Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - Colin O'Brady: Explorers Grand Slam

Episode Date: July 20, 2016

On May 27th, 2016, Colin broke two mountaineering world records; he claimed the speed records for both the Seven Summits (132 days) and the Explorers Grand Slam (139 days), climbing the tallest mountain on each continent and skiing the last degree of latitude to the North and South Poles. In This Episode: -Embracing growing up in a mixed family -Putting in just enough effort to get by in his early life -The transition from doing something for fun to doing it as a profession -Adapting to a new environment at Yale -Traveling the world after college -The moment that changed his life – a severe burn in Thailand -Fulfilling his goal of competing in a triathlon -The meaning of Beyond72 -The intensity of the journey to the South Pole -Summiting Everest under harsh conditions -Consistency as a key to breaking the record -Why mental fortitude is so important -Being flexible when chaos ensued_________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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stay present and engaged with my thinking and writing. If you wanna slow down, if you wanna work smarter, I highly encourage you to check them out. Visit remarkable.com to learn more and grab your paper pro today. All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais. And the idea behind these conversations is just to sit down with people who are on the path of mastery to better understand their psychological framework, which is a fancy phrase for how they understand how the world works, how they understand how they fit in it. We also want to understand what's driving them. What are their motivations? what are they searching for, and how they line up those motivations to be able to pursue the edge of their potential. And then the third

component is to also understand their unique mental skills that they are refining and building along the journey, so that we can apply these in our own life to pursue our own potential, whatever that might mean for us. Okay, so as a quick little note here, I want to share a project that we're launching and it's called the mindset project. And I think this is going to be a blast. Okay. So Nicole Davis and Ariana Cucors, both Olympians who we've had conversation with on finding mastery and our very own Trevor Baru, they're on a mission to be able to learn from the best as well. And they're going to do this in Rio. They are going down with one mission in mind to explore and to decode the mindset of Olympians who are competing in Rio right now. That's so cool. This is going to be

unbelievable. I think at least. And so Arianna and Nicole, they're Olympians, as we know, and they're not currently competing. So it gives them this opportunity to head down for a few weeks to interview some of their former teammates, their former competitors, and folks that they're inspired by. To really work to understand how those athletes now are training confidence, optimism, grit, the other mental skills that we talk about. And so it's an Olympian meeting an Olympian, talking about mindset, decoding it, helping us understand. And this is just meant to stimulate a conversation. And we're going to use this in other ways later, but more of that to come in a bit. And so here's where we'd love your help. We'd love for you guys to join this conversation on social.

And what that means is like, what questions do you have for Olympians around the core mindset principles? And then to be able to ask that question, like asking Katie Ledecky, you know, how does she manage pressure? Or, you know, how does she manage to have so much fun when, sorry, that's my dog in the background. Or how much does she manage to have so much fun when people around her are losing her mind? You know, and like, what are the ways that she develops confidence? I mean, you get the idea

here. And then, so ask that question on social, then tag that athlete that you want to learn from. And maybe what you do is also ask and tag an athlete in your community that you respect. So it's one thing to learn from best in the world and then also learn from folks that you respect in your community that are doing amazing things. And we just pull all this data together, all this information together, and see if we can really formalize some deeper understandings of what's happening. So here's what we want you to do or ask you to help out with if you're so inspired is to ask a question. Hashtag the mindset project. Make sure that you connect what's it called at somebody like at Katie Ledecky. I don't know what her social handle is or somebody in your community. And let's see if we can have some fun with this. Let's see if we can learn and share what we're learning. And so that's it. So that's called the mindset project. And

yeah, looking forward to engaging with you on social. And we'll be feeding this information back the best way we can from Rio. So it's called the mindset project. Okay, cool. Finding Mastery is brought to you by LinkedIn Sales Solutions. In any high-performing environment that I've been part of, from elite teams to executive boardrooms, one thing holds true. Meaningful relationships are at the center of sustained success. And building those relationships,

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foods. And when I'm traveling or in between meals on a demanding day, certainly, I need something quick that will support the way that I feel and think and perform. And that's why I've been leaning on David Protein Bars. And so has the team here at Finding Mastery. In fact, our GM, Stuart, he loves them so much. I just want to kind of quickly put him on the spot. Stuart, I know you're listening. I think you might be the reason that we're running out of these bars so quickly. They're incredible, Mike. I love them. One a day, one a day. What do you mean one a day? There's way more than that happening here. Don't tell.

Okay. All right. Look, they're incredibly simple. They're effective. 28 grams of protein, just 150 calories and zero grams of sugar. It's rare to find something that fits so conveniently into a performance-based lifestyle and actually tastes good. Dr. Peter Attia, someone who's been on the show, it's a great episode, by the way, is also their chief science officer. So I know they've done their due diligence in that category. My favorite flavor right now is the chocolate chip cookie dough. And a few of our teammates here at Finding Mastery have been loving the fudge brownie and peanut butter. I know, Stuart, you're still listening here. So getting enough protein matters. And that can't be understated, not just for strength,

but for energy and focus, recovery, for longevity. And I love that David is making that easier. So if you're trying to hit your daily protein goals with something seamless, I'd love for you to go check them out. Get a free variety pack, a $25 value and 10% off for life when you head to davidprotein.com slash finding mastery. That's David, D-A-V-I-D, protein, P-R-O-T-E-I-N.com slash findingmastery. All right, so back to this conversation. Now, this conversation, this podcast conversation, it is about courage. It's about developing a committed and relentless mindset.

It's about resiliency. It's about mental endurance. And this conversation is with Colin O'Brady. He's a professional triathlete. And if you know, and you're connected to the world of adventure sports, you know, Colin, and you know what he's just done. Colin just completed the Explorers Grand Slam and he didn't just complete it. He shattered the world's record for it.

He summoned it. So what does that mean? What is the Explor grand slam? It's that he summited the tallest peak on each of the seven continents and then also skied the last degree to the North and South Poles. So he did this in 139 days. And to give some perspective, the previous record was 192 days, which is about just a little over six months. That's phenomenal. So not only did he break it, he flat out shattered it. Okay. So think about what goes into this to be able to do what we just described, like summit the seven, the tallest seven mountains, and then, you know, launch across the South and North pole. And I think the South pole was something like a 69

mile on foot track. And for deeper perspective, less than 50 people have ever completed this task or this achievement, I should say. And only four have done it in under a year. And again, Colin did this in 139 days. Now Colin's 29 years old. And what comes through this conversation is it's a wisdom that is rare for people that have lived under three decades of time here. So his path is unique and he will walk us through that. It's certainly unconventional, but it's just authentically him. And it's also been met with challenges that he wouldn't wish on anybody. And we dive right into that conversation about midway through. And you'll know when we're in it because, you know, I guess a little hint here is

that there's a cat involved. And so you'll understand what that means later. Hopefully you have fun with that. Okay. This conversation, it just really stretches beyond being a physical explorer. I mean, if you are listening to this going, well, okay, let me tune out here because I'm never going to be a triathlete or I'm never going to do this, you know, amazing physical feats that Colin's done, embedded in this conversation is a love story. And that's for all of us. And there's three of them in particular that are beautiful. And so he walks us through those. And I think that this conversation will force you to examine your relationship with yourself, your courage, your dedication to your craft, your love of life, your love of others, your love of nature, and your ambition to pursue

your own personal limits. And to be able to do that in a way that like it hopefully stirs up this deep calling that I think most of us have to live a life that's meaningful and authentic to ourselves. And then, you know, I guess the other idea is in what ways are you focusing your efforts on helping others become their very best as well? Because that's all embedded in this conversation. So, you know, the idea is that sport and business and adventure or hobbies, whatever we're doing that we're dedicated toward deeply, we're going to reveal more about the human spirit, the human mind, the human being than it is about the craft. That's why we don't talk about like, well, in this, like, what type of, you know, tools did you use and what type

of tactics did you employ? This is all about the human condition, which we all can relate to no matter what walk of life we're in, no matter what we're doing as a business or, um, or non-business efforts. Okay. So Colin is real flat out. He's just real. And I wish the same for all of us, me included in that conversation. So let's jump right into this conversation with Colin O'Brady as we work on becoming authentically ourselves. We work on being more of who we're working to become on a day-in and day-out basis. Have fun with this conversation. I'll see you with hashtag the mindset project. Looking forward to it. Take care. Colin. Hey, thanks for having me. All right, cool. So what you've done is incredible.

And you've just got back from an adventure that maybe has shifted what's possible in the consciousness of many people. And I don't want to call it a feat. It feels like it's an adventure. It feels like something much larger than, um, how long were you on the journey here? A hundred and 39 days. Okay. So before, before we give it away, what, what you've just done might literally change what many people in adventure and action sports thinks is possible and mountaineering. So will you walk us through what you just got back from the mountains and what you just did? Yeah. So I just recently broke a world record called the Explorers Grand Slam. So that's to climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents known as the seven summits, as well as complete an expedition to both the North and South Pole. And I did that in 139 days, breaking the world record, which had recently currently been set at 192 days.

