Good Life Project - Colin O'Brady | The Power of Quests (and how to mount yours)

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

So, what would make someone strap a sled loaded with 375 pounds of food and supplies onto their body, then drag it across a stormy, windswept, frozen landmass at the bottom of the earth for 54 days in brutal subzero temperatures, just to say they did it? What might the average person - meaning you and me - who has little to no interest in doing anything remotely so extreme, learn from this experience that would translate into our ability to live better lives, in far less brutal environments, every day? And, how might committing to a more accessible, single-day of challenge, radically change our perspective on all parts of life?These are the questions I had, and the topics we explore with today’s guest, ten-time world record-breaking explorer, speaker, entrepreneur, and expert on mindset, Colin O’Brady. His feats include the world’s first solo, unsupported, and fully human-powered crossing of Antarctica, speed records for the Explorers Grand Slam and the Seven Summits, and the first human-powered, 700-mile ocean row across Drake Passage, maybe the most dangerous and brutal body of frigid, wave-stream ocean that spans South America to Antarctica. Colin’s highly publicized expeditions have been followed by millions and his work has been featured by The New York Times, The Tonight Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, and The Today Show. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Impossible First and now The 12-Hour Walk: Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life.But, what got me so curious, was how preparing for and then mounting these extreme, physically-grueling challenges, was actually as much, if not more about the mind as it was about the body. And, I wanted to know, beyond why anyone would do these things, how they changed him, as a human being, what we all might learn from this and how we might create more accessible, yet transformative versions in our own lives, and experience the powerful benefits that come from them? And, as part of that, we talk about an interesting invitation he’s created to say yes to what he calls The 12-Hour Walk.You can find Colin at: Website | The 12-Hour Walk | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rich Roll about the interplay between body and mind and how we can use each as a lever to evolve the other.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.ClickUp: 15% Off. Code GOODLIFEZocdoc Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's this concept that I love that I call a possible mindset. I describe it as an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. I find myself in these inflection points, someone just being like, just let yourself dream. Just let yourself dream. Like, just go like reckless abandon. Like, forget about all the limiting beliefs and why this might not work or that might not work or you can't do this, you can't do that.

Just dream for a second. Okay, so riddle me this. What would make somebody strap a sled loaded with 375 pounds of food and supplies onto their body, then drag it across a stormy, windswept, frozen landmass at the bottom of the earth for 54 days in brutal sub-zero temperatures just to say they did it. Well, what might the average person, meaning you and me, who has little or no interest in doing anything remotely that extreme, what might we learn from this experience that would translate into our ability to live better lives in far less brutal environments on a day-to-day basis? And how might committing to a more accessible single-day challenge radically change our perspective in all parts of life?

Well, these are the questions that I had and the topics we explore with today's guest, 10-time world record-breaking explorer, speaker, entrepreneur, and expert on mindset, Colin O'Brady. So his feats include the world's first solo, unsupported, fully human-powered crossing of Antarctica, speed records for the legendary explorer's Grand Slam and the Seven Summits, and the first human-powered, meaning just rowing with your body, 700-mile ocean row across Drake Passage, which is maybe the most dangerous and brutal body of frigid, really rough ocean that spans from South America to Antarctica. In Colin's highly publicized expeditions, they have been followed by millions and his work has

been featured by the New York Times, Tonight Show, the Today Show, and so many others. He's the author of New York Times best seller, The Impossible First, and now The 12-Hour Walk. Invest one day, conquer your mind, and unlock your best life. But what got me so curious was how preparing for and then mounting these extreme, physically grueling challenges was actually as much, if not more about the mind as it was about the body. And I wanted to know beyond why anyone would do these things, how they changed him as a human being and what we all might learn from this and how we might create more accessible yet transformative versions in our own lives and experience the powerful benefits that come with them. And as part of that, we also talk about his latest invitation, a really fascinating challenge

to say yes to what he calls the 12-hour walk. So excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes the apple watch series 10 available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum compared to previous generations iphone 10s are later required charge time and actual results will vary mayday mayday we've been compromised the pilot's a hitman i knew you were gonna be fun on january 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.

Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. Fascinated. Fascinated by you. Fascinated by so many decisions that you make in addition to these incredible feats of mind-body accomplishment, these quests that have seemed to consume so many of your waking hours for a number of years now. I'm also really deeply curious about the intellectual side, the emotional side, the psychological and even potentially spiritual side of what you seem to consistently say yes to. I think an interesting diving in point for us, I mean, you have this intensive history as an ultra endurance athlete, triathlete,

performing at the most elite levels. And then a chunk of years back, you make this really fascinating decision to say, okay, I'm going to go into the world of exploring, of expeditioning, of mountaineering, taking the extreme to the, what I would kind of consider taking the extreme to the extreme. And I'm always curious, you know, about those moments that where somebody who's performing at what from the outside looking in, so many would perceive as the sort of quote top of, of the game and top of an entire field, you know, and then what happens when a switch flips internally that says there's still something different or more. I'm curious about that sort of like inflection moment for you. Yeah.

It's an interesting moment. Yeah. Contextualizing that, you know, had been racing triathlon for about five or six years professionally, you know, kind of the goal of way of getting badly burned this fire being told I'd never walk again normally so there's a whole story into that but that inflection point between this triathlon chapter of my life and expeditioning it's a very astute question to open this with because in the moment a lot of people had the same question like wait what are you talking about like you're a professional athlete you have like sponsors you have a way to write you know the thing you know I'd figured that part out of it. And it's not glamorous, like the NBA or the NFL,

but you know, I could make it work. I could, you know, provide for myself and keep racing. And I was in my late twenties at this point, usually professional triathletes, there's a shelf life, you know, well into mid to late thirties. There was a kind of a long, longer, it wasn't like the end of my career. Like my body wasn't certainly not failing me at that point. Interestingly enough, that inflection point comes with an engagement. I'm, uh, end up finding myself on a mountaintop in Ecuador with the diamond ring in my pocket, asking my now wife, then longtime girlfriend, Jenna to marry me. We've been together for almost 15 years now. And you, uh, you mentioned to me before that you're sitting in the Berkshires today. She's,

she's from there. So, uh, you're, you're right near her hometown right now, which is great. But we're literally on this mountaintop and there's this concept that I love that I call a possible mindset, something I'm instilled in me. My mother's instilled it in me. That's what I call it now. I didn't always call it that when I was growing up, but I describe it as an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. I find myself in these inflection points, someone just being like, just let yourself dream. Just let yourself dream. Like, just go like reckless abandon. Like, forget about all the limiting beliefs and why this might not work or that might not work, or you can't do this, you can't do that. Just dream for a second. And in this mountaintop moment, maybe it's just the naivete of two, you know, recently engaged

people. Jen and I just dreamed as broadly as we possibly could. And the two kind of big take-homes from this limitless possible mindset brainstorm was I tapped back into this childlike curiosity of wanting to climb Mount Everest. I was like, my whole life since I was a kid, like since I can remember, I always wanted to climb Mount Everest. Like I was just curious about it since, I don't know,

I was a young teenager when I read John Krakauer's Into Thin Air, which strangely enough, it's about people dying on Everest, but it lit my curiosity in some strange masochistic way. And I kind of fixated on this idea. There's this thing called the Explorer's Grand Slam. So that's to climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, seven tummets, as well as go to the North and South Pole. And I had done some research on it, just messing around before, and I realized fewer than 50 people had and South pole. And I had, I'd done some research on it, just, you know, messing around before. And I'd realized fewer than 50 people had ever done it. And I thought maybe I could set the world record for that.

