing some math and
running some background back home. My wife, Jenna, who is incredible. You know, I always say
it should have her name on the cover of the books and all the things we do because she has been my
not just the love of my life, but my business partner, my co-creator of everything we've done in
our life. We've been together for 15 years. So, blessed to have her in my life. And I'm on the
phone. She was trying to talk you into going 12 hours and we're not buying it. A hundred percent.
So I was on the phone with her on the internet phone connections. Crackfully cell. I was,
I was literally, she's like, you got to go more hours per day.
And I was like, I can't pass.
I was like, I wasn't like yelling at her like, I was angry with her, but I was
frustrated myself.
I was like, you don't understand.
I'm in Antarctica, pulling at 375 pounds.
This is my limiting belief.
Like, I'm like, it is impossible for me to go one step further.
So anyways, this day proved to me that I could go 12 hours, but she's spreadsheeting
miles and calories and all the things back home.
And she realizes she's like, look, if this doesn't become your new norm, you don't figure
out in your mind how to say, I didn't just go 12 hours one day, but 12 hours.
have to be the exact, you know, every single day to make it. So I switch over to going 12 hours
every single day. I decide I'm not going to take a single day off because I'm going to run out
of food otherwise. And sure enough, on the 54th day, basically with my last bite of food in my
sled, I complete this crossing. And had I gone 10 hours per day, you know, multiply that by 50-some
days, that's 100 hours less. I would have come nowhere near the finish. I would have run out of food
and had to be evacuated from the continent, et cetera, unsuccessful. So it was the difference for me.
but believe it or not
this is not about my 12 hour walk
this is about you and you might think wow now
these kids talking about walking across
an article by himself 12 hours
pulling 3 to 75 pounds like
how could this possibly apply to me
but something I think we can all relate to
is the darkness of the COVID deep lockdown
you know those first couple months where it was like
I mean obviously the last couple years have been really tough
but those first couple months was like what's going on
we're locked in our houses can't try you know
life just as we've all know it has turned upside down
no matter where you were in the world, I think it pretty much touched everyone.
And I was in Oregon where my family's from.
And it was just Jenna and I, my wife and I and our dog, and we're living on the Oregon coast on a small cabin.
My family has out there just isolated from everyone.
I hadn't seen anyone in a couple months.
And I was really dark.
I mean, it was dark for me.
Everything I had going on was canceled.
I was just used to kind of being outside, moving my body.
And it was just kind of in a really dark headspace.
And so I thought back, when was the last time I felt super content, super at peace?
super calm. And it turned out that when I really went back in my mind, it was when I was pulling my
sled in Antarctica. It sounds ridiculous because it was so intense and so life-threatening and all the
things. But I also found a lot of peace out there. And I thought, why did I find so much peace out there?
Well, I was kind of disconnected from my phone, obviously, in the internet. And I deleted all my
music and podcasts. I had all these long days basically walking in the stillness and silence of my own
mine. And so I said to my wife, I said, this might sound ridiculous, but tomorrow morning I'm going to
wake up and I'm going to walk for 12 hours like I did in Antarctica, but just here on the Oregon
coast. I'm going to walk out our front door and just go for a long walk, basically. And I'm going to
put my phone on airplane mode. So if you don't hear from me, don't worry, but I'm going to just try
to be disconnected from my phone. And so I went out there and I ended up for the first time in a
couple months after this COVID lockdown, feeling again, this inner peace, this inner strength,
this creativity, this curiosity about life, this sort of vitality bubbling up inside of me.
And I came back home and Jenna saw it in my eyes.
The second I came home, she's like, wow, like, you're like, you seem like you're different.
You've changed.
Like, what happened?
And I was like, I just went for a walk.
Like, simple as that.
And so, you know, I thought, wow, there's something to this.
But maybe this is just the thing that works for me or, you know, but my, my over-eager sort
of endurance athlete mindset, like, oh, walk around for 12 hours.
So I drafted some test subjects.
You know, I said to some folks of friends of mine, different ages, different fitness levels
or different walks of life to test this idea.
And I said, hey, I've got this idea.
It's super simple.