So almost 53 days ahead of head of the previous record. So that's not just breaking it. That literally is shattering a world record. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think you did this for the world record, right? Like, I think you did this for many other reasons. Oh, absolutely. And we should definitely dive into all that. But the crazy thing in, in, in doing this record, I also set another world record, which was just the seven summits themselves. So it's almost like setting the 100 meter dash world record on your way to running the 200 meters or something like that. So that was unexpected. And that one only broke by two days. So it was right down to the wire on that one. Okay. So I, I, I want to deconstruct and really understand this entire process, but let's start with, let's start with not why I don't want to go there yet. Let's start with

early life. Let's start, go, go back when you remember your early life and what family was like and structure was like to give us a sense of, you know, what would put you on this path? Yeah, no, I think it, I think it's good to start there because, uh, it's obviously easy to focus on what I've just done the last 139 days, but you know, I'm 31 years old. And for me, this is a culmination of a full life, uh, uh, of many different events. Do you think of your life that way? Like full? I mean, I think that there's going to be many other adventures in the future. So to say full, at least in my mind, connotes, I don't know, over or finished. No, I was thinking full, like as in like filling up space up until this marker, this moment in time. Absolutely. You know, I think that I've kept pretty busy in what I've done.

Is busy and full? I'm sorry to interrupt, but is busy and full the same thing? I guess it's not the same thing, but I think that I've always been engaged in some sort of pursuit of high performance, whether I realize it at the time or not. But upon reflection, there's been certainly a continuity in that path. Although, as we take it back to early childhood, I thought of myself more as just a goofball kid, not the toe in the line, always staying within the rules type of kid. So I definitely wasn't always on that. But if you really look back, even within those moments,

there was also this sort of dedication and passion to high performance in some way. So it's been an interesting balance for me, I think. So can we start like early, like early, early, early? What was it like growing up in your family? So I'm from a big blended family, ultimately, but I'm the youngest. I have five older sisters and a half brother at this point. Four of those sisters are step. So didn't come into my life until early adolescence. But big, big hippie family. I was actually born on a hippie commune in Eugene, Oregon. Born at home on a futon. About 30 people were watching my birth

as my mom played Bob Marley's Redemption Song on repeat at my birth. So gives you some context to how I came into the world in a somewhat very untraditional way. Wait, wait, wait. Literally, was your mom laying on her back with her feet up in the air, 30 people around? Yeah, it was like a celebration of life. And actually, maybe this is a little too graphic, but instead of being baptized in a traditional format, my mother, a few days after I was born, took the placenta and buried it with a plum tree sapling, which is now a 31-year-old tree in this yard at the Alex Bergman Collective in Olympia, Washington. So that tree has grown as I have grown.

Okay. So you're painting a scene. What was going on for mom and dad that this was their way of living like what was that about so they were young they were super young uh just uh out of college at the evergreen state college but had my sister when she was 21 and me when i was 23 um my dad was not too much older than that um and it was really just a a lifestyle of you know when i look back it's the beginning of their lifestyle in the natural food industry, which has continued over several decades. You know, my dad now is an organic farmer in Hawaii. My mother and my stepfather founded a chain of natural foods grocery stores. This was an organic farm, you know, setting that I was, you know, born into. And so it's, I think it's actually the beginning of what really was truly their path.

But if you look at it, I think as that simple tableau of these hippies having this home birth, it's easy to sort of dismiss that. But it's actually them living with what was really their truth and their purpose in their life. And they've expanded upon that over the several decades since I was born. Does your mom and your dad, your biological father, do they get along? Yeah, they're incredibly close. Obviously they're divorced. They divorced when I was 10, 11 years old. But it's been amazing actually. My father and my mother lived only eight blocks away from each other in Portland, Oregon after they were divorced, both quickly remarried. And the step parents they brought into my life and our lives are huge influences in my life to this day. I can't even really picture life without them. And they brought their own children into those second marriages. And it's funny now,

you know, we have these big family events where it's my mother, my biological father, my stepmother, my stepdad, all the kids. And people come over to our house and they're like, wait, who's related to who? And we're like, oh, well, they were married to this person. And they're technically step siblings. But we don't really call it. We don't even say the word step sibling in my family because it's just all really kind of one big blended family. And, of course, just like any family, we have our problems. But in more than anything, it's a very loving context considering how blended and mixed up it always.

So was there, was there any strain or do you remember in the early years that there was troubled waters or is it, does it, it sounds like it was beautiful even, even through like the chaos of what most people, you know, for sure. You know, it would be, it would be crazy to say there was none of that. I think any transition, any divorce, any of that, whether it's divorce or really just transition in life in general has its ebbs and flows to it. But what I actually see and to me, which is beautiful as I've become an adult, is that that was a turning point in my parents' life. They had us when we were very young. And I think in their early 30s, late 20s, early 30s, about the age I am now, they kind of realized the path that they wanted to go on. Unfortunately, we're not together. But the path that they've led in their lives over the last couple of decades have been their true passion. My dad found a woman who was from Hawaii, moved there, cultivated this beautiful organic farm. And that's just been his lifelong dream. And he finally got to realize that dream. Whereas my

mom still in that same segment, but went in a slightly different direction, you know, with business and entrepreneurship in that space. And that really, when I see both of them over the last, you know, 20 years or so, it's, I admire both what they've done because I think they truly have walked their passion and that wasn't side by side, but they've certainly raised, you know, co-parented in an amazing way and raised us in an incredible supportive and loving environment despite the distance. Rare. Very rare. And I'm grateful for it. And I acknowledge that it is definitely rare. Yeah. Rare. And what you've done

is rare. And so if you take just getting done, just completing your adventure here and looking back at your early years, what were the things that set you up to be able to do something that has in the history of mountaineering never been done? Well, it's funny. I've heard my mom say this a couple of times now. People have asked her, you must have been really scared. You know, Colin's, you know, trying to summit Mount Everest, you know, two people on Mount Everest the day I was up there on the same summit day passed away. Not people who I was climbing with, but same day, same conditions, you know, kind of puts into perspective how intense of an experience it was I go through. And my mom, you know, laughs and smiles and said, careful what you wish for when

you tell your kids to dream big and they can do anything and anything is possible. You know, they're going to end up doing this. You grew up with that? Yeah, I grew up with that. You know, I grew up with my parents literally saying that to me, you know, believe in yourself, dream big, anything is possible. I grew up in a very, you know, like I said, obviously born in this hippie commune and grew up in very modest, modest background. And so it wasn't as if I had every hand up and every advantage, given to me with a silver spoon saying, oh, anything is possible. It was just a very normal childhood in southeast Portland, Oregon. But those values were certainly instilled in me.

Okay. And then take us into high school years. What was that like? Yeah, so that's really the transition between pre-my parental divorce to the sort of second phase of my familial life which is actually it's funny because when I think about my parents together I can barely picture it um and that's not a negative thing it's actually I just my life has been so beautiful before I haven't held on to this sort of you know classic nuclear family image in my life I've integrated this idea in my mind and when I look back I can barely remember the difference um but, but, uh, you know, the high school years,

uh, were definitely formative years for me. Uh, I was, I was very young when I started high school. I was only 13. Um, I had, uh, skipped third grade cause I think my fractions in cursive, maybe we're just off the charts. I'm just kidding. But for whatever reason, I skipped third grade and I was already very young for my grade. So I was young when I started high school. And then as a result of that, very young when I started college, just turned 17 when I left home for college, which is obviously a bit younger than normal. And yeah, the high school years were sort of, you know, when I think about, you know, academics and sports and whatnot were a time when I was, like I said, I don't, I think I wasn't necessarily telling the line at all times, you know, I, I, I got good grades, um, but it was mostly a way of me, you know,

getting good grades so that my parents didn't like have too watchful of an eye at me that I could get away with some other things on, on the boundaries. And the same thing was, you know, uh, I was playing soccer and swimming at a high level at that point. But it was kind of like, hey, mom and dad, leave me alone. You know, I've got good grades and, you know, I'm swimming fast. So like, you know, let me have a later curfew or let me stay out later with my buddies or something like that. Do you remember a point in time when or story that you clearly had good grades and you were doing well in school, but there was other things that or something that your mom or dad didn and you were doing well in school, but there was other

things that, um, or something that your mom or dad didn't let you do at the time. Um, I don't know what it is. There's nothing that pops into mind, like specifically as in what they really didn't let me do. Um, but you know, even with them being sort of, you know, more hippie or groovier parents than typical, they definitely had, you know, there was discipline in my household. It was like, you're home at this time, you got to do schoolwork, that sort of stuff. But I tried to almost, you know, my anticipation was to kind of race through those things so I could get to the free time, like hanging out with my buddies and like just cruising and talking to girls or whatever it was when I was, you know, 15, 16 years old was more of a priority to me than anything. But I almost was trying to high perform in the other areas of my life, I think, to sort

of allow me that freedom, if you will, which just seems like a funny incentive. No, I get it. I'm wondering how that's going to show up later in your life. But what you're saying is that you knew that you needed to take care of business to be able to party, to be able to fun, have fun or whatever. Okay. So it's like this blend between limit pushing, which is the fun part that sounds like you're doing. And then the, the, you know, kind of the traditional take care of business to be able to