Meaning completing those things in faster time than anyone's done. Usually people take 10 years. I was like, can I do it in four months? So in this moment, we're on this mountaintop, we're dreaming about all this stuff. And the other thing in my triathlon career that had been very true for both Jen and I, she'd been a big part of that phase of my life as well. Traveling around the world, supporting me in that way was that there lacked a level of impact. Like we didn't feel like whether I won or lost a triathlon race, it was like maybe a sponsor was

happy or, you know, my coach was happy or something like that. But like, there wasn't really much like breadth beyond that. And so in this possible, it was like, I want to climb Everest, explore Grand Slam, but what would be the coolest thing is to live a life of doing what drives us passionately, expressing ourselves in the world, climbing these mountains, et cetera. But in a way that has sweeping impact. And Jen and I have been always really passionate about inspiring young people, particularly around health and wellness, mental health. So it was like, could we start a nonprofit to like inspire, you know, kids and, you know, families and stuff to take on their own efforts, climb their own mountains, you know, figuratively speaking. And the most important moment of this entire thing is not actually on this mountaintop. The most important moment is two weeks later, we're done with our engagement trip. We're back in our one bedroom apartment in

Portland, Oregon. And this is where most good ideas are these inflection moments I found, you know, just anecdotally, this is where they die because we're sitting in our one bedroom apartment like, wait, so we ran the numbers on that. That project is going to cost a half a million dollars

and we've got like a few thousand bucks we're struggling to make and paying our rent. Like, what the hell are we talking about? I'm like, what do we know about nonprofits? Like, there's all these like government rules and paperwork and you need a lawyer and like, this is like too much.

That is the moment. That is, we all know that moment. That's the moment when you drink beers with your buddy on a Saturday night and talk about how you're going to run a marathon next year. And you wake up hungover on Monday morning and you're like, yeah, about that. Yeah. We were just talking shit at the bar. Right. So anyways, this, this moment could have so easily passed us by, but instead we said, what, what are the few resources we have? We've got internet connection. We've got Google. We've got a handful of friends. Can we like ask people some questions about stuff? And it's too long of a story to tell the whole thing, but basically for the next 18 months, we just were like, no, we're going to figure this out.

We're going to figure this out. Thousands of people said, no thousands of people. So you never even really climbed mountains. What the hell are you talking about climbing Everest and Denali? And it's just never going to work. But that possible mindset kept driving us forward. And ultimately, I sit here very humbly with 10 world records, several things that no one in history has ever done. But candidly, I'm pretty, I'm not, I wasn't old at the time, but I was roughly 30 years old, late 20s, early 30s. And I hadn't really even embarked on this skill acquisition yet. Like I wasn't old at the time, but I was roughly 30 years old, late 20s, early 30s. And I hadn't really even embarked on this skill acquisition yet. I wasn't a polar explorer. I wasn't an elite mountaineer.

But I did believe there was something through that triathlon experience, through mindset, through that, that I could apply moving forward. And also proud to say that we've had over a million students enrolled in various capacities in our programs for a nonprofit over time. But it started from like nothing, like just completely nothing and a belief that maybe there were limitless possibilities and we could somehow figure it out. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting, right? Because so many times you hear this phrase, stay in your lane and in so many different domains of life, you know, like whether if you're an artist or like even within the arts, like, oh, you're a painter. Oh, you're an, you paint this with this medium. People are like, and you're getting good. You develop a level of skill, a level of craft,

a level of accomplishment, maybe even a client base or a following or people where you're able to make it all work, which is kind of like where you were in the triathlon world. You had figured out all the complex moving pieces and you're able to make it work. And then the guidance there is basically just like ride it out for as long as you can. Like don't try and go too far left or too far right because you got a good thing going here and you got a good thing that a lot of people from the outside looking in would love to have like on that same level. So just keep on keeping on because it's pretty awesome and it looks like you're doing pretty well. And I'm always fascinated when somebody looks at that and says,

yes, and it's still not enough. There's something more out there. And then what is that thing? And then like you said, there's that early visioning part where you realize there's that other thing. And then there's that two week later conversation where you're like, oh, now we have to actually talk about practically how this happened. And that is the point where I feel like so many really big dreams go to die. You know, it's that, it's that moment, like a couple of weeks later where it's just like, oh yeah, it was like a really nice thought, but. We were caught up in a little love bubble, whatever.

But I love what you say. I mean, identity, identity is, is, is so important. Like you said, I love, you said, I'm a painter. So I, in my new book, the 12 hour walk, it's really about inspiring people to overcoming these limiting beliefs. And that's core is this, you know, core call to action, which we'll, I'm sure we'll talk about in this conversation. Cause I'm so excited about spreading that message. But chapter four of the book, each one of the chapters is about a core limiting belief. And actually you hit very nail on the head because it's so common. The chapter four, actually the subtitle of the chapter is limiting belief. I am not a fill in the blank, right? It's all the things that you're not like, we know that feeling. It's like, well, he's a

painter. Like he's the mathematician. I'm not creative. I'm not a runner. I'm not at this, like whatever. And I share a story in that from, from the book, which is after crossing Antarctica solo and received a lot of acclaim and fanfare and all this in the media, lots, you know, articles and TV and all this stuff up. You're very interested in it. But the funny thing, after you do something big like that, I always, I always laugh at this. Like you're having, I'm not even home for a week and I'm like, so what's next? Like, so what's next? You know, it's like, oh, it's like, so what's next? And, you know, I had this massive success in the world of polar exploration, this thing that no

one had ever done before. And I said, I started saying to people, well, I think I'm going to go back to Antarctica. And people were like, oh, that makes sense. Like you're the polar explorer guy now, like you're going to go back to Antarctica and pull your sled across from a different direction or like do whatever that is. And I said, no, actually, I'm going to go back to Antarctica in a rowboat. I am, my next goal is to row a boat across Drake passage, which is the most dangerous ocean crossing in the entire world. So that's from the Southern tip of South America to Antarctica. It couldn't be more different. Although the word Antarctica exists in both of these expeditions, it couldn't be any further different than pulling a 375 pound sled by myself for 54 days through the

interior, like I had done the year previous. And that was met with some general excitement, excitement enough that even the Discovery Channel greenlit a multimillion dollar feature length documentary about the impossible row of the call on the Explorer is going to go back and like row this boat across, you know, the treacherous, you know, when history has ever done this, you know, it's the next world first expedition. And then I had to tell them, Discovery Channel, all the people in my life, people like, but I didn't realize you were such a good rower that you've spent so much time in the ocean and seafaring your whole life. And, you know, you're really immersed in, wow, I just didn't know that about you. That's so cool that

you have that skill. And I was like, I have never rode a boat anywhere in my life ever, ever. Like, what do you mean? So you're doing the Drake Passage in five years, ever, ever. Like, what do you mean? So you're doing the Drake Passage in five years? No, I'm signed up to do it in three months, three months. And the key of that in the story that I tell, which is very self-deprecating story of me literally falling flat on my face the first time I'm in a tiny little rowboat

on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, like literally a rowing coach trying to teach me how to take the most basic of strokes. It's like teaching a kid with training wheels how to ride a bike. That's me in a rowboat. And at that point in my life, but after I've set the goal, because the difference is Carol Dweck does an incredible job, you know, describing growth mindset. You know, this is a, this is that core concept, right. Of, you know, what are you, what are you not in this moment? But I like to say, you just add one word to it. I'm not a rower

yet. I'm not an entrepreneur yet. I haven't started a nonprofit yet. You put that yet there, it opens again, that door to that possible mindset, that limitless possibility that goes like, okay. And even in the book, in the 12-hour walk, I remind the reader, I'm like, look, it's so easy. We all experience imposter syndrome. I've experienced it plenty in my own life. You walk into a room of people that, you know, they've all got it all figured out because they're doing their thing. It's great. And it's like, I always remind myself, you know, Kobe Bryant, there was a time when Kobe Bryant dribbled a basketball for the first time. Like there was a time when Stephen King sat down, you know, with a blank, you know, word document or a piece of paper and like wrote the first sentences of his first novel. Yeah. He has 64 bestselling novels now, like Meryl Streep had

to try out for her school play at some point, you know, like, and, and maybe in those instances, those came in younger childhood, but that doesn't stop you from any point in your life being, I'm not a blank yet, because if you don't put the yet on there, then you're never going to become that, right? That that's where you limit yourself. That's the limiting belief of, well, I could never row a boat across straight passage. Cause I didn't spend the last 25 years of my life, like rowing a boat. And it's like, yeah, but you spent your last 25 years doing something for me. It was building my mind, building my body, knowing how to, you know, exist in harsh, you know, situations. And I was like, I could learn the rowing part. And sure enough, you know,

spoiler alert. I did. I made it across Drake Passage, which was one of the more epic, crazy, uncomfortable, challenging adventures of my life. There was times I regretted, you know, doing that, but no, it was incredible in the end. But the point being, like you said, that identity, we can be so locked into our identity,

particularly as we approach, you know, adulthood into middle age of like, I am this. So therefore I am not that. And that limits us so vastly. And this, so therefore I am not that. And that limits us so vastly. And so I really encourage people to rethink that. ever making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple watch getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple watch series 10 available for the first time in glossy jet black

aluminum compared to previous generations, iPhone tennis or later required charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk.