Take a day, put it on your calendar, walk out your front door, put your phone on airplane mode,
and walk for 12 hours.
Some people are like, you know, well, I couldn't possibly walk for 12 hours.
I'm not in that good as shape.
And I said, look, I don't care how many breaks you take.
Like, this is about training your mind that you don't have to train for this physically.
This is meant to meet you exactly where you're at.
I don't care if you walk for one mile or 50 miles as long as you stay in silence and solitude throughout this 12 hours, no music, no podcast, no social media, et cetera, then you are completing the 12 hour walk.
And so I now have had, you know, a bunch of people test case this idea and every single person that has done this.
Like I said, from I think the oldest at this point is a 77 year old, my mother-in-law, 77 years old has completed this all the way down to people just out of college to, again, different points in their life.
people have big decisions to weigh with family or a career, et cetera.
So everyone's in a different point in their life.
But every single person that does this walk comes back with their life improved,
feeling more connected to their self.
Because look, I'll ask you this question, Heather, in the last, let's say, 10 years,
what's the longest that you have spent in silence and solitude?
I'll define that.
So sleeping doesn't count.
But every single time you're awake, if you talk to somebody else,
every single time you look at your phone, the clock resets,
every single time you're the TV's on.
or you're listening to music or a podcast or there's some sort of external stimuli,
the clock resets.
What do you think is the longest that you've spent in the last, you know,
in the last 10 years of that nature?
Probably an hour.
Right.
And look.
And again,
I've done some pretty extreme things to,
you know,
deep silent meditations and things like that.
But that's the normal answer, right?
And that's the normal answer in my life,
by the way,
and a day-to-day,
my day-to-day life is no different than that, right?
Because we have all of these stimulus.
We have our phones.
We have all this sort of way to connect.
And I am not, the 12-hour walk as a concept is not a vilification of technology, a vilification of community or family or friendship or podcasts or music.
It's just to say we can all benefit from a one day, not even a full day, a 12-hour, essentially detox to listen to these thoughts in our mind.
Because you might be listening to this right now and you think, 12 hours, like, you know, I think, you know, Heather before we hit record, you've been said, I don't know what is 12-hour thing.
But here's a thing.
Here's what I've noticed about the 12-hour walk.
The book breaks down these 10 most common limiting beliefs like I mentioned before.
I don't have enough money.
I don't have enough time.
I'm not strong enough.
What if I fail?
I hate being uncomfortable.
Generally, one of those 10 limiting beliefs are actually what are holding you back from living your best life.
And you're applying them in some way in your life.
Oh, I always wanted to start that business, but I have this secure job and I'm worried about quitting that what would happen.
Maybe my friends would criticize me, but what if I fail?
What if it doesn't work?
You know, so we have, I have all these same doubts go through my mind as we talk about in the book.
But I bet if you're listening to this podcast right now and you just heard me say, walk in silence for 12 hours, some women in beliefs popped up in your mind around the 12 hour walk that you're assigning to the 12 hour walk.
I see Heather's nodding your head of me.
Yeah, of course.
Right?
You're saying, you're saying, oh, man, like, I'm not, I'm not in shape for that.
That would be uncomfortable.
What if my feet would hurt?
Or I don't have the time for that.
Like, I got a busy life.
I've got kids.
I got what am I going to find like 12 hours right immediately I said oh my son I can't do it I have my son
right yeah and here's what I would say to that is those same limiting beliefs that are popping up for you
when thinking about the 12 hour walk the 12 hour walk is an exercise of 12 hours but it's also in this
moment the discussion around it it's a mirror it's a mirror to you because those same moment in beliefs
I bet that are popping up in your mind that you're applying to the 12 hour walk are the exact same
limiting beliefs that might be holding you back from having breakthroughs and other aspects of
your life. And how many other instances where you might be like, oh, I could do that, but I have this other
responsibility. I don't have enough time. Or I have this deep-seated fear of failure. Or I'm not really
listening to my intuition. I don't know how to make big decisions. Like those same limiting beliefs around
the 12-hour walk are likely holding you back because that same feedback loop, you're assigning to many
other things. And so what I think the magic is, the idea itself is simple. But when you say, you know what,
I'm listening to this podcast right now, or I bought Collins book, The Twelve Hour Walk, and I read it.