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Plus, they look great. Clean, clear, no funky color distortion. Just good design, great science. And if you're ready to feel the difference for yourself, Felix Gray is offering all Finding Mastery listeners 20% off. Just head to FelixGray.com and use the code FindingMastery20 at checkout. Again, that's Felix Gray. You spell it F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y.com and use the code FindingMastery20 at at Felix gray.com for 20% off. Looking back now, what part of your high school experience was setting you up

to be able to shatter a world record in mountaineering? You know, the biggest thing for me was I was swimming and playing soccer at a very high level in terms of my athletic career. Um, and, interestingly enough, you know, I was recruited for Division I sports and both sports, but at, you know, the collegiate level, it's pretty hard to do two sports, particularly two sports that are so dissimilar. Okay, wait a minute, real quick. Great grades or good grades? Yeah, very good.

Not perfect perfect, but maybe like, you know, a couple Bs in the whole time I was in school, but rest A's. Okay, so you skipped third grade, good grades. Yeah. SAT, did you take the SAT? High test score, yeah. High test score? Yeah, in the 90-somethings percentile, 95th, 6th percentile maybe.

Did you study for it or did it come somewhat naturally? I did take an SAT prep class, but I think that there was probably some also natural ability there. Yeah, so you think clearly and was probably some also natural ability there. Yeah. So you think clearly and quickly. Perhaps. Perhaps. Maybe. Do you get frustrated with other people that don't think as clearly or quickly as you?

No, I don't think so. And as, as life has gone on, I've realized that I think my brain functions well in certain things, standardized testing testing, for whatever reason, suits my mental capacity. But I think I have a lot of deficiencies in other places. I'm definitely not the most creative eye through this recent process of developing this project to set this world record. There's a whole charitable element, which I'm sure we'll get into, and around that, sort of figuring out some marketing and branding and things around that. And I'm lost in'm lost in that space. You know, I was talking to a number of creative guys who were developing, you know, my website and some logos and things for me. And they're sitting there like, well, what do you want? What do you think? Like you're so, you know, and I said, I might, it's possible that I'm the best athlete sitting at this table. I literally said this to a room

full of eight or nine, like guys at this creative firm, you know, I might be the best athlete sitting in this room right now, but I'll tell you, I am definitely the least creative person in here. So you guys tell me, Oh, this angle looks good here. This color looks great here. I just don't really have a great eye for that. So to say that I am smarter or better than someone else, I really would disagree with that. I think I have certain strengths and certain weaknesses. Yeah. So there's, there's some different models in the field of, um, intelligence and it's general intelligence. Like this, it's called the big G, the general intelligence. And then there's more functional intelligence. And then there's even context intelligence. And what you're

describing right now is, um, that kind of functional intelligence. Like some people, uh, they have an incredible intelligence about their body and how it moves in space. Some people have this incredible intelligence for math or incredible intelligence for visual spatial activities. And then there's contextual intelligence, which is like inside of movement, there's very particular nuances that are unique to people. So it sounds like you've got general intelligence, like you've got this, um, ability to think clearly and quickly. Um, and then physically you've got some gifts as well. Did you work hard, um, in the pool and on the field?

It's funny as I got later in my life, I had this opportunity to be, yeah, the answer is no. Anytime someone like grins and like smiles. Yeah, okay. All right. As I got later into my life, particularly as I became a professional athlete. Professional. Wait a minute. What do you mean?

After college, I started racing triathlon professionally. But the road to that was sort of crazy with this burn accident, which we should probably get into. But just in terms of the answer to that question was, as a kid, as growing up, even in my schoolwork, even in my training, I was kind of always looking to, I was always, my mom calls me, my mom actually calls me Mr. A-minus. So she's like, so the way that grading worked, at least at my high school, I'm not sure this is true everywhere, because it certainly wasn't true when I was in college. But A minus counted the same as A plus in terms of grade point average. Like A minus was a 4.0, A plus was a 4.0.

In college, that was different for me. But I don't know. This is like a return on investment model. Right. So I was kind of like, well, if I've gotten 90.1%, which would be good enough for A minus, like that's good enough. Like I don't need to push it the next 1% or 2% or 3%. And it was the same with my sports, which was like I was excelling. I was winning state championships.

I was nationally ranked athlete. But I heard a lot from coaches and things. But if you only did more, you have so much more potential. You have this sort of thing. Did you listen to that voice when you set out for your project? So the transformation, you know, we're talking about high school years here and we're talking 12, 13 years in the future from that. Um, my perspective on all of this has really shifted. Um, and I think I've learned to know myself better, um, and what context and things work

well for me. Um, but that, that discovery has only happened through kind of swinging back the complete other way. As I became a professional athlete in my early career of triathlon, I went to the extreme of, oh, everyone said I always had potential in high school, but in college, and I never really, you know, trained hard enough or focused enough on it. So I went the opposite way, which was, you know, cut out all almost fun from my life just to focus on this, just to put the blinders on. And it was a number of years of having moderate success, but a lot of setbacks when I realized, wait, like maybe it was the fun and the looseness that actually led to high performance for me that I kind of came back full circle, not all the way full circle to being a 15 year old who kind of, you know, was Mr. A minus, but maybe I'm, maybe I'm Mr. A with a little fun on the side instead of the obsessive, you know, a plus, plus, plus, plus. Um, so I don't know. It's a balance. Yeah. Something happens as soon as pro athletes get a manager, an agent,

a coach, or some sort of, uh, responsibilities and they, they shift their model. All of a sudden that model of let me flow and have fun and, and, and, you know, have success, but at the same time, not push the limits. Yeah. As soon as that thing changes for people, sometimes it becomes a constrictor. And in that constriction, obviously you lose the fun, you lose the joy, but also lose some of the performance and the looseness that facilitates great performance. And did, did you lose the love of competing or was it not that like that it was more like i just felt rigid and i couldn't let it go when i think of it back now it's almost like this you know almost like right now there's a visceral reaction in my chest just kind of like i don't know if anxiety

is the right word but tightness just i got i got tight i i was you know obsessing about all these little things that maybe didn't have such an impact or, yeah, just kind of, I think, the weight of the world. Like you said, you know, I get my first big sponsor. All of a sudden, you know, I dreamed of becoming a professional athlete but never actually honestly thought that that was a reality until it was, you know, kind of staring me in the face. I was like, oh, my God. I'm like, you know, I wasn't making a lot of money but enough to, like, actually call that my job. And so you're going, oh, I got my first sponsor. I don't want to disappoint them. I want, you know, I got to have these results. I got to this and sort of lost sight of the looseness in that process. And that

was hard for me, hard, hard realization in the long run. So what was the shift? What was the shift from Mr. A minus, have a good time, get it done and Excel to Mr. A plus plus that it needs to be perfect and it needs to be at the limit of your potential? Well, the big thing that happened to me was in January of 2008, I was severely burned in a fire in Thailand. So just after college, I graduated in 2006. I had been painting houses in the summer, scraped together a few pennies to go travel around the world with a surfboard and a backpack and live in hostels and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and just kind of experience a little bit of life before what I thought was going to be the start of a career in finance, a Wall Street

career. Most of my other peers graduating from Yale, an economics degree, that's sort of the path. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So there's a lot here. Okay. So not, I don't know, top 10 universities in the world. Yeah. Okay. So playing at Mr. A minus got you into Yale. Yeah. And you competed as a athlete there as well? I swam there for four years. Yep. Okay. So you were, were you partying? Were you having fun? Were you a Mr. A minus Mr. C plus? What was happening there?