You know, there's this counterintuitive element to it, right? Which is that oftentimes we feel like, well, we explore another identity or something really So then there's enough pain in living in that space that we're kind of like, all right, I'm going to actually shake things up and try something entirely different. But there's the other side of it, which is that actually extraordinary levels of success in one particular domain can create that same sense of being tied, being like deeply tethered to this one way to be in the world, this one sense of identity or expression, which is a little bit less intuitive, I think, because you kind of think, well, you know, the only way that you reach that level of success is if that is fundamentally who you are. And so everything should be good, but you know, it can stop you from continuous sense of exploration,

just sort of like, but differently in a different context. I want to dive into some of the ideas that you share in the book. And of course, I'm kind of deeply fascinated by this notion of a personal quest in the form of a 12 hour walk. But before we get there, let's fill in a little bit more of your journey. Because so you make this journey. And as you said, you move into the world of exploring and expeditioning. You check these classic boxes, the Explorer's Grand Slam, the Seven Peaks in

Lake Antarctica and the Arctic and the 50 high points, these things that are considered these Herculean things in the world of exploring, and you're kind of barreling through them. And then there are these two quests that you just shared. One is to literally traverse Antarctica and then the Drake Passage. And each one of these alone are sort of these stunning feats. And I'd love for you to share a bit more about what the experience was, especially the Antarctic thing, because this was, and this actually became the source of some controversy after, right? Because, you know, you do this incredible thing and you make it crystal clear that, you know, I have just crossed the landmass here and I've done it

in a way that is, what are the two different descriptors? Unassisted and- Unsupported. And it's unaided or human powered. So unsupported means no resupplies of food or fuel. So it means when you get dropped off, you're self-contained. Like there's not like a shipment or container of food that you can meet on day 30 to resupply your sleds, which means like your sleds can be incredibly heavy, which is a, it's just throwback. It's a throwback to the early days of polar exploration, because of course, a hundred years ago, there was no guy that could like, drop you off some extra food. If you ran out like Shackleton, these guys, they were out there. And then the other category, um, it's an important distinction

is human powered or also sometimes referred to as unaided. So no use of kites or dogs or anything else to propel you, meaning you're mono e mono what's called in the polar world, man hauling, man hauling. It's like very manly word, man hauling a sled, or as called in the polar world, manhauling. Manhauling is a very manly word. Manhauling a sled, or as the British like to say, sledge across the entire landmass of Antarctica. So that was what I was setting out to do. Yeah. So when you get there, and you had ticked off some pretty impressive things, as you made the shift into the world of expeditioning before then.

But when you literally land, and the the last person leaves and it's just you with a 300 pound sled, knowing that, you know, some 50 or 60 days, hopefully if you survive this thing, you're going to get to the other side in those very first moments. I'm curious what's going through your mind. Yeah. I mean, it's a wild experience. You know, I'll be the first in that this was, this was wild. You know. I was very vocal about this going in. I had done one previous, a part of the Explorers Grand Slam. I'd done a one very short expedition to the South Pole, 60 miles. It's called the Last Degree of Latitude.

It's part of the Explorers Grand Slam. I'd spent a tiny bit of time in Antarctica before. There are people who have made an entire life of exploring the polar regions. You know, people have spent, you know, 20, 30 years, you know, down there, they've guided, they've done big projects, whatever. And here I am raising my hand saying, I'm going to attempt this project that no one in history has ever completed. And it had, it wasn't just this random thing that no one had tried.

And in 2015, one of the hugely celebrated polar explorer, Henry Worsley, a British guy, he was out there for 71 days attempting a similar project, and ultimately he fell ill on day 71, less than 100 miles from completing this crossing and died. And another guy by the name of Ben Saunders, hugely impressive guy, someone who I've looked up to for a very long time. He has some of the best polar records both in the North and South Pole. He attempted this crossing and ended up 50-some days into it, ran out of food and fuel and had

to be evacuated. And so people were like, yo, this thing's impossible. Not only is it impossible, like the best guys have tried it. Like it hasn't worked out. And then I raised my hand like, well, I'm going to, I'm going to give this a shot. And certainly there was a, you know, some just eye rolls that like, oh, this guy's going to last 10 days and get pulled out of here. I don't think I was overconfident. I literally like the highest reverence for Antarctica, but I, my wife and I, we actually named our project, that project, the impossible first, my wife, Jenna, she works in all the details and logistics and not just emotional support, but it's in the, there's so many

details for a project like this, you know, year plus of training and planning and stuff. We called it the impossible first. Cause we thought, you know, this thing might be impossible, but like, it's worth trying. If we fail on day 30, 40, 50, like we'll have like tried it. We'll have pushed the edges of my own limits and you know, who knows, maybe we pull it off. So as we're, as I'm getting ready to fly down there to, I just taken an interview with the New York times and said, you know, I'm attempting this thing. I aim to be the first, whatever. Unbeknownst to me, there's another guy, a British explorer, who has just in parallel basically done the same thing. He has just taken an interview with the Telegraph in London and said, I'm going to be the first guy to cross Antarctica solo, unsupported and human powered. We both didn't know about each other until about this moment, this week before. So more or less of departing. And we're like, wait, we both were planning for a

race of history, not a head to head race. And when I say the same time, there's one guy with one plane that has a logistics that didn't take you to the edge of the landmass. And there's only one season, which is the Antarctic summer, which don't get, don't get surprised by the word summer. It's still minus 30, minus 40. It's not minus a hundred like it which is the Antarctic summer, which don't get surprised by the word summer. It's still minus 30, minus 40. It's not minus 100 like it is in the Antarctic winter, but minus 40, it's so ridiculously cold. So we both call the same guy. And so before we know it, Captain Lewis Rudd, this badass military, special forces British guy, him and I are shoulder to shoulder in a tiny little cargo plane being flown to the edge of the frozen continent to now start what is not just a race against history, but a true head to head thousand mile race. Your original question was, how do I feel this moment?

I felt incredibly intimidated. Like, talk about imposter syndrome. We were just talking about before. Like, I was like, there's like one thing to dream it up and want to believe in yourself and train and, you know, convince, you know, sponsors and get the details all ordered. And now I'm sitting there going like, oh shit, like I have to like try this thing now. Like this is, and I'm trying to shake it off. Like I've got these videos of me at the beginning. So Lou and I, we decide, we make a gentleman's agreement.