At the very end, I've got a QR code that says commit.
It just says, yo, put this on your calendar and commit to this right now.
And by committing, you take that momentum and you say, you start fighting back against those limiting beliefs.
And as the date comes closer and then you actually complete the 12-hour walk, you're not only dispelling those limiting beliefs all along the way, but as you get to the end of the 12-hour walk, you go, oh, I had all of these negative thoughts in my mind.
I have these limiting beliefs, but I fought through them.
I battled through them.
And then I said, like I said before, it unlocks what I call a possible mindset,
that empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities.
And so the exercise in itself, it takes one day, like the subtitle says,
you invest one day, conquer your mind, unlock your best life.
And as I said, the test case of people that have done this and with the book coming out,
my next Everest is to actually inspire 10 million people to take this 12-hour walk.
But really, it is about you.
It is about, you know, a lot of these personal development books.
You have all sorts of advice and different platitudes and things like that.
I'm like, look, I think the advice in this book obviously is very sound.
There's a lot to be gained.
But what I think the biggest gain is is for you to take this 12-hour walk
and actually assimilate those lessons into your own life, right out your front door.
There's no cost to this.
There's no training necessary.
It just requires you committing one day.
And on the other side of this 12-hour walk, you'll be so amazed by how in just one day
how many things can shift in your mindset, which then,
and empower you to get past these limiting beliefs,
not just with the walk itself,
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I just had a little epiphany.
It didn't jump out to me until now,
but when you said whatever the thoughts are
or limiting beliefs you're having right now
about walking out the door for the 12 bar walk
are probably the same ones that hold you,
back two things came to my mind when you said that to me my son number one right is like oh
i'm supposed to be a mom first i've got to be available first and then number two is i wouldn't
know where to walk to i wouldn't know where to go and it's funny because when i first got fired those
were the two things i was like oh my god i have to take care of my son and now what do i do like where
do i go so that's so interesting it's good really good perspective and it's a completely new way to
look at this one of the limiting beliefs that you talk about that i really liked is being
a beginner and you use that story of Drake's passage. And to me, that is, it's hard AF to be super
successful at anything and be at the top of your game and get fired and have to start over as
a beginner. I had to walk that walk. But I wanted to make that leap years before, but I was too
scared about the idea of being a beginner. I needed this book years ago. We take us a little bit
through how to overcome being a beginner. Yeah, absolutely. I want to just double click real
quickly on what you said before about your son. That's an important factor, right? That
responsibility. But I do talk about self-care in this book, right? This idea that we have
built up that self-care is, you know, somehow selfish. But in fact, I think it's selfless,
like to show up as the best parent, to show up as the best colleague, to show up as the best
partner to your spouse, whatever. It actually requires saying, hey, sometimes I got to take
some time alone to myself. And that's why this, the 12 hour walk prescription,
is so beautiful. It's one day, like one day that will have a cataclysmically positive benefit
to you as a mother, you as all the other things that you want to optimize in your own life.
And so it's funny because we all have those same sort of hangups, but this allows you to be like,
oh, right, if I do this, I actually might show up as even better mother, as an even better,
you know, not like, oh, I'm taking away from this, but it's showing up better on the other side
of it. So I just wanted to say that. And like you said, with your job, I wouldn't know where to go.
know, I created an app actually, the 12-hour walk phone enough, like I said, really not vilifying
technology. The app itself, it helps put your, it does put your phone in airplane mode, but what
it does give you is your phone's in airplane mode, but it gives you a map. So you have basically
Google Maps inside of the 12-hour walk app that allows you to not get lost. And I actually
say to people, I encourage people to walk out their front door. People often think, oh, I should
go on vacation, I should come this beautiful hike or this trail or something like that. And I'm not
saying you shouldn't do that. But I actually think the most profound in what I've seen from other
people doing it is when people walk out their very front door. And I said, just like life,
you choose the destination. You don't even have to choose before you walk out. Your door's like,
just take those first few steps and see where those feet take to you. The app will allow you to
not get lost, but also stay in airplane mode because GPS still works in airplane mode.