Oh, there was, there was plenty of fun and partying that happened in college. I'd be lying otherwise. And, uh, but you know, it was, I, you know, coming from this West coast kid born in a hippie commune and thrown into the, you know, thisy league environment and at the time i was so precocious that i didn't probably realize this but i admit it to myself now upon reflection is i was pretty immature and young to be thrown into such an environment just 17 yeah yeah and you know at the time i was like whatever i can handle this but i look back and like you know walking into this campus with this beautiful gothic architecture that's been around since 17 whatever uh 01 or whatever it is and you know the people coming from these, you know, prestigious prep schools in the Northeast, like that's just so different than the reality that I grew up with that when I look back on my time at Yale, it was an amazing experience, wonderful education, lifelong friendships. But the first couple of years there were very,

very hard for me. And I fit in right away. I mean, I had friends, I had teammates, it's not like I was, you know, you know, a stranger or anything. But emotionally, it was a lot for me to process. It was like, I actually think in all the world traveling I've done since then, it was probably the most actually specific culture shock that I've ever had in my life happening within the United States, but just the other side of the country and so different from where I had been from a hippie commune to Yale. Yeah. I mean, it was challenging for me. But, you know, what happened at school was there's almost actually two different chapters of school with the first two years where I said where I was kind of struggling with that. And then I decided to unenroll for a semester, which is very

untraditional thing to do and take take 90 days, basically three months, to go and do an expedition in the backcountry of Chile and Patagonia, sea kayaking and mountaineering for a semester. And then I only had to finish school in three semesters, so I actually kind of had to cram my education into three and a half years rather than four years. And I remember coming back from that expedition thinking, oh, well, I'd had a hard time at Yale. I should just kind of put my head down and finish school and just get through it. It'll be a good thing to have this degree. And it was actually that distance from it, this stepping out of the normal classroom environment that my last three semesters of Yale, I actually really thrived there. It's where I actually made those lifelong friendships.

It's where my fondness from those college years, you know, belong in my memory banks are of the sort of second half of my time there. But I still, you know, going back to what I was saying, was not quite at the place where I thought in the long run I was probably going to end up in a similar set of circumstances a lot of my peers, i.e. working on Wall Street or in a financial career using my degree to those ends. But I was also like, I don't want to do that the day I graduate from college. So I rode my bike across the country, literally from

Connecticut back to Oregon when I graduated. They just have to come and dude, you, you go, you, you pull out of Yale for 90 days ago to Patagonia and then you say, yeah, okay, it's good. I'm all right. And then you jump on your 10 speed pretty much and bounce from connecticut over to oregon like it's no big deal so you're okay you've got like an adventure spirit you've got a counterculture way about you that was probably from early on okay and but you've got it you've got to have an incredible cardio motor like you must have an incredible capacity for sure you know i'd be lying to say that i didn't you know have an incredible capacity. For sure. You know, I'd be lying to say that I didn't, you know, have some sort of genetic gift or predisposition towards that. And, you know,

it's a funny thing. I mean, maybe it's a, uh, a 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell thing or something. You know, when I look back, even if I was Mr. A minus, like I went to swim practice every single day and often two swim practices per day. Like I might've gone there kicking and screaming and told my parents, don't drive me, don't drop me off at the pool again at 6am or whatever. But like I did the time, like, I mean, I stared at that black line and slam laps over and over and over again. And of course, over that period of time, I've developed a, you know, strong, you know, my body adapted well to that and developed a strong cardio as a result of that. Yeah. Jeez. Okay. All right. So you head back to Oregon and then, um, and you say, mom, dad, um, uh, great education. Um, I'm glad I took a break. The last couple of years were great and I'm traveling the world now. Yeah. And I

imagine neither of them said no, no, no, no, no. Very supportive, very supportive, which is, you know, again, a beautiful thing because i'm not sure that you know everyone would have had that support given how much money did you have i think i left hoping to travel for a full year on i think it was nine thousand eight hundred dollars if i remember correctly literally just under ten thousand dollars you get the money uh me and my buddy david one of my childhood best friend who's uh actually now married to my sister so he's my brother-in-law now uh we even more complicated we started uh we started a house painting company in the summer so when we were 15 years old so we started painting the exteriors of houses and did that every summer basically through high school

and college so your life is rad we haven't even gotten into like the meat of this but your life is really cool yeah so most people were doing these like kind of fancy internships in the summer and i was like no i'm gonna go home and pay houses with my buddy and then my dad lives in hawaii so we would do that for as long as we needed to and then we'd go to hawaii the second half of the summer and surf and do what we could before school started back up again a little bit but i gotta be honest with you i'm a little bit of a uh uh i prefer the warm the warm water to the cold oregon oregon coast although the waves on the oregon coast are amazing and way uncrowded and epic there's some hidden gems yeah there are some

there are some but uh okay so there you go so you got nine thousand eight hundred dollars yeah and uh and you go do you go with david is he going to go with you um we originally had decided to travel together but it's sort of too long to get into now but he started you know he knew he's known my sister my whole life because we're all actually in the same year in school um but uh he um they had sort of started their thing and we're living in hawaii and you know they were off on their own world adventure so we were traveling at the same time um and we we eventually did meet up in Thailand when I was severely burned in this fire that we'll talk about. No, no. Let's do it now.

But yeah, we'll get into it. I mean, you've dropped it a couple of times that I'm severely burned. Yeah. Well, it's a big turning point in my life. I think it's a crucial moment. So just to give context, David was not with me through most of my travels. He had been traveling with my sister Lily. I had been traveling in other parts of the world.

But then I met up with him in Thailand, and we decided to have a few-week adventure in the middle of this sort of year of traveling that he was doing and I was doing separately together. And we were on a beach in a small island called Kotow. And, uh, I was, uh, being a foolish young person and, uh, doing the local custom of fire jump roping. And, uh, that sounds ridiculous. I know, but it was not as if we thought of the idea. It is a fairly common practice there. Is this like a Kava Kava experience? Is this like a, you know, is this, what is this? I mean, I'd be lying to say that if I wasn't partying a lot during this year of travel, but believe it or not, we had just gotten our scuba diving certifications. Hadn't had even a single beer, nothing completely sober, uh, on this, when this happened and actually probably thankfully in terms of how badly I was injured and how quickly I

reacted. But it's just a common thing on the beaches in Thailand. I mean, fire dancing, fire jump roping, all this is fairly common. I mean, you can YouTube it and see tons of clips of people doing this. Is it one big rope or is it like a double Dutch where they're swinging? Yeah, it's like two people holding on the ends of one rope. Maybe what you do in the street as a kid. Yeah. Okay. Is it like a thick rope or is it a thin rope? Pretty, you know, yeah, thick. I mean, not huge, but thick, like a thicker, bigger rope, probably 20, 30 feet long, big. Okay. And they're swinging it around and both David and I, how much fire are we talking about? Like the whole rope, the whole rope completely on fire. So the rope soaked in gasoline and kerosene, um, and lit on fire. And so David and I were jumping underneath the rope, both of us together,

actually. Stop, stop, stop. Yeah. Okay. So you're watching all these people go. Yeah. Okay. And had you made up your mind that you're going to go to the beach and jump and fire tonight? No, we were just, uh, where we were staying cause we were getting our super dive certification was just on the beach on this little, you know, guest house basically. So you saw it happening. We saw it happening right in front of where we were eating dinner and David who'd actually been in Thailand. I had just been to gotten to Thailand, but David had actually been in Thailand for a couple of months before that. And he was like yeah this happens all the time this is super fun like and i'm not saying he convinced me because i was definitely going to do it with or without him can you go back to that moment you're eating dinner yeah and you look over and you see that there's this blaze of fire

on a rope and are people doing it when yeah other people are doing it yeah and and like tourists or locals tourists and both both yeah okay and can you go back to that moment? And I don't want you to do like a revision of history, but if you can capture that moment when you said yes. Can you go back to that? I mean, I can remember it very vividly. I know exactly where we were. I can picture the moment. I know I can picture the faces of the other people who were in our scuba diving class, who we were eating dinner with, who were, you know, relative strangers. Back to that moment where you said yes. Yeah. What was that like? I mean, I guess my life was about to change dramatically, but I didn't realize that I was

very carefree, you know, hanging out with my best buddy on a beach in Thailand. Like, I'll know, you know, was it like, wow, that looks fun. Or was it like, yeah, let's try it out. Or was it like, I don't know. You know, it's funny. Cause I look back and I almost like people think like, oh, maybe that was a horrible decision. Of course, hindsight 2020, right? Yeah. It was a horrible decision. I severely burned myself in this fire and couldn't walk for three months. But I, you know, I look at now and go like a hundred times out of a hundred or 10 times out of 10, the Colin O'Brady in the 22 year old Colin O'Brady in that moment would have jumped that rope. Like it just was almost like predetermined. Like, yeah, like I'm the type of person that was

attracted to that. Are you attracted to danger or fun or risk? I think fun. I mean, to be honest, like, I don't think I'm not the type of person that's always seeking out the biggest thrill, the biggest risk or whatever. But if there's something that like is maybe on the edge between safe and not safe, but also lots of people are doing it and there's a lot of laughter and, you know, the environment is like positive around it. Like, I'm not going to like be one to like miss out on that experience, you know, you know, call it FOMO, fear of missing out or, you know, whatever you want to call it. Like that was just like, yeah, of course I'm going to try that. Here I am. You don't seem fear-based to me. Yeah. You seem more fun-based, like experience-based. Totally. I mean, I was