We say us standing right next to each other feels like that would be like a lot when we start. So like, why don't we just start one mile apart from each other, but equidistant, you know, to the, to where we're headed. And we both agree to that totally fair. And so the plane lands on the, on the sea ice. I jump out with my sled, 375 pounds of food and fuel and gear. And then the plane doesn't even take off. It actually just drives about a few minutes. And I see Captain Lou, like jump off and we wave at each other and we're like, that's it. A thousand mile race, several months, like ready, go. And I said, I have these funny GoPro videos, like, cause I was trying to document, you know, this thing for myself. And I say something, you know,

I try to say something profound, like, Oh, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Here I go to begin this or whatever, trying to stay positive. Meanwhile, you know, minus 30 degrees freeze in my face, whatever. And I try to pull my sled and I can barely move it. Like literally like I can move it like 10 steps and I'm like fully out of breath. It's 375 pounds. And the reason it's so heavy is because of this food that I need in there. And even at 375 pounds, people are like, that's crazy. That must've been so much food. I had enough for about 55, 60 days, maximum of food in my sled, which didn't really seem like enough days anyways. And only 7,000 calories. I say only 7,000 calories sounds like, well, that's the insane amount of food per day. My body was from day one burning 10,000 plus calories. So which meant like I understandably was going into a 3000

calorie deficit. That's more calories than most people eat in a single day anywhere consuming a single day. I'm burning 3000 calories on a deficit. So I'm going to lose tons of weight, which I did out there. So I try pulling this sled and I just can't move it, man. Like I'm two hours in and I've moved, like, I don't know what it, man. Like I'm two hours in and I've moved, like, I don't know what it is, like a half a mile, maybe of like struggling. And I just break down. I just fully, fully break down. I start crying. I start sobbing out there. And if you want to know the most, like probably pathetic feeling in the entire world, it's when you start crying in Antarctica, it's so cold. It turns out that the tears, they actually freeze to your face, which is like, just, I mean, gosh, that was not a great feeling on that day.

And I think to myself, okay, well, misery loves company. Lou must be struggling too. It's the first day our sleds are heavy, whatever. So I finally glance over in the direction where I expect to see him. And I'm thinking he must be struggling. And all I see is this military man in full March disappearing over the horizon, just like gone. He's not struggling at all. And he has just immediately kicked my ass right out of the gate and I'm just defeated. And so I call my wife. I call my wife. I have a satellite phone and Jenna answers and she's like, is everything okay? Why are you calling me? Like what, you know, what's going on? Cause she knows I've just started. And I said, well, babe, you know, I think, um, we named our project the right thing. She's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, yeah, it, uh, it definitely appears that this is impossible. She's like, what? Like you've been

out there for two hours. What are you talking about? I'm like, I can't, I basically can't seem to pull my sled. And, you know, fortunately she did encourage me to just make it a little bit further, set up my tent, get inside my tent that night. And she was like, just reset. It's your first day. Like, you know, you just got to adjust to the environment, all kinds of stuff. And she did one thing she did say to me, which I take with me throughout life is she was like, I don't think you're going to have to quit. I don't, you're not a failure, but I was like feeling so down on myself. But she was like, you're out there. Like you're actually in Antarctica right now. And her point in saying that was like, you know, how many people like dream up shit that they're going to do one day or talk about it forever.

And like, she's like, maybe you'll get to the other side. Maybe you won't, but like, be proud of yourself. Like you are actually there. Like no one can take even day one away from me. The fact that you would have the audacity to try this. And that, that encouraged me enough to like set up my tent, try to gather myself. And as I wake up that next morning, I feel like my tent is full. Like who's in that tent with me? So I laugh like, no, Captain Lou did not come back and take pity on me. He was long gone, but I'm ultimately inside of that tent with every negative version of myself. Like, I feel like I'm in there staring at the five version of myself, just beating myself up. You're an idiot. You told the New York times you were going to do this. Like you can even make it a day. You're going to have to quit. You're such a failure. I mean,

just this all beating up. We know, we all know this negative self-talk. And that was just, I was just destroying all any confidence that I had because it was so hard in this moment. But I am a big believer that we are the stories that we tell ourselves. We are the stories that we tell ourselves. In this moment, I was telling myself this horrible story. And so I'd never done this before. I love mantras, but I've never done this before. I stood up to try to just cut through the noise and negativity of my own brain. And I yelled as loud as I could at the top of my lungs outside in Antarctica, Colin, you are strong. You are capable. I just kept yelling that you're strong. You are capable. And I know I wish I could say that that just like

made the rest of the expedition easy and all of a sudden it didn't, but it did, you know, 1% or 2% start to rewrite that narrative. And in this book, The 12-Hour Walk, I share some of these stories, different ones than this, but I share all sorts of stories from exploration. And it really comes back to mindset. The subtitle is 12-Hour Walk, which we'll talk about what that actually is and how that applies to people directly in this quest, as you mentioned. But invest one day, conquer your mind and unlock your best life. I think so much of our pursuits, and I asked this question, what's your Everest? in an easy, you know, simple metaphor for what is your passion? What is your pursuit? What's your goal? What's your why in this world? It doesn't have to be a mountain. Certainly it can

be anything. Entrepreneurship, love, creativity, a podcast, a book, marriage, you know, whatever, family, doesn't matter. But realizing that to get there, the biggest setbacks often we're going to face our own limiting beliefs, our own negative self-talks, your own sitting in your proverbial tent, beating yourself up for all the bad things that you are and looking the worst versions of yourself and realizing we have an ability to shift in our own self. And there's tools and the book provides some of that, but in our own self from this mindset of limiting beliefs, this mindset of I'm not a rower, I'm not a polar explorer, I'm not a painter, I'm not a this, to this mindset of abundance, this mindset of

limitless possibilities, this possible mindset that says, I can go one step further. I can explore one inch further. What's behind that corner? Let me keep trying something. And that to me, you know, it sums up in a lot of ways, Antarctica, we could talk about many more stories from Antarctica, but you know, that kept me going. That kept pushing me forward. And ultimately I did catch up to Mr. Captain Lou and pass him and make it to the other side first. Yeah. Some 54 days later with basically no food left on your sled. Right. And the ribs sticking out, hip bones sticking out, frostbite on my face. There's a lot of licks, ups and downs. There's no doubt about that to get to the other side. Yeah. Right. It's not like every day just got better and better. It's like there were just like, there was challenge after challenge. So there's a, you know, what's interesting to me

is there's a huge amount of suffering that you're saying yes to. So on the one hand, you're saying yes to like accomplishing this massive thing and proving something to yourself, you know, like choosing something that feels impossible and saying like at the end of that, like I did it. But on the other hand, like what you're consciously saying yes to is also knowing that along the way, when you choose something so big and so deeply meaningful, where the stakes are generally high. And that's going to be different for everybody. Like for you, the stakes were literally life and death.

It wasn't just sort of like challenging and trying to accomplish something, but literally like you were putting your life on the line that as you described, the people had tried this before and not survived. So you're saying yes to a pretty high level of sustained suffering. When you go into that, whether it's conscious or not, and as much as there's physical training, that's a part of this. And like the Drake passage where you talked about rowing like 700 miles in this roughest season in the world, you're saying yes to the quest, you're saying yes to the trying to accomplish it, but you're saying yes to a lot of pain, a lot of suffering and where the stakes are really high.

And I think sometimes our impulse with something like this is to say, well, how can I say yes to this? How can I try and say yes to a quest where it's going to give me that feeling that I want at the end, if I actually succeed, but make it more manageable, lower the stakes, less risky and something like that. And I feel like there's a moment where there's a tipping point where if you go below a certain threshold, you have now disempowered the fundamental nature of what you're saying yes to on a level where even if you accomplish this thing at the end of it, you've taken away what makes it really matter. And you're not going to feel the way that you thought or hoped you would feel at the end of it. And yet we constantly do this dance of trying to navigate the doability, like trying to build ease into the process

because we think it'll make it more comfortable and more likely we'll succeed at it without realizing that it may fundamentally take away the very thing that made us want to say yes to it in the first place. That's really my experience from the outside looking in. Do you feel like from the inside out that that's valid? I have thought a lot about this. And at the core of this book, this book is about mindset. This is about how we can unlock our best life through mindset, overcome these limiting beliefs, but at its core, and there there's a reason it's called the 12 hour walk. There's an origin story there, which I can share, but even going beyond that at its core is this invitation for people to take their own 12 hour walk to literally, and that's everyone listening. I'm inviting you to do

this. My, my next ever system inspired 10 million people to take this 12 hour walk, literally, and that's everyone listening. I'm inviting you to do this. My, my next ever is to inspire 10 million people to take this 12 hour walk, which is simple. It's to walk out your front door, take a day, put your phone on airplane mode and go for a 12 hour walk. And that in silence and stillness, no podcast, no music, you know, et cetera. And a way of going inward, a way of reflecting inward. And look, this is not an endurance feat. It doesn't matter if you walk for one mile or 50, you can take as many breaks as you want. My 77 year old mother-in-law has done the 12 hour walk. And for her, that looked like walking one time around her block and sitting on her porch, but maintaining the silence and the solitude. So I think in our hyper-connected world too often, we aren't in touch with our own interior dialogue.