So I've done a number of things to kind of help aid this process because I wanted to be as
frictionless as possible to just have people get out the door and take those first steps.
Now, talking about being a beginner, I came back from the solo Antarctica Crossing, which I mentioned
before and you know there was a lot of press a lot of acclaim a lot of you know people very curious
to hear about it lots of media and all this sort of stuff and very humbled by all of that and of course
the question i get most often then is okay great but what's next right you know what's the next
big adventure what's the next big feat and sometimes i laugh like yo i just walked across an article
by myself like it's been a week like i give me a break but of course i am the type of person that
is curious about continuing to push my body in unique and interesting ways and so
I started to tell people, hey, actually, I'm going to go back to Antarctica,
but this time I'm going to do it completely differently.
I'm going to go in a rowboat.
People like in a rowboat.
I said, yeah, you know, nobody in history has ever crossed Drake Passage in a rowboat.
So that's from the southern tip of South America, all the way to Antarctica,
750 miles of open ocean.
They say it's the most dangerous ocean crossing in the world because it's got icebergs.
And there's three oceans, the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and Pacific all converging
and creating 40-foot swells and really under predictable currents,
a cruise ship just 10 or 12 years ago,
to modern times have sunk in the Drake Passage.
Like, this is a rough ocean.
And me and a group of others,
we're going to attempt to make this crossing
with no motor, no sail,
just us in a tiny little 28-foot rowboat
that's sitting about two feet off the ground.
And so people started hear about this
that I was planning for this project.
And of course, the next immediate question is,
cool.
So you've been rowing your whole life
and you've been sailing and you know everything about the ocean.
And as you know from the book,
chapter four of the book is the limiting belief,
I'm not a fill in the blank, which is to say, oh, well, I can't ever run a marathon.
I'm not a runner.
Or I had this idea for a business, but I'm a lawyer.
I'm not an entrepreneur.
So I'm not going to start this business.
Or, you know, all the things we say, I'm not a, boom, that's the limiting belief.
And I'll tell you what, in this moment, I committed to this row.
I actually pitched it to Discovery Channel, got them to put a few million bucks behind a huge production around this row.
And I looked in the mirror and said, you know, to myself and my wife, like, well, you do know,
I've never rode a boat before, right?
Like I've never, not at summer camp, not like in college.
Like, I have no experience rowing a boat.
But that didn't stop me in this moment.
I was like, I am not a rower yet, yet.
That's the important word there.
I am not a rower yet.
And I went and found it as the stories, you know, from the book, come here,
and I found this incredible guy to help coach me and teach me, et cetera.
But the lesson from this is so important.
I think it's so important for all of us.
and I relate to it, we all relate to it,
is looking at another group of people
or look at somebody's success and say,
well, I couldn't be them.
Like, they're so skilled at this.
And in the book, it's some simple advice,
but I go, look, you know,
there was a time when Kobe Bryant had never shot a basketball,
and then he went and dribbled a basketball.
There was a time when Merrill Streep had never read a single line,
and then she tried out for her school play.
Or, you know, Janice Joplin had never, you know, strum the guitar,
but then it said, I'm a musician or Stephen King.
You know, there was a time when Steve,
Stephen King had never written a book. Now he's Stephen King. He's written 64 books and, you know, all are all, you know, New York Times bestsellers, etc. But there was a time where he was not an author. But at some point, he had to claim that as part of his identity. I am a rower. I am a writer. I am a basketball player. I am an actress. And it's really powerful to be able to claim that identity. And it doesn't require being a master of your craft to do that. Like you've never run before, but you want to be a runner. Like go jog around your block one time. You're a runner. You are a runner. You are.
are a runner. Like, yeah, you're not an Olympic gold medalist marathon runner, but you're a runner.