saying, you know, I had kind of a mantra actually when I was traveling around the world by myself for the many months before this, I had been in Fiji. I had got, you know, in New Zealand, I hitchhiked through New Zealand for several months by myself, surfed through Australia for several months. Did you bring a board? I brought a board. You brought a board with you. So it was you and a board. Yeah. Me and a board. Um, and I just kind of had this mantra, which is like, I'm so pissed right now. Like I wish that it's no, seriously, I've never had this. Maybe maybe it's time maybe it's time right now you know in inflection point i got a lot going on but yeah but you know what these conversations like are like they're doing something to me and and this is one of the things that

i don't even know i gotta i gotta get it out which is my mantra was just say yes so i didn't have any friends that i was with but i never felt alone because i would go to a hostel and it would say, hey, I'm going to go look at architecture on the backside of this hill and wherever it's considered. And I'd be like, yeah, okay. And so it was like, I mean, with the same way I was like, oh, I'm going to go surf big waves. I wasn't kind of like, I didn't have a narrow focus to what I was doing. The most narrow focus I had, which is I didn't have much money, So I couldn't say yes to a helicopter tour around this or whatever. But as long as it was like within the parameters that were, you know, logistical constraints for me, it was like, yes. Do you want to hang out with this person? Yes. Do you want to fire a jump rope? Yes. You know, it was just like, yeah, it was experiencing the

world. This was your philosophy at play. You saw fire ropes. I don't know if someone said, yeah, they said, Oh, let's go do this. And you're like, okay, yes. Let me live in alignment with my philosophy. Yeah. Okay. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Cozy Earth. Over the years, I've learned that recovery doesn't just happen when we sleep. It starts with how we transition and wind down. And that's why I've built intentional routines into the way that I close my day. And Cozy Earth has become a new part of that. Their bedding, it's incredibly soft, like next level soft. And what surprised me the most is how much it actually helps regulate temperature.

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kerosene on the rope that hadn't quite burned yet. And that splattered me to my neck, letting my entire body on fire at that point. So I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but no shoes. Um, fortunately just instinct took over in that moment. The ocean was right there about 10 seconds later, I was, you know, running and diving into the ocean and extinguished the flames. Um, but not before about 25% of my body was severely burned, severe second degree and some third degree burns. Um, and the ocean certainly saved my life, but I would be lying to say, you know, jumping into a saltwater ocean with 25% of your skin off of your body is, uh, ridiculously painful, uh, you know, from that

first moment. So I stepped out of the ocean's edge and looked at David and I knew it was, was bad right away. So you felt the pain immediately. Um, and I actually looked at David and the first thing I said was David get help. Like I'm going into shock. This is bad. Like it was, there was no like, is this like, and it was like, no, I was just on fire. This is bad like it was there was no like is this like and it was like no i was just on fire this is bad and my clothes were completely charred through at this point um so i hopped on the back of a moped it was the first thing or did they stick to you yeah so it's interesting so the next thing that happened was uh you know uh someone from the resort or whatever uh drove down on a moped and drove me literally down a back dirt path with my legs wrapped around his stomach. David's holding me behind.

This is on a moped with like all that open? Yeah. You know, in rural Thailand. And then they take me to this literally a hut, one room hut. And they say, well, this is the only hospital medical facilities we have on this island. And so we basically go inside and the first thing they do is cut my clothes off of me because they're so charred there's no just like oh unbutton your t-shirt and you know take it off so they literally with scissors cut my clothes off me expecting to see you know 80 of my body burn myself included thinking my chest my thighs everything or me burned and fortunately enough that i got in the water probably within one or two seconds where the clothes had burned, but the skin underneath

hadn't quite burned. And that's quite honestly, in my estimation is probably the difference between life or death and in this circumstance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Okay. Now let me get the picture right. You just, you made an instant decision to go get in the water and probably reactive. And then your buddy, thank God he was there because you were traveling solo. Yeah. Get you on, somehow flags down a moped or someone hustles, gets a moped, you're riding on a moped, you're now in a hospital. Hospital is a nice word for it. More like a one room space that had some medical facilities. Yeah. It's, it's not pretty. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what was that like? That was really, that was one of the more intense moments of my entire life. Did David stay or do you leave?

Yeah. So I really, you know, credit David a lot to, you know, my eventual recovery in that, you know, he was scared, probably just as scared of me at this moment. And they are, they starting to actually cut the excess skin off of my, my legs and try to dress the wounds. And they say to us in 12 hours, there's a boat that can take you to this other island that has like a little bit better of a hospital, but that's not till tomorrow morning. And so you guys are going to have to stay the night here. And David's like kind of in this freaked out, scared mode. And they start sort of, you know, they're starting to put, want to put an IV in me. And I grabbed David's arm. I remember it's this really intense moment. I look him in the eyes and I said like,

David, I can't look at my eyes. Like I need you to be my eyes and ears. I need you to be here for me and make sure that like this is clean or sterile or whatnot. And in an instant, he went from, you know, just a scared 22, 23 year old kid to just being my protector and advocate in a way that is amazing. So literally not long after this, they've put me in a room, given me some of the basics of morphine and whatnot to try to calm me down. And but the adrenaline has worn off. I'm in a lot of pain and I just start crying. I'm just scared beyond belief. And, you know, in a, in an incredible moment of love and compassion, David actually crawled in bed beside me and just held me through the night, you know, two freaked out 22, 23 year old kids crying themselves through the night in rural Thailand,

not knowing, you know, what the future held. Um, and the next morning it was a pickup. When you tell that story now, what happens for you? It's emotional for me even now, you know, I, um, I've, I have been other times telling that story of, you know, teared up and not be able to get through it. Um, it's, uh, it's still a very vivid moment for me, but also interestingly enough, and as I've gotten distance from this accident, a really beautiful moment in my life, an incredible moment of vulnerability and love that I think sometimes takes a crisis to unveil. You know, 22, 23-year-old boys, if you will, I barely call you men at that point, boys aren't necessarily known for, you know, an openness and a loving touch in that way. And, uh, it certainly was sort of us at our barest, most vulnerable, um, states, but you know, he really took care of me in a beautiful way. And I'm so fortunate for that.

And like you said, I would have been alone for so many months before that. So to have this happen when, you know, one of my oldest, nearest, dearest friends was there was really incredible. Um, but then they, yeah, then they took us to, you know, back of a pickup truck, a little boat to this other hospital, you know, that's me doing air quotes right there. Um, and you know, I underwent eight surgeries in a row. I was too unstable to actually fly to a major hospital anywhere in the world. Um, and, uh, so I had to stay in this hospital for eight days and, uh, so I had to stay in this hospital for eight days and, uh, I'd come out in the ICU and there literally be a cat running around my bed across my stomach. So that sort of paints the picture for what type of medical

facilities I was, uh, in. And of course with burns, it's infection that really, I mean, the trauma is bad, but it's really infection. What can kill you or at least make you really sick. Cats are clean though, right? Yeah. Right. So the cat in the ICU was a sterile cat. So really not the place that you'd want to be. When mom and dad hear this story, what's their experience? It's amazing. My mother had this – must have been a strong mothering instinct because I was actually trying to – and David was too. Like it's bad, but we think he might be all right in a few days.

It's funny. We actually didn't quite realize how severe it was. And I don't know if that's a function. And when I look back of shock or doubt or, you know, whatever you want to call it, but we didn't quite alert. We told them right away, oh, Colin's in the hospital and it's not great. But this, my mom was like, I'm getting on a plane. And thank God she did, because ultimately she spent a couple of months with me sitting

by my bedside in Thailand. After the eighth day, she arranged for me to be flown to Bangkok where actually the medical facilities are very good, as good if not better than what you carry to receive in the United States. And that's where we spent a couple months with me and my mom sitting in that hospital bed. And, you know, as much as David changed my life in those first few days, my mother's support and love for me in those, you know, following months of recovery definitely changed my life. You know, she, it's, it's that moment. And that's why I really traced back where I'm at now, having just set these world records, um, to that moment where she said, the doctors were telling me, Hey, you may never walk again. Normally, you know, you may literally never walk again. Normally it'd be the same. And my mom was like, you know what? Let's set a goal. Let's focus on not the negativity, but the positivity here. And she admits now that she was more or less

placating me. She was thinking he might never walk again normally, but I got to get him positively focused on something. But I think this is where Mr. A plus came out from the Mr. A minus, um, to loop back to that is that I set this goal for myself to complete a triathlon. I never done a triathlon. I've been a swimmer in college, obviously, but spiking running, I've never done at a competitive level. And I said, I'm going to complete a triathlon. And that's how I'm going to prove to myself and everyone else that, you know, I'm, I'm whole again. Do you remember, Ooh, that surprised me. Do you remember that moment where it started to flip? I mean, I remember that moment in the, it was in Bangkok in the hospital. My mom and I,