And sometimes that's scary, man. Like, you know, you know, checking your phone, we can be constantly distracted. We can have these little dopamine hits, you know, here and there constantly throughout our life. And this is a call to action, not to vilify technology, not to then live as a monk afterward, but to take a day, to take a moment to tap in to that psyche. And it's been profound results. People would say, I'm stuck. I'm struggling. You know, I came up with this during COVID when I myself was deeply, deeply struggling with some depression, some anxiety, just sitting in my house, locked up, doom scrolling the news, like what the hell is going on in the world? And I tapped back into this flow state, these places I found in Antarctica

in my own mind and the stillness. And I said, can I do this out my front door? And so I, what I've discovered is you don't have to go all the way to Antarctica. You don't have to have those life and death stakes, as you just mentioned. It's actually just a willingness to do something a little bit outside of your comfort zone that kind of shakes you up, that rattles you up. And that's why this, this call to action, this book, the 12 hour walk, and why I'm more excited, you know, I'm thrilled about the book and I hope a lot of people enjoy all the content in there. I know you will, but I'm even more thrilled about what I think of the 12-hour walk as a global movement of people actually taking this action in their own life and why you hit on something I'm super passionate, thought so much about is that sort of a nexus between discomfort, stakes, fulfillment, et cetera. And what I've come to think about is people ask me, you know, people more bluntly, not the way you asked it, but people do more bluntly ask me like, well, Colin, aren't you afraid to die?

Aren't you afraid to die? And the short answer is I'm deathly afraid of dying. I don't want to die. I'm like, oh, I don't have a death wish. I don't think of myself as this adrenaline seeking junkie. But what I'm more afraid of is not living. What I'm more afraid of is not living. And I opened this book actually with a Thoreau quote that says the massive man lead lives of quiet desperation. And I've come to think of life on a scale of one to 10, you know, one being our lowest lows, you know, the,

the, I mentioned briefly before being burned in a fire and being told I'd never walk again, normally, or having frozen tears on your face in Antarctica and just thinking the thing you dreamed up is imploding in your face or tragedy, you know, as it probably these low lows, these hardships in our life, we all experience them at some point. And the tens are the high highs, not just achievement. Sure. The moment I touched the other side of Antarctica and knew I set this world record was amazing. I've been on the summit of Everest now in my life twice, you know, peak moments, but also the day your first child is born or falling in love.

I mean, these are these 10 moments. Like everyone wants the 10s. Like they're the best. The 10s are the best, right? And when I reflect on all my 10s, just use like Antarctica, since we were just talking about as an example, getting to the other side of Antarctica,

being the first in history to do this thing, proving to my, more than proving to the world, but just proving to myself that this impossible thing was indeed possible. That was a 10, but I didn't get there in spite of the ones by hedging against the ones. I actually got there because I embraced the ones. I knew that there would likely be some ones along this path. In this case, many dozens and dozens of ones along the way. And I'm feeling the 10 because I allowed myself to feel the one. And I've found that too often in our modern society, as you alluded to, it's easy to start to hedge against that downside risk, so to speak, to try to stay comfortable. I think too often because of the modern conveniences and

smartphones and internet and all sorts of modern conveniences that a lot of people have access to. A lot of people are living their life in this four to six range, which I call like the zone of comfortable complacency, where it's just like, you know, I got this job. It pays the bills. It allows me to like, you know, have an apartment and a car payment and like whatever. I don't love it. I don't hate it. It pays my bills. But you're spending most of your time doing this thing.

But it's like five, five, five, just day after day, five, going driving to this job, doing this job, whatever. Or you're in a relationship and like it's certainly not like toxic or abusive or anyone's like worried about your health and safety. It's not like this terrible thing, but it's not like amazing either. You're just like been in this relationship. You kind of cohabitate. You coexist like five, five, five., combine that with the job I described. It's like a lot of people live in there,

but no one wants to rip the bandaid off. Like people don't want to say like, I'm going to quit the job and try something new. Even if that means I'm going to have to take a step back in my career for a moment, or, you know, maybe it's time to end this relationship with love and decency, but like go seek something out more because no one wants to feel that at least incremental downside. I'll take a silly metaphor, but it's like, you want, you're sitting in your house. You're like, I want a new kitchen. I want to remodel my kitchen. I'll have fancy new appliances, a new floor, a new backsplash and all this kind of stuff, like whatever. Like you don't just snap your fingers and that happens. The first thing you do is you rip out

the plumbing. Your sink doesn't work for a month. And that sucks. Like you've got no floor in the middle of your living room. Like it's terrible terrible and then you slowly build it back up like the tens to experience in the tens of life everyone's like i want these tens i want these peak moments i want these achievements i want this fulfillment whatever how you've ever defined the success in your own life there's no right answer to that question but it's for you is actually by embracing those ones by actually allowing yourself to have an experience outside of your comfort zone. And the 12-hour walk at its core, the invitation to take this walk, is that, is to say, and I've known now there's tons and tons of people who have taken this walk

and have been, you know, their life has been really positively impacted and changed by it. But if you ask them, you go, what did your feet get tired in hour five? Oh my God, my feet were so tired. I didn't know if I could take another step or, you know, being alone in my thoughts, hour seven, hour eight, I was just beating up on myself with this negative loop that I've had in my head for years. Or some people joke around. They're like, you know, people, we know this, we spend time alone. You start arguing with someone who's not there, like an old boss or an old friend, like, Oh, I would have said this. And I should have, you know, you just, we have these like, like that's uncomfortable, But I've also known nobody who has got back to

their front door after completing the 12 hour walk, this walking meditation, this personal quest who hasn't been so grateful, been like, wow, I needed that. Meaning just through the 12 hours, it's a metaphor for a totality of life. The pendulum swings between some ones and twos. And because you allow yourself to get through that discomfort, you find that flow, you find that fulfillment, you find that possible mindset, you find that strength. And I think that is so important. And so, you know, long way of saying, am I afraid of dying? I'm more afraid of not living. And I'm afraid of living a life only in that zone of comfortable complacency.

I'm not trying to just live in the extremes, only the ones or tens. You got to be in the four and six sometime. That's where you build. That's where you create. That's where there's some safety. So there's time and place to be there. But only being there, only living there, I think leads to a life of lack of fulfillment. And as Thoreau says, of quiet desperation.

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And at the same time, there's another, there's another storyline playing in my head. And it's the storyline of somebody who has lived probably much of their entire adult life in that four to six zone, as you described, maybe even like two to four zone. And it's a storyline of somebody who has been there because they came up in a family, in a chosen family, in a community with extraordinary, extraordinary lack, lack of resources, lack of access. And now they've reached a moment in their adult life where maybe they're a parent, they're supporting a family, maybe they're working three jobs and 18 hours a day, seven days a week just to put food on the table. And that's sort of like the day-to-day lived experience of their life. The practicality of it

makes them feel like every single day that they're locked into this two to five existence that you described. And on the one hand, hearing this invitation to do something, their version even of a 12-hour walk or just something that for a moment elevates them into a different space, it feels inspiring. And on the other hand, they look at the day-to-day nature of their life. It's not a matter of limiting beliefs that keeps them from actually being able to carve out the time or the resources to do this thing. It's that the practicality of their existence in this moment in time, and maybe it changes down the road, literally doesn't allow them to say yes to something like this. And so my curiosity is, I think it's important to acknowledge the possibility and folks who have more possibility available to them to actually carve out and do this thing.