Like, you're getting into it. You're trying. And so the ability really is about growth mindset,
you know, Carol Dweck, the woman who really originated that concept, you know, this idea that we can
be and become anything that we set our minds to through diligence and hard work of saying, I might
not be this right now. But a fixed mindset says, I might not be this right now and I will never be this
ever. But a growth mindset, the same mindset that I applied to this rowing project with the most
dangerous ocean the world. It's like, I am not a rower yet, but I can reach into my resources,
people I know, my network, et cetera, and learn some skills. And the story in the book starts out
with me quite literally falling flat on my face, the first stroke I try to take in this tiny little
really unstable robo and falling into a Lammat River in Portland, Oregon near I was living
where I grew up. But I didn't stop me. I got back in the robo, got back and again, and ultimately
you know, completed that crossing of Drake Passes, becoming the first person.
in history to row the most dangerous ocean crossing
in the world. But had I stopped
with that limiting belief, or have you
listening stop with the limiting belief, I'm not
this, I'm not that. Well, you
never will become that. But being able
to claim that in the identity, I am
this. A possible mindset says
the possibilities are limitless.
I am a rower or whatever I want
to become. And the 12-hour walk
is a great example for that.
You're sitting there going, well, I'm not the type
of person who does this kind of physical stuff.
You know, I'm not a 12-hour walk.
walker. I'm not that kind of a person, whatever. You know what? You are. Every single person is. Every
single person, because I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how far you walk. You have the capacity to
put on your shoes, walk out your front door. I don't care if you walk one mile or 50, but you have the
capacity to do this. And when you do this, it's on the other side of the 12 hour walk, just like the
12 hour rock breaks down all the limiting beliefs, the 12 hour walk itself will prove to you,
oh, you thought you weren't that kind of a person that does this kind of stuff, but then you do it,
you're like, oh, wait, maybe I am a 12 hour walker. Well, if I can,
finish this. What else can I finish? What else can I become? And it's a really beautiful thing to
have that, like you said, that beginner's mindset of, you know, stepping into a new reality and realizing
you can grow and develop into whatever it is you want to be. Like you said, from that first speech to
now, you know, who you are in your life. You're speaking on stages all around the world. And
it's incredible. But at one point, you had to walk out there as Heather and be like, I'm Heather.
I'm giving my first big corporate keynote speech, you know, a little imposter syndrome or a little
like, do I belong? But now you've done it. You keep doing it. And
it's a huge part of your identity that you can own.
Because I wasn't a speaker yet until I was.
And so that is such a powerful message.
Even if you don't think you're going to do the 12-hour walk,
go get the book, the 12-hour walk,
because the lessons that you teach in this book
and all the reference is unbelievable
to keep people on that track.
But I know you're inspiring 10 million people to go for the walk.
So guys, please go for the walk.
Kong, where can everybody get the book?
How can they follow you?
The book is available where every, ever you can get books.
Pre-order is open now. The book comes out on August 2nd. So depending on when you're listening to this, either pre-order the book or buy the book. And then the 12-hour walk.com has all the resources. It has a background on the book. As you mentioned, those videos, the supplementary help. F-A-Q is about the walk itself. You can sign up for the walk. On September 10th, the book comes out in August 2nd. The 12-hour walk is meant to be taken any single day. But on September 10th, to really kick this idea off. I'm inviting global participation in the 12-hour walk. So I'm going to be walking.
that day. I've got lots of other big podcast host, Heather. I don't know what you're doing on
September 10th, but I love for you to join us as many people as possible to participate any day,
but September 10th is going to be a big day where I'm going to be walking. Of course, it's all alone.
You're doing this from your front door or wherever you are, but walking alone together,
having that accountability to a larger sort of global community of people that are saying,
hey, that's the date I'm putting on my calendar. I'm going to take that on. So buy the book,
check up the website, sign up and take the 12-hour walk. I promise you, it will unlock your best
life on the other side of it. Oh my gosh. If you've been struggling with any limiting belief,
go get this book now. You will have the inspiration and the tools that you need. Colin,
thank you so much for inspiring as all and for all the amazing work you're doing. Thank you so much.
Great to be here. We'll see you next week.
I decided to change that dynamic. I could have been more excited for what you're going to
hear, start learning and growing. Inevitably something will happen. No one succeeds alone.
You don't stop and look around once in a while.
You could miss it.
I'm on this journey with me.