she was literally just kind of like, almost like, uh, throwing ideas out. Like, what about this? Or what about this? And like, she might've said like, what about doing a triathlon one day? And she was probably thinking, you know, 10 years from now. And I was like, yes, I'm going to get out of here and do a triathlon. And she was like, what about doing a triathlon one day? And she was probably thinking, you know, 10 years from now. And I was like, yes, I'm going to get out of here and do a triathlon. And she was like, whoa, whoa, you haven't taken a literally a step. I mean, I was still carried onto the plane in Thailand, flown to the United States, wheeled off the airplane in a wheelchair. I mean, I didn't walk for many, many months, um, and certainly didn't walk again properly or run or anything for a long while. But it was, uh, at that moment, I actually, there, I have a photo of myself lifting weights in the Thai hospital

because I had said to the doctor, well, I can't lose my legs, but I'm starting to train for this triathlon. So are there some weights or some anything that I can have? And I'm like doing little like, it's like five and 10 pound weights, but I'm just kind of doing little like, you know, bicep curls and like tricep like raises or something just like, I don't know what it was. Like I just fixated on that idea and it ultimately really got me through it's a great testament to somebody else or ourselves being able to have a vision of what we want to experience or yeah experience in the

future and you you were really clear on what it was and then once you back into that you'll do whatever it takes yeah if that thing matters yeah. That's why nobody else can give us goals. Yeah. Yeah. We have to do that lonely work. Somebody could suggest something and you go, Oh, right. Right. Like, and so that that's fair, but we'll never really do another person's goals if they don't feel aligned and organic. And so this felt aligned and organic and you did whatever it took. Absolutely. And I just, I mean, I was, like I said, it was that Mr. A plus came out. I just kind of obsessed over that. And literally it was, it was one step at a time. I think to, it's one thing to put these big goals out there. Um, but I also really am a strong believer in

incremental goal setting. So it was, you know, as a corny of a metaphor as you will, it was, it was really one step at a time for me at that point. It was, I was sitting in one chair. My mom put a chair one foot away from me and said, okay, your big goal for today is to get up from this chair and sit in the chair that's two feet away from you. And that was a big, you know, big progress. And I was still thinking, oh, I want to complete a triathlon one day. Um, so when 18 months later I was living in Chicago, uh, working as a commodities trader and I signed up for the Chicago triathlon to finally, you know, do this goal, uh, surprised the heck out of myself when I not only completed the race, but I actually won the Chicago triathlon beating 5,000 other participants. Um, did you train? I did. I did train. Yeah. So you were in proper shape, but you you you weren't sure what everyone else was doing yeah i mean i wasn't trying to win the race i was just trying to race you must have a incredible high ceiling or big capacity big engine if you will okay so then you crush that you become

pro yeah and then at some point you say i want to do something different yeah and that was this adventure that you just. Yeah. So we, we coined it beyond seven to the seven being significant for the mountains and two for the poles. Um, but it got to a point. Well,

I'm sorry. Why beyond? Because the really inspiration behind this project was not, it was a time athletic career where after having raced in 25 different countries, six different continents, experienced life, a professional athlete kind of lived that dream. I got to a point, even though I was actually kind of at the

peak of my career, um, had just won a half Ironman race, uh, racing was going really well that I was like, this is great. But for some reason I'm feeling something missing now and what's missing. And I really kind of Jenna and I, Jenna, who's my fiance and just kind of right-hand person throughout my whole life or for the last eight or nine years. And, you know, we said, you know, what's missing is I want to do something that has more of an impact than just my own personal success or failure. And I've mentored a lot of kids, done some coaching and things, and that's always been something meaningful for me. And as I described my parents' sort of ethos with natural, healthy living, that's always been important to me. And I realized how fortunate I was to have those role models, but not all kids have those role models. So I wanted to do a project that really targeted inspiring kids around active, healthy lifestyle, combating

childhood obesity. And so this project, we coined it beyond seven, two, cause it wasn't just about the seven, two, the me climbing the seven peaks and the two poles and hopefully setting the world record. But it was beyond that. It was more than that. It was about finding what your beyond is, going beyond, setting big goals, dreaming big, living an active, healthy lifestyle. And the inspiration with the kids was not about, hey, you should go climb Mount Everest. It was about, you know, we actually use this as a metaphor in all the school speeches we do. What is your Everest? Find your Everest. It was about, you know, we actually use this as a metaphor in all the school speeches we do. What is your Everest? Find your Everest. Um, you know, and a mountains are a

great metaphor, you know, for, I think success and goal setting and achievement, you know, can you ride your bike to school? Can you, you know, play with your brother in the park? Can you run around and play unplug from the video games, find something fun outside, be active, be healthy. And that's going to lead to, you lead to a longer and more successful, healthier life. Is there a website associated with this? This feels like it's – is this a for-profit, non-profit? It's non-profit, beyond72.com. Check it out.

We're currently trying to raise a million dollars towards combating childhood obesity. So all the sponsorship and funding that's gone into the actual climbing is completely separate. So anything that gets donated through our non through our nonprofit goes directly to the kids programs and helping support, you know, kids health within the schools. Ooh. So I'll definitely put my money where my mouth is and, um, I'm stoked to help you. Awesome, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. And to anyone else out there listening who feels compelled, we certainly would appreciate it. It's a, cause, you know, not just, I think sometimes you can focus on that as health and nutrition in terms of sports. But, you know, me being an athlete is a narrative towards that.

But really, I think healthy, active life leads to so much more. You know, people, these kids were sending me videos when I was on Everest saying, hey, my Everest is this. And there's a fifth grader saying my Everest is to live active, healthy lifestyle so I can study better. So I can be the first person in my family to graduate from college. You know, that baseline is so crucial in success, whether that's on or off, you know, the general field of play, if you will. What was harder, the barren poles and the extended journey by yourself there, just looking at the horizon, which is nothing, or the intensity of Everest or whatever one that was the challenge for you? You know, the poles and the mountains are really different from one another.

You know, I had somewhat of a background in mountaineering as a kid, just growing up in the Pacific Northwest, climbed mountains around my house. My parents exposed me to that. But polar travel is something I never experienced. So the South Pole was the very first expedition on the whole project. Never been to Antarctica before, and you basically get literally dropped off on a plane at the 89th degree to cover the last degree of latitude to get to the South Pole. And the plane takes off and I'm there with a couple other partners and nothing, just this white abyss. It's minus 40 degrees out, you know, and there's basically sensory deprivation because everything looks exactly the same. It's just white in every direction you look and the sun stays directly overhead as if it's high noon. Nothing ever changes.

And there's something about that. It's different than being up at 29,000 feet on Everest and not being able to breathe and the intensity of going up such a steep pitch or where you could fall and die. There's a different intensity to the mountaineering. But the polar travel is a very lonely, barren experience. Even though I had a couple other partners with me, it's so cold. You're not like shooting the shit. You're not talking to each other while you're out there.

It's straight survival mode. So we're out there dragging 100-plus pound sleds 8, 10, 12 hours a day, getting in our tent, warming up, eating some food, going to sleep and doing it all over again, day after day after day. Um, so that's, uh, it's really intense and it's complete in a completely different way than the mountains. How did you shatter the record? Did you go faster or did, were you better prepared? Was it a weather deal that just happened to be in your favor? Was it all three of those or something else that we're missing? You know, preparation played a significant role. So Jenna and I planned this project for over a year going into it. Um, not only, you know, the logistics of how to get to all of these places, but you know, we couldn't fund this project ourselves. So we had to actually, you know, go get sponsors to raise the money to do

that as well as really implement the charitable principles behind it. So there was a long preparation phase, um, focused on figuring out all those details. And then there was definitely some luck that had to work out in our favor, right? Like the weather had to be pretty decent at certain times, but a lot of things did not go well. The way I think that I was able to set the record by so much was consistency. You know, by being an endurance athlete for so many years, I've realized that it's one thing to do one of these expeditions, push super hard, push to your limit, come off the mountain in any push super hard, push to your limit, come off the mountain and any, you know, in any normal context, you'd go rest for a month or

month, any months after that you run a marathon, you're not going to run a marathon the next day. Most in most cases, this was figuring out how to have that output, but on a consistent basis. So not to have any one of these mountains or poles take so much out of me that I couldn't get on a plane and go to the next one. So I was able to continue to push hard and fast. But on some of the mountains, I climbed the mountains themselves much faster than normal. So for Kilimanjaro, for example, I climbed in 12 hours. It normally takes about six or seven days to climb. So that was an example of doing an expedition quickly.