And even for some people, literally taking 12 hours to go out and walk is a quote luxury that they literally don't have in their lives. So how do we take these ideas, right? Which I think are really powerful and important. How do we make them accessible to everybody, to that person who is struggling to get through each day, working seven days a week, 18 hours a day to put food on the table for a family? Like, how do we take this concept and make it accessible and adaptable so that everybody can step into something that at least gives them a taste of feeling differently? Yeah, no, it's a very important point. A couple

of things come up. One is that's more or less the environment that I grew up in. So I grew up in a lot of scarcity. My parents were super young when they had me there in their early twenties. They were working shift work at grocery stores, sweeping floors and whatnot to try to, my mom believed that she wanted to have a career, but I know early on when me and my siblings were young, she had to make this decision of like my job. I think it was $5 an hour or whatever it was at the time in the late eighties, early nineties pays the same amount that the childcare pays. So she's going to work and all of the money at work is going back into the childcare, but she's not home taking care of us, but because

she believed, but if I stick with this over time, I'll get raised. I will get promoted. I will, you know, work my way up. And so it's an investment in this moment, even though in the moment that, that logic is a really hard one to spoil. I'm spending less time with my kids and paying somebody else to be with them in childcare. And every dollar that I'm earning when I'm not away from them is just going back to paying that person. So there's certainly levels of scarcity and poverty beyond what I've experienced, but I've certainly experienced some degree of that in my childhood. So I have a lot of empathy in that regard. The 12-hour walk itself, and I love that you bring this up, in itself, it is a way to be as accessible and as broad as it possibly can be.

And what I mean by that is I think we can take it a step further and say, oh, wow, 12 hours in a day is an absolute luxury. And we can acknowledge that. But I also want to acknowledge the flip of that, which is I would spend a lot of time to a lot of public speaking, you know, other things I've done, whatever. And people be like, oh, my God, you're an Arctic exhibitioner. Amazing. Or you went to Everest or you did this or whatever. And people come up to me and be like, but I could actually never do that. Like that costs however many tens of thousands of dollars or this, you know, months of time or like this, that, and the other thing. And I've, you know, very slowly architected my life to allow that possibility. But I recognize that like that,

like that's like a true, like, Hey, I might not actually be able to do this based on these other things. Like on my plate at the moment. We could go in a whole other existential thing like, but could you? Could we list? Could we think about that over 10 years? Maybe you could, whatever. But that's not the point here. The 12-hour walk is free.

12-hour walk is 100% free. You know, if you have, it doesn't matter what pair of shoes, you don't have to buy a fancy watch, a nice pair of shoes. There's literally, there's no training required. So in a lot of ways, the accessibility is extremely, extremely broad. And my publisher probably wouldn't want me to say this, but you don't even have to buy the book. I want you to buy the book and the book's going to make it a lot better and meaningful and whatever. But literally, I'm giving you a free idea that can shake up your life and shake up your mind. But then there is a resource that you alluded to

that is important to acknowledge, which is time, right? Time, time being a resource. I think that that's really what you're pointing out in this context. And you're saying like, okay, it is free. I think we both agree. It's widely more accessible than set me telling I'm trying to spread this movement where everyone goes and climbs Everest. All you need is $50,000 and two months off work and train for a year and you can climb Everest too, right? So that's not what this is. This is completely free in that context. But the time is real. And there's a chapter in the book that goes directly to this, that responds directly to what you're saying, which is one of the largest common limiting

beliefs is I don't have enough time. And I'm very understanding and empathetic to that. But what I go into in that chapter and what I'll sort of describe in response to that here, and I'd love to get your honest take on that, which is, I think that, you know, you described the person that's working seven, you know, seven days a week, 18 hours a day, that's working hard to probably to support family and community and sacrifice and all of that. That's certainly extreme for sure. When people are making those levels of sacrifice or take it, let's deescalate it a little bit. A common one is a young mother who has kids who is like, well, I could never take that time because it is my responsibility to always be there for my kids. Always. Every

soccer game, every soccer practice, every school drop-off, every school pickup, every moment on the weekends, every meal, whatever. That is a noble calling to have that level. I mean, I'm always just in awe of parenthood, motherhood, how much sacrifice that requires to nurture that. At its core, what that mother is saying when they're saying, I need to be there for my kid every single second of every single day, is a deep desire to show up, to give their kid a better life, to empower the best possible version of this human being that they love so deeply in their heart.

And when I do respond to that is I find that there is this narrative that self-care is somehow selfish. Self-care is somehow selfish. Meaning if you take, if you're a great mother, you're a dedicated mother, you've been with your kid 364 days, and you took one day to like go get a massage in a spa and just kind of like reset like your body and mind for a second. It's like, how dare you? How dare you take, you know, your kids need you today. Or even the internal dialogue of saying, hey, like the reason I'm making all these sacrifices is because I care so much about my kids,

but I want to pivot and shift that narrative, which is self-care. And which self-care can take many different forms, of course. Self-care, I believe, is selfless. The thing that you are actually trying to optimize, better relationships with your spouse, better relationships with the kids, a nurturing and safe environment, et cetera, we don't have endless batteries. We can't just burn ourselves out constantly. And so I would argue as a slight and very gentle pushback, because I think you make a

very strong and important point here, is to say, and the chapter about time is this, we can find the time for the things that are important to us, particularly when it's something that is free, that doesn't require you to travel anywhere, that's right out your front door. And those 12 hours, although it is 12 hours, it is one day, has an exponential benefit of positivity, meaning you might miss one soccer practice. You might miss one Saturday something with your kids, but I'm willing to bet the presence of mind, the peace, the fulfillment, the curiosity within your own mind, body, and soul will actually have a net positive benefit over the longer period of time. Meaning taking that moment to ourselves, we all need that from time to time to tap in and

to take that self-care moment to look out for ourselves because we can be the best mothers, the best fathers, the best colleague, the best, you know, best at work, the best in the things we're trying to show up the best for when we are showing up as our best selves. And so the martyr done of the sacrifice of never taking a moment for yourself, I actually believe there's a fallacy in that belief as well. In my mind, it's sort of like the early days social media update. It's complicated when you're listing your relationship. On the one hand, I see there's definitely a group of people where that's going to resonate. They'd be like, okay, so I can, let me reimagine, you know, like if, if my goal is to show up

in the life of my kids, my partner, whatever it may be, like, how does it actually present itself? Like, what does actually showing up mean to me? Does it mean being at every X, Y, and Z experience? Or does it mean potentially not being at all of them, but when I do show up being astonishingly present and engaged and energized because I've said yes to other things in my life. And then again, I still look at some folks and I'm like, there's still going to be people who are like, I'm nodding along and I agree with you. And I think I buy into the fact that self-care is, it's really important. And still, if I miss a shift, I miss rent.

Totally. And look, there's going to be edge cases, right? There's going to be context where that's true. And that might not be true a week from now, a year from now, a month from now, right? There's an evolution of that. And so it's like, if you can't do this tomorrow, great. If you can't do this a month from now, great. Put this in your mind, you know, a year in the future and work around that. The thing where I do push back on time with people, and I say this in the book, which is that common. And again, just with any idea, right? There's not a one size fit all. I think this is extremely broad. Like I said, I've seen it cross socioeconomic divides, age gaps, you know, young, old, different phases of life and been extremely powerful and accessible to a multitude and multitude of people. And I should say the

silence and solitude can still happen in a big city. Like I've, people do this in Manhattan all the time. Your silence and solitude, it's not the cars passing. If other people walk, you don't have to be some beautiful mountain trail somewhere. Like you can walk out your front door anywhere and do this 12 hour walk. But when I hear that, I don't have enough time. I do, you know, there's a little bit of a coy pushback where I'm like, so have you seen every episode of Game of Thrones? People start nodding along. They're like, oh yeah, I love Game of Thrones. I'm like, cool. So that was 75 hours. That was 75 hours of Netflix or HBO or whatever show. I forget what channel it's on. It's like, you know, have you, there are certain common touch points that

people are like, I don't have enough time. I literally don't have enough time at this, that, and the other thing. And then you can just put back and be like, okay, like how often do you look at your social media? The average person looks at their social media. It's some crazy metric, like three and a half hours or like four hours per day or something like that. You know, so the time audit is a little bit on. And again, I am not saying this to not push because you have a you're 100 percent right in the there is the person who literally is working 18 hours a day, seven days a week.

And if they don't do that, their family's not going to eat. They're going to miss rent, right? That is a smaller percentage of the larger whole of people that have the, I don't have enough time limiting belief, but I've seen every episode of Game of Thrones are on their Instagram constantly or on this. And it's like, actually, time is finite and we need to prioritize that. You know, and I go a step further with time. Time's an interesting one because we can justify it in so many different ways in our life.

And this goes back to, you know, not the lowest income necessarily situation, but there's a lot of people because of the way the world is now that live not where their families live, right? So we used to be that you grew up in a town, you got a job in a town, you live in the town, your community was your family, your cousins, you know, et cetera. And obviously as transportation travel has gotten somewhat more accessible over human history, people have spread out. And so I do this little bit of an exercise, just kind of working backwards from roughly my age, you know, which is I'm 37. And I say, you know, if I'm 37 and my parents are, you know, 70 years old.

So my parents are actually a little bit younger than that, but it's just for the average person. So your parents are seven years old and you live on the opposite coast from them. You usually see them twice a year. You see them for Christmas and you see them for some other family gathering. Fourth of July, I'm just throwing around twice a year. You always see your parents because you do these family gatherings, super fun. And you say, well, the average life expectancy of an American man or woman is roughly 78 years old. Parents are 70. So by that math, you're going to see your parents 16 more times, 16 more times, you know, let that sink in for a second. And it's just this exercise and understanding like time in some regards is finite and being

very cautious and very guarded about how you spend that. Not outside the willy nilly context of I don't have to pay my bills and nothing matters. I need to show up to work. I mean, that's not what I'm preaching here. But to be aware of that and then go the other way with the slippage. How much binging of Netflix do I do? How much, you know, I'm using Netflix and social media stamp.

We all know the examples of just the time slippages throughout any given day and starting to weigh those in the balance of, oh, I do actually have the time. It's a matter of prioritizing that effectively. And I think the 12 hour walk as an exercise by putting that on the calendar, by committing to something allows you to actually a reflective on this during the 12 hour walk, but even more so it is a mirror. It is a mirror to you. What I found so interesting about my passion for this 12 hour walk project is there, of course, it's depth at its core, it's a walking meditation. It's a way to reflect. It's a way to take a moment away from the everyday noise of a digital world and be alone,

which for most people is outside their comfort zone, to really dive into the power of our mindset and to get a little bit less unstuck, to take a little bit of risk, to have that introspection. But what I've found is that the 12-hour walk, and I can see it even in this dialogue, which I'm really enjoying, is the actual exercise of the 12-hour walk starts right now, right in this second. And what I mean by that is either you, Jonathan, or your large audience, people listening to this conversation, this podcast right now, are being suggested this idea for the very first time. Likely right now. They've never heard of it.

They're listening to this podcast. They're on a walk or they're in their car or wherever they listen to their podcast. And they're hearing this Colin O'Brady guy talk about this 12-hour walk. And something happens immediately in this moment. That's why I say it starts right now, which is one of three things happen. Maybe 1% of people are like, this is the best idea ever. It's on my calendar tomorrow. I'm doing it.

Like, thank you, Colin. You're the best. That's maybe 1% of people. And I hope there's not a lot of people in this camp. But surely there's some where they're like, this is the stupidest idea I have ever heard ever. This Colin O'Grady guy, he is a complete idiot. They'll delete the podcast, unsubscribe from Jonathan's podcast, you know, whatever.

Hopefully there's no one doing that. But you know what I'm saying? Extreme in the other case. I find most people are somewhere in the middle of that. This suggestion, even if you don't take the 12-hour walk, right now in this moment, something is happening because I'm inviting you and I'm putting this in your mind. And what's happening is you are starting to ask yourself some question of like, should I do this thing? Is this of interest to me? Would this have benefit? If I was going to do it, when would I do it? How would I do it? And what I find is that naturally every single person starts to bargain with themselves at some regard in this moment and people come up with different answers,

but the bargaining happens right now. Ah, well, I'm pretty busy. I don't have enough time. Or maybe it's the limiting belief of, ah, I don't like being uncomfortable. My feet might get tired by the end of that, or it's too hot where I am. It's Texas in the middle of summer right now. That's because the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Yeah. I can't go in 120 degree heat. The point is, so when I say the 12 hour walk exercise, the 12 hours itself, committing to it, taking the walk, getting back to your front door, There's profound juice and essence in that. I know that because I've watched so many people experience the positive benefit of it. But the exercise happens right now because what this conversation is doing is I'm actually holding up a mirror to you, to your own interior dialogue. And what I found so often is fascinating to me, and this applies to myself too, I'm not impervious to this, but it happens to me as well, is in this moment of bargaining, you start to become aware of your own limiting beliefs, which are personal to you.

We all are dealing with different ones. One of the common limiting beliefs, I don't have enough money, but there's rich people that that's not their limiting belief, but their limiting belief is I don't have enough time or I'm not strong enough. What if I fail? What if people criticize me? What if people, you know, there's a multitude of them that I talk about in the book. And the point is, is that the limiting beliefs that you may be applying to the 12 hour walk right now upon its first suggestion, I find more often than not are actually the same limiting beliefs that are on loop in your life, in your brain, in all sorts of elements. And so part of this process is I am holding up a mirror to you right now and saying,

huh, what am I applying to the 12-hour walk? That most likely is the same series of limiting beliefs that I'm applying to all sorts of other things in my life. But I use the word beliefs very intentionally because beliefs are just that. They're beliefs. They're not limiting truths. They're not limiting facts. Beliefs can be rewritten, reshaped, reformed. And if right now this limiting whatever it is popping up in your mind and you say, but I'm still going to put the

12-hour walk on my calendar a month from now. It's on there. Three Saturdays from now, I've got it on there. And then you complete it. You prove to yourself that you had the limiting belief. You had the internal resistance to this thing, but you also had the internal fortitude, the internal strength, the internal perseverance to push back on that. So next time something else in your life could be anything, could be about your career, your job, your family, whatever comes up and you go, oh, hey, limiting belief. I see you again. I remember last time you popped up and I almost didn't do that thing that was so positive for me. It's not that that voice isn't there, but the limiting belief voice gets quieter and quieter. And that strength of that possible

mindset, that strength of that positive interior dialogue is there. And that's founded not because you read the book and assimilated all of the wisdom from the book, but because of a somatic felt experience that you actually took on yourself. That's the power of the 12 hour walk is the experiences from it, from you actually doing it, calcifying your own body, your own lived experience in such a palpable way that those shifts seem to actually last much longer. No, that all resonates with me. You know, it's interesting. My lens on the 12-hour walk is it's a really powerful, concrete, broadly accessible example of how to say yes to something where embedded into the construct is a certain amount of physical and psychological and likely emotional discomfort.

And that may be simply like facing your own self-talk when you're literally not distracting yourself from it for 12 straight hours. So there's a certain amount of discomfort. There's a certain amount of effort that's built into it. And there are stakes in that you're saying no to some other things that might want to do in order to say yes to this. And there's some sense that there's a payoff in the form of growth. Now that may not be a level of growth and transformation that comes from crossing Antarctica, but there's enough in it so that you have a sense that if I can do this and I can hit like that 12 hours and then walk back in my front door, something will have shifted in me that will make it worth it. I don't even know what that is right

now. I love the sort of like the, um, the concreteness of the 12 hour walk. And I think it's something that makes it really easy for people to raise their hand to and get behind and scale. Like, like you said, like turn it into a movement. I also love the notion that the 12 hour walk and tell me if I have this right or wrong, that in my mind, the 12-hour walk is also, it is one broadly accessible example of a transformational quest that you can step into. And it's also an invitation to say, what else might I be able to say yes to that has these similar qualities, a certain level of discomfort, a certain level of effort, certain opportunity for growth, the boxes that check so that we can,

this may be one thing that a lot of people can say yes to. And even if for some reason you can't, or you say yes to that, and then you're kind of like, what's next? There's a broader framework so that anyone can sort of say like, I can see all different ways and places and moments to construct my version of this or multiple versions of that or iterations down the road of this. So that like, this is a first step in, but it's also you're planting, what I see is like you're planting a seed for people to be able to sort of like continue to create moments like this on a perpetual basis, moving forward and not just make it a one and done.