How? Um, I think two things. One, there's a physiological factor, which is I had just come from Aconcagua, which is 23,000 feet and I was acclimatized. So Kilimanjaro at 19,000 feet after being at nearly 23,000 feet, there's a benefit. If your body isn't so exhausted from the climb and flying from Mendoza, Argentina to Moshi, Tanzania, you know, whatever 40 hour travel day that that was, um, wasn't too much to take too much out of me. So that acclimatization helps and then

fitness and preparation, you know, this is this project, although it maybe looks like a departure from the swimming or the swimming, biking and running that I've done as a professional athlete, it's really not that much different in that it's a massive endurance output. And so this, you know, at 30 years of age doing this was a culmination of decades of endurance training, knowing my body, knowing my mind, knowing my limits, when I could push, when I needed to relax, how to recover quickly. So to me, it really feels like a culmination of a lot of different elements throughout my life. So we think about body technique or the craft part and then mind, which one was your greatest asset? Was it your body and the capacity that you could go? Or was

it your mind? And I think I'm thinking like equalizer, you know, or was it the craft that you're just so proficient in the craft? I doubt that's the one. because I was on Everest with just me and a Sherpa. So it's not as if I was having someone handhold me, but like I'm not a professional mountaineer, right? Like this wasn't what I, the craft side of it hasn't been what I've been honing this whole time. The physical capacity certainly had a massive advantage, but I think that this was even more of a mental challenge than anything in that, in two ways. One, we talk about this sort of idea of mental toughness

or be able to push through or knowing how to push through those limits. And there was a lot of times like that. But the other piece of the mental side, which I think is somewhat underrated when we have these talks about intense endurance events, is keeping track of everything, having a pilot's mentality about the checklist. How's my body doing? Am I getting blisters? How are my fingers feeling? Are they getting frostbit?

Do I need to change the layer? Do I need to take a layer off? Do I need that constant sort of checklist mentality? I'm flying through Kathmandu Airport. I better wash my hands. Is this meal going to make me sick? You know, just kind of like constant hyper-awareness to detail because although, sure, the summit day on Everest was

an epic day. Sure, you know, climbing Denali in 50, 60 mile per hour winds minus 60 wind chills was a massive physical output. Like, none of that would have happened had I not stayed healthy, had I not stayed composed, had I not stayed relaxed through the duration of 139 days. So that mental sort of fortitude to always be switched on, even in the moments where it felt like I didn't need to be, i.e. not on the mountains or in an airport, was just as crucial to the success of this project as anything. You just described all of the different facets of mental, no, stop. All the different facets of a mindset or mental skills, which is to be mentally tough or strong, to be mentally

flexible, to be able to have mental endurance. So you just described all of them. And so if you think about the different types of mental skills and strength, was it that you're mentally tough, mentally strong, mentally resilient, mentally flexible, mentally dynamic? What is the thing mentally? Or is it just a great awareness and you can apply one of those at the right moment in time? I think that the one of at least of those adjectives behind mentally that I like the best, perhaps as an adverb actually, is flexible. I think because I think that encompasses a few of those elements. There certainly is a time in which when you're dragging a sled for 10 hours, you know, to the North or South Pole that you just have to be able to be diligent and tough

and focused and be able to be alone, you know, all of those things, you know, that's a mental toughness kind of thing. But the, we needed to land on the, at the North pole to where we get dropped off. And the ice was actually cracking because, you know, due to climate change where they try to land, they couldn't land it. So for eight days, I was being delayed there and Mount Everest was looming next. And every day I spent at the North Pole, I was at sea level, not acclimatized, and I was losing my acclimatization for those eight or nine days as I'm delayed at the North pole with this whole other piece of the project looming, um, was just as intense as, you know, something that actually happened on the mountain. And I'd be lying to say that I was just totally perfectly composed throughout that whole time. But I do have this sort of mental discipline and determination to sort of trust the process, believe it's going to work out, not wear myself out worrying when it's out of my control. I can't

control cracked sea ice in the Arctic ocean with my mind. So why wear my body and mind out when I can't control it, but be ready the second I do get dropped off, even if it's eight or nine days late to throw it, to throw down and do what needs to be done. The insight there is really rich, right? And so it's, that is about awareness and flexibility and toughness and timing, all of that at play. Do you remember being so exhausted? Like you can't get your gloves off. You can't get your socks off. You can't, you can't tie your boots or untie your boots. Do you remember any of that? Yeah, there's a, there's several, there's several moments there's several moments, but there's one that comes vividly to mind when you ask that question. So I had a summit at Everest on May 19th, and I had come down. Jenna, of course, being so intimately involved in this whole project, we had quite a bit of dialogue most days.

Jenna's the reason we met. Yes. Yeah, it's a fan of the podcast and she, uh, just, just love what you do and thought that, uh, that we should meet. Yeah. Thanks for putting us in this room. It's fun. We're having a good time here. Um, but you know, I called her and she, she ran so much. I mean, I was climbing mountains, but I want to say that I think in a lot of ways, her job was 10 times harder than mine because not only was she worrying about me, but she had all the logistics in play. She was also managing the PR, the media, the school kids, the charitable

raise. I mean, she was wearing 10 hats. We could have used, you know, 10 of her, but we had one of her. Um, so it was pretty, pretty intense, uh, for her. Um, and so I called her and I said, I'm down, I'm back at Everest base camp. I'm safe. And of course she's happy. And then she's like, Oh, I'm great. I'm so proud of you. I love you. Okay. So your flight, um, to Alaska leaves tomorrow. Um, there's going to be a helicopter. You're going to go to Kathmandu. Um, sorry, I can't book you in a hotel that night because your plane actually leaves and you've got a 30-hour flight via Dubai to Seattle and Anchorage because you need to start climbing Denali tomorrow. And I literally said to her, I said, Jenna, it just took me literally, no exaggeration, an hour for me to take my boots off and get in my sleeping bag. You're asking me to go do what?

But at this point, it had become clear that I had a chance at not breaking just one, but two world records. And if we wanted to do that, the time was very tight on that second world record. She's like, you want that second record, right? Do you just want to try? Well, I'm doing what I can on my end. Get your butt on the plane and let's make it happen. Is Jenna tough or is she fun? She is tough would be the last word you'd use to describe Jenna. Um, you know, she,

she knows how to motivate me and push me when, when I need it, but she is a very gentle, kind, uh, uh, person is how I would describe her. So I don't think tough is an adjective that you'd most, most often describe Jenna, but in this case she was giving me a good kick in the pants. And then a couple days after that, so I ended up summiting Denali on May 27th. So just eight days after I summited Everest, including all the travel and whatnot to get there. And I arrived. I finally landed on the glacier in Denali. My climbing partner and I started going up.

He had been on the mountain for a few days preparing some things and getting acclimatized to meet me. So I had different climbing partners throughout the project. And my buddy Tucker, one of my oldest friends was there. And we set up to 14,000 camp, which is sort of halfway up the mountain to always 20,000 feet. And there's a huge storm comes in. So the the ranger station that night said they recorded 80 mile per hour gusts i mean it's pretty brutal and i finally get this like shaking on my tent colin colin are you in there and i'm like yeah like what what's going on i'm trying to sleep they're like you've been asleep for 15 hours your tent is covered in snow and collapsing like what is going and i was like, I thought

it had been 30 minutes and he was waking me up. So I was just, I mean, that's, that's how tired I was. It was like, I was in the worst storm ever in the tiniest little tent. When I found, I actually had to have Tucker dig me out. Cause I was actually buried inside of my own tent. And I just had not a care in the world. Like if he hadn't woke me up, I would have just kept going. You know, I'm so stoked to know you. Like seriously, the spark you have, the brightness you have, the clarity of thought, the duration that you've pushed yourself. I'm just really stoked to know you. Cheers. I appreciate it. Likewise.

Oh yeah. Good. I feel like I want to have Jenna come on this. Yeah, you should. You know, like behind the scenes. She has a very strong insight on this whole project and a really unique perspective on it. So my cousin Mariana was the other person. She wasn't there with us through the whole strategic and building process. But once the project started, she came on board to help us with some other behind the scenes media and stuff. And she was recently just showing me she had filmed Jenna a bunch throughout this project.

Because I would call Jenna from my sat phone or whatnot every single day. But it's a 12-hour different time zone when I'm in Nepal. I'm calling in the middle of the night, any time of day, whatever. And so there's all these video clips of her reaction behind the scenes. And it's so interesting for me to see now because the words that Jenna are saying to me often are what I needed to hear. I was so scared at camp four, getting ready to summit Everest. I called Jenna and I said, I'm really scared. I had already been caught out in one storm. I had to descend. This was my second summit attempt on Everest. And I had said, you know, the weather's

really bad. I think people are going to get severe frostbite out here today. I think people might die out here today. I'm really scared. And she said, you know, despite what she really wanted to say to me, which was like, okay, then go down and get the heck off this mountain. You know, she said to me, I believe in you. You've trained for this. You're ready. People are going to Summit Everest today and there's no reason you can't be one of them. And there's no doubt in my mind, I was crying at this moment and she, you know, that gave me the strength to, to go up and eventually, you know, attain my goal of somebody in that mountain. But wait, no, I can't, my hair standing up, my body shaking, just thinking about this.