What happens if I keep cycling through this and growing and growing and growing? You're, you're spot on. And I love that. Thank you for those kind words. I really not, I'm nodding along now at all the things you're saying. It a hundred percent is that it's this accessible invitation to do something right out your front door, not saying do this thing on the other side of the world. That's this like, you know, right now you can do this, but then it's, what's the ripple effect of that, right? What's the ripple effect of raising your hand and opting into that? You know, I have seen people, you know, crying at their front door, having epiphanies of massive breakthroughs. And that's

powerful. I've seen that over and over again with the 12 hour walk. I've also seen people get back in their front door and kind of have like that 1% shift, right? Like they'd be like, they're like, that was good for me. And I can't exactly place how or why yet, but like, okay, all right. And in a lot of ways, the big epiphany is so beautiful and incredible and the payoff is so significant. But the 1%, the 2% of that is in a lot of ways like this even cooler, subtler thing, which is it's like now that's inside of you,

that subtlety of that 1% growth. I think, I mean, James Clear, obviously what his book is amazing, Atomic Habits does such a great job of actually outlining for all of us what the difference is of stacking 1% gains over time. It actually pays off significantly greater than one huge thing. And then nothing again, ask the question of, okay, and then what? And then what? Not and then what of what am I chasing, but in terms of growth, because I have now recalibrated my body and mind to opting into this thing. The next other things that come across your plate, the next challenges, the next risk, the next, you know, things that are a little bit uncomfortable, you're like, oh, it rewires your brain to go, oh, when I opt into these kinds of things, there is positive benefit

for myself, for my family, for my community at large, et cetera. And that's absolutely what the 12 hour walk is. It's, you know, I'd already be on a path to growth and this is supplemental to this, or this might be an opening of a door to say, hey, come along. There's something powerful here. And this door unlocks the next door unlocks the next door. And then there's of course, even in the 12 hour walk context, I have people do it and go, wow, this is what I put this now as a once per quarter thing. This is just my quarterly reset and I'm doing it four times a year. So it can, it can show up like that as well. Yeah, no, I love that. And I think also my sense is, you know, your invitations, let's start with

something that physicalizes an emotional intellectual process of growth and also intellectualizes and emotionalizes a physical process of growth, but it doesn't also always have to involve the physical, you know, this can be you committing to reading an 800 page book that you know is going to be deeply meaningful or writing like doing a 30 page, 30 month or 30 day challenge to like write a manuscript. Or like to me, it's sort of like this is a first step in and it's defined and it's physical and like we can all understand like the experience of physical exertion. But it's also feels like a broader invitation to say, okay, so what other domains you like for you in particular, like your, you and, and it sounds like Jenna and sort of like the people that you roll with are so physically oriented, but not everyone is like that, but people can still get really similar benefits by understanding the fundamental elements of this and then continuing to create like, what is my version of like the next

one and the next one, the next one. What I say, and I say it towards the end of the book, I say the most important muscle any of us has is the six inches between our ears. And I use muscle in that context, very, very, very intentionally and directly because this exercise, the 12 hour walk, although on its surface, like, oh, that's a very in your body physical thing. And that is some of the power of it is to move our body and be outside things that we, you know, sometimes are disconnected to in this modern world and kind of tap back into

this sort of primal element of just being, you know, we were a hunter gatherer, you know, species for a long time that walked outside like that's in our hard code in our DNA. But it's not an exercise of the body. It's not this endurance feat of physical, physical, you know, endurance. It really is an exercise at its core, at the deepest fundamental core of the mind. And when we think about something silly, but you're like, I, you know, I want, you know, big abs and jacked muscles for summer. Cause I want to look good on the beach or something like that. Like the, you know, the, the obvious response, no matter who you are, whether you want that

or not, it's a silly thing that, you know, whatever is like, well, you better go to the gym. Like you better like go do the reps on the bench press and the bicep curl or like whatever, you know, the heck is, we know that even if you're not an athlete oriented around, you know, physicality in that way, like, that's just like, we know that we know that, you know, at this stage of life, it's like, you want to get stronger, lift weights. Great. But too often we forget that that growth of mind that you're talking about is actually cultivated in the exact same way. You've actually got, you want to have a stronger

mind. You want to have the fortitude to write that book, like you said, or to, you know, take on some creative project or to make some shift, whatever, that's going to take a ton of mental capacity. You actually got to take your mind to the mental gym. You got to take your mind and do the reps on the mental bench press, the mental, you know, bicep curl, so to speak. And so the 12 hour walk is fundamentally that. It's a strengthening of the mind. And I love what you just said, which then applies that ripple effect to, you can apply that mental strength from this exercise. Oh, now I'm a little bit stronger in mind. What other doors, what other eventualities, what other possibilities

that I want to nurture in my own life? Does that open up? Yeah. Love that. I'm so fascinated by the connection between physical experience, like somatic experience and psychological experience. I think sometimes we look at them as two different systems that feed back to each other, but like increasingly, I really believe it's all the same system, you know? And I'm just, I'm deeply fascinated by how we can stress and support one and simultaneously create an experience and an outcome in the other and then like vice versa. So all these ideas, I think feed into that. It feels like a good place for us to come full

circle in our conversation as well. So in this container of good life project, if I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up? Fulfillment was the first word that came up for me. I love the idea of happiness and joy, but I think as we were talking about that, that kind of contend to the hedonistic fluffy pleasures of life, which God, I love, I love so much,

but the deeper, the deeper for me as fulfillment and also community community. For me, when I think about, I had a visualization earlier this year and I visualized my last day alive. And it was just, it came to me in a really powerful meditation and it's a powerful ceremony. And I found myself sitting at the Oregon coast, which is a place near and dear to my heart. Coincidentally, where I also came up with the 12 hour walk during COVID,

but it's near where I grew up and it's just the Pacific ocean has always just really spoke to me. And I'm sitting there, I'm an old man. I made it to the old age. So I was fortunate to see that I'm sitting there and I'm holding my wife's hand, Jenna's hand. And she's an old woman. I don't know if we were in the mid eighties or nineties, but we're, you know, a lot of wrinkles, a lot, you know, we're moving slow and I see the sun, the sun setting slowly. And it occurs to me for some reason, I know this in this dream state, I know that it's my last day and this is my last sunset. Even a little bit emotional right now thinking about this, it was such a powerfully felt visualization. And I remember looking over at Jenna and there was this, cause we've been together at this point for 70 years, but I remember we were 20 years old. It's like, wow, wow. Of awe. Like we did it. And that awe, that unspoken wow, wasn't

we climbed this mountaintop or made this money or did this thing. But it was just a collective, the people in our life. And at its core, my wife. But we had grandkids in this visualization. We had this. It was fulfilling in a way that was so deep inside of me. So I don't know if that's a complete answer to what a good life is. But it's hard to transmute the feeling of that visualization into words on this podcast. But I feel like I actually coincidentally this year

had a visualization sitting there at the end of life in my body, in my soul. And I was like, that's what a good life, a fully good life, well-lived felt like. And that's the sunset. That was it. Thank you. Before you leave, if you love this episode, safe bet you will also love the conversation we had with Rich Roll, who happens to be a good friend of Colin's as well, about the interplay between body and mind and how we can use each as a lever to evolve the other. You'll find a link to Rich's episode in the show notes. And of course, if you haven't already done so, go ahead and follow Good Life Project

in your favorite listening app. And if you appreciate the work that we've been doing here on Good Life Project, go check out my new book, Sparked. It'll reveal some incredibly eye-opening things about maybe one of your favorite subjects, you, and then show you how to tap these insights to reimagine and reinvent work as a source of meaning, purpose, and joy. You'll find a link in the show notes, or you can also find it at

your favorite bookseller now. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Peebles, signing off for Good Life Project. We'll be right back. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping.

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