Like, yeah, it's a very intense moment. It's really intense. And she absolutely said to me in that moment, I needed to hear from the person who I trust and love most in this whole world. But it's interesting that we also have this footage of her being filmed. And she hangs up the phone and she's starting to talk to my cousin because it's literally 2 o'clock in the morning where they are in Portland talking to me. And she hangs up the phone and there's just fear and dread in her face and anxiety. And so the strength that it takes to tell me and support me in that moment that I needed it is amazing when coupled with the inner sort of intensity that she's going through with sending her loved one, you know, up into this environment. And I was, you know, unfortunately what I had said to her on that, on that phone

call was right. You know, two people did pass away that same day. And there was what I'm told is somewhere between 10 and 20 helicopter rescues, um, the following day of people who had severe frostbite, who had, you know, amputations and things. So it was a day on Everest that a lot of people were on the mountain. And certainly a lot of people did get hurt. I was fortunate to not be one of them. But, you know, I was out there on a day when it was, you know, right on the borderline. I got to meet Jenna. You got to meet Jenna.

You absolutely got to meet Jenna. Okay. All right. So how about this? Pressure comes from? Pressure comes from. You got to give me more than that. If I just stopped there, what would you say?

So the question is, where does pressure come from for you? I think pressure comes from the external. For me, it's external pressures. The things that have pressured me most are, oh, what does the sponsor think? Or what are the outside perceptions of this? Or what are that? I mean, that's for me, it's external. And that's something why this sort of evolution towards this sort of more internal depth for myself. So are they creating the pressure or is the pressure from you about them? I'm letting that external experience dictate the pressure for me.

There you go. Okay. And then, so when I hear you talk about that, it sounds to me like pressure comes from internal, like those things out there are happening. I'm internalizing the external experiences. Okay.

There you go. Yeah. All right. It all comes down to? Perseverance. Just the first thing that pops up. It's like a Rorschach. Is that what it's called?

Rorschach? Rorschach? Something like that. You know, the inkblots, whatever. It's been a while since I've done any of this psychoanalysis studies. Okay. What's the next thing? Oh, if there was a moment in time I could change, it would be?

Man, these, I'm like stumped here. If there was a moment in time I could change, it would be, honestly, I'm drawing a blank on that one. I apologize. Could it be that you don't, like you, you've embraced everything and that's not even a thought or a question that you would think about? because it's led me onto the path where I am. And the path where I am, I have literally physical scars in my leg. I have internal scars through many trials and tribulations through my life. I've had ups and downs with families and relationships and all that sort of stuff. But the vantage point that I'm standing in right now, I feel pretty good. And I guess the smattering of all those ups and downs have brought me to where I am. So it's hard to regret a single

moment that has gotten me here. Where do we see you in the next five or 10 years? Where do you see yourself in the next five or 10 years? I think adventure and passion and exploration are always going to be a huge part of my life. I'm trying to figure out right now what context that's in. Is that another expedition? Is that a return to professional sports? Or is that is that, you know, continuing definitely one of the hugest things for me is continuing my outreach and charitable work. That's a massive focus for me, uh, in the near future and hopefully further on. Um, but when I, I asked myself that question, I also look back, I also look back 10 years when I asked myself that question. And 10 years ago, I was just graduating from college, grabbing that surfboard

and a backpack to go travel around the world and look at all the things that have happened since then. So to project 10 years in the future, I feel is almost unfair given, given looking back on how much has happened then. So I asked a professional surfer, one of the best in the world, this question, like, what would you want to ask another master of craft? And he said his response or his question that he would want to ask, and I want to pass this on to you, was what do you do to prepare yourself for the challenges that you know you're going to face? How would you answer that? You know, I really, although I internalize a lot of things, I do draw strength from the close people around me.

And Jenna Hoffman, there's no way to tell this story without telling Jenna into the whole story we've had here, the whole conversation. Because she really is this beautiful complement to me in that we're very, very different from one another. But the way that I prepare myself oftentimes before these things is to have a long form conversation, a dialogue, a breaking down of the pros and cons, the expectations, and almost preparing for things. It's almost a verbal visualization of the pathway towards what might happen. And if you were to ask, if I could carry your question to another master of craft, what, what would be the question you would want to ask somebody that is clearly on the path of mastery or maybe have demonstrated for a long time? One of the things that I'm often curious about, about high performers is do you consider yourself to be a high performer? Because almost hearing you say

that to me, as in you're making, by saying that, you're making the statement that you consider me a master of craft. And I appreciate that. That's an amazing compliment. But for me, it's a continual process. Even having literally sitting here three weeks ago put my hands in the air say oh i just set two world records i'm the greatest at this one you know climbing thing now um it's still a process for me so i'm always curious to know does lebron james go to bed at night and think i am the greatest basketball player in the world or does he think you know i've had he probably does i mean and he rightfully should at this point i suppose you know but you know what i'm saying like is he really just is he just is he saying that you know yeah i know that you know pete

carroll is somebody you guys have had on this podcast someone you work closely with you know after four years of college football coaching at usc where they didn't lose a single game or whatever you know whatever ridiculous stats that was I'm getting it probably slightly wrong, but incredible legacy. Does he just sit there and just go home at night and go like, ah, I've just got it figured out. I know how to recruit. I know how to have the best athletes. I have an amazing program. He's go, man, that was tough. I can't believe we did it again, but oh, it's going to be, you know, is it a continual process? So for me, it's almost that feeling of disbelief in my own achievements, even though that's reflected back to me oftentimes differently.

So I would ask the master of craft, in your own words, would you define yourself the same way? It's very cool. I can tell you, I've asked that question to so many people, and that struggle that you just struggled with right now is how they reflect on it as well. So I just had a conversation this morning with Lee Clow and he is the advertising genius behind the Apple's advertising campaign and their entire marketing strategies. Most notably, the Think Different campaign, which you'll probably remember.

Incredible, right? Yeah, it was life-changing when I first watched it for me, literally. And so I had a conversation with him about Mastery and he basically said, I don't think it exists. He goes, I'm still trying to figure it out. And he's like, he's the guy.

Right, yeah, exactly. He invented Think Different. That's insane. I know, yeah. And then the first thing he does the guy. Right. Yeah, exactly. He invented think different. That's insane. I know. Yeah. And then the first thing he does is point to the people on the team that helped create it. Yeah.

You know, and then he points to Steve Jobs and he points to his wife. And, you know, so you have many of those same attributes and interests in the way that you've been describing things as well. So where can people find out more about you and your, um, your efforts and where can we, where can we keep tabs? Yeah. Yeah. Please, please follow along. Uh, our project, we named our project beyond seven to, uh, seven peaks to two poles, but the sort of aspirational idea that this was not just the one thing, but to go beyond, beyond, beyond your own personal limits. So beyond seven, two.com is the website. I live blogged. I live tweeted. I did everything I possibly could throughout this time.

So there's a ton of content on there. Videos released. If you want to see what the summit of Mount Everest looks like, I was actually the first person to ever Snapchat from the summit of Everest. I love it. So we're big on social, at beyond underscore 72. Check it out. You'll see a cool Instagram feed of all the photos, but certainly all the things we do in the future as well. So yeah, at Beyond72 on social, at BeyondUnderscore72, excuse me, on social or Beyond72.com. And then on our website,

there's a big donate button there. We're in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. All of that money that we're raising goes directly to the kids, directly to the programs. It's nothing for my climbing or any of my other stuff. It's just directly for that. And we're trying to reach a million dollar fundraising goals. And if you believe in the importance of getting our kids outside and active, you know, the donation contribution in any small or large amount is greatly appreciated. So beyond72.com, please check it out for cool pics and information on the charity. Yeah. And I'll, as a thank you, you know, I'll put my money where my mouth is and go on the charity. Yeah, and I'll, as a thank you, I'll put my money where my mouth is and go on right away to do so.

And I'll also want to encourage people listening to do the same, to be part of, if this speaks to you, I should say. And most of us are so fortunate in our lives and we're not born into conditions that make it near impossible to move from. And so we're afforded so much and given so much that I want to encourage people listening right now, if this conversation touches you and

the ability that you have to be able to make the next generation, give them the baton just a little bit earlier or a little bit more timely that reach into your pocket and help out there. So Colin, I want to thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. It's a great pleasure. Yeah, it's awesome. So those still listening, I want to thank you at some point. You know, this has been such a joy that I've been able to have these conversations with smart, intelligent, kind people that I'm hoping to be able to just distill this and move it out from the podcast into other forms. So that's coming soon. And then, um, iTunes, uh, thank you for writing the reviews. That's helps, uh, boost our attention and, and,

and whatnot. And then also Instagram is at Michael Gervais and Twitter is what is our Twitter handle? Um, Oh no. Instagram is at finding mastery. and then Twitter is at Michael Gervais. You can also find us at Facebook forward slash finding mastery and then, um, finding mastery.net again, Colin. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us.

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