In Search Of Excellence - Colin O'Brady: Cultivate a Possible Mindset and Break Your Limiting Beliefs | E43

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Since he was a child, Colin O’Brady dreamt of becoming an Olympian, but when a terrible accident burned 22% of his body, doctors told him he would never walk normally again. Luckily for Colin, he didn’t believe in being “realistic”, so 18 months later he won the Chicago triathlon, and a year after that he represented Team USA at the 2010 World Triathlon Championships. Through intense focus, intuition, and a possibility-focused mindset, Colin has continued to shatter world records at groundbreaking speeds while proving there is no such thing as impossible.Colin O’Brady is an American professional endurance athlete, motivational speaker, author, and 10-time world record holder adventurer. He is the fastest person to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam and the 50 Highest Points in all 50 states and the youngest person to row on the Southern Ocean. He has climbed Mount Everest twice, completed marathons in over 50 countries, and crossed Antarctica solo and unassisted in just 54 days. In this episode, Randall and Colin discuss:- Creating large goals while facing insurmountable challenges- The importance of being all-in on only one project at a time- Why being “realistic” can limit your success- The extreme preparation Colin endured for the Explorer’s Grand Slam- How Colin beat an ex-British Special Forces polar explorer across Antarctica- The concept of the “possible mindset” to unlock new opportunities- Colin’s new book and movement, The 12-Hour WalkColin O’Brady is an American professional endurance athlete, motivational speaker, author, and 10-time world record holder adventurer. He is the fastest person to complete what is known as the Explorer’s Grand Slam, which includes climbing the seven summits and skiing to both the North and South Poles. In addition to this, Colin was the first person on record to cross Antarctica solo and unassisted in just 54 days and has completed more than 50 marathons on six continents.Aside from scaling mountains and racing at unprecedented speeds, Colin has authored two books, the New York Times bestseller The Impossible First and his most recent release, The 12-Hour Walk. He is also a dedicated philanthropist and creator of Beyond 7/2, a registered non-profit with the mission of inspiring kids and communities to live active, healthy lives and pursue their dreams.Resources Mentioned:The 12-Hour Walk, by Colin O’BradyThe Impossible First, by Colin O’BradyThe 12-Hour WalkBeyond 7/2 non-profitSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

you're listening to part two of my incredible conversation with colin brady a 10-time world record adventurer and incredible motivational speaker if you haven't yet listened to part one be sure to check that one out first now without further ado here's part two of my amazing conversation with colin i want to switch gears and talk about one of my favorite topics, which has been one of the main ingredients of my success, which I've been teaching for the last 20 years, preparation. But not the kind of preparation most people think about. It's what I call extreme preparation. 99% of the time, I'm always the most prepared person in the room, which means that when someone prepares one hour for a meeting, I'm usually preparing at least five for that same meeting, sometimes 40 hours. Can you tell us how important preparation has

been to your success? And going a step further, how important is extreme preparation, going way above and beyond what would be considered ordinarily great preparation to our success? And as part of this, can you tell us about spending more than 50 days in total solitude at Buddhist retreats with no reading, writing, or eye contact with other people. And also tell us about the year in a food science lab creating formulas that measure the carbs and protein of organic coconut oil, cashew butter, organic apple powder, amber honey, organic rolled oats, organic buckwheat flour, and more than 10 other ingredients. Yeah. So in all of my large pursuits,

you know, personally, you know, world record breaking expeditions, you know, preparation is certainly very key, you know, from the mental to the physical. And, you know, it's one thing to just talk about the Explorers Grand Slam and, you know, setting this world record, which was, you know, there was some level of a blueprint for it. I was trying to go faster than Richard Park. So you mentioned, so I could look like, okay, so what did he do? And how can I improve on that? And how can I make that faster? And there's a lot of preparation that went into that project, insane amount of logistics. And obviously, as we talked about, just raising the money, all of that. You know, something like the solo Antarctica crossing is an interesting one, because it was a world first,

right? No one had ever done this before, literally. People had tried, but no one had successfully completed the solo unsupported and unassisted crossing of Antarctica. And so when thinking about that project, there wasn't someone to call up or someone's book to read about how they did it, right? There was literally like a blank canvas. And that can be very discouraging, but also can be sort of enlivening. But preparation, that's where preparation is so key because you don't know what you're going to encounter out there. You don't know what you're going to face. It's like you being in a meeting or a business meeting or something like that. You might prepare for five

hours. Four of those hours might be on topics that you never even talk about in the meeting, but you're prepared. You're prepared if the conversation goes in this direction, or if you need to pivot, or if you need to bring up a new idea, you don't just have sort of one bag, one arrow in your quiver, so to speak. And that's how I looked at Antarctica. It's like, I'm going to be out there in Antarctica for 54 days alone. I have no idea what's going to happen to my mind, body, soul, spirit. So I need to prepare myself across all of those boards.

You know, you mentioned two sort of important elements, the mind in that, you know, long before I even dreamed of going to Antarctica and spending that much time in solitude, I started working on my mind and my mindset. And one of the things that I've done over time is something called Vipassana meditation, which actually your producer of the show is an avid Vipassana meditator. I don't know if you know that or not. I do. It's a really an incredible practice, which is, you know, sitting in silence for these retreats for 10 days at a time, no reading, no writing, no eye contact. And I'm a, I'm a very social person, very extroverted, come from a big family, you know, kind of always around people.

So people think, wow, like you're going to go sit in silence for 10 days, call them. That's really unlike you. But it's been some of the most important pieces of my mental training to actually take myself so far outside of my comfort zone to actually push and pursue my mind in that way. And like I said, unbeknownst to me, it was like when I got to that point of thinking about Antarctica, I could visualize it because I had done the work. Because I had done like, well, most people be like, well, I haven't even spent a day alone. How could I spend 55 days alone?

I was just like, well, I spent 10 days alone multiple times. So I could start to kind of build on that mental side. In terms of you mentioned the food prep, I looked at what had been done in Antarctica and I thought no one has really taken food and nutrition, I think, to the next level. And that's kind of the factor with that expedition particularly, because it's something called unsupported. So no resupplies of food or fuel along the way. So whatever you get dropped off with on the edge of the continent, you that's all you got the entire time, which meant the weight is an issue. You know, if you had 1000 pounds of food, you'd have a ton of calories, but you're able to move the sled, you know, on the first day, ultimately had a 375 pound sled, which I could honestly quite

quite literally barely move on the first day, but I was able to move it just enough to keep going. And in that sled, I filled every single ounce, every single with calories, essentially, you know, of course, I had to have a little bit of gear, a tent, sleeping bags and things like that. But I took as little bit of that as possible and as much food as I possibly could, which was still not nearly enough to give me enough calories every single day. I lost a ton of weight. I was burning 10,000 calories and only eating 7,000. But I didn't just put any random food in my sled. And like you said, I spent a year in a food science lab developing custom food and nutrition that specifically matched my body and also within the parameters of what I was working with, which is what is the highest calorie dense food that also has the right macronutrient blend of

proteins, fats, carbohydrates to propel me on this. And so basically, they came up with these custom bars that I took with me. And that was the primary sense of my diet. The point being is, I prepared a lot physically, mentally, emotionally before getting dropped off there. But what I will say as a caveat to that, all of that, I think preparation is important. And clearly, I'm very impressed by your preparation just for this podcast. I can only imagine how that has played out in the rest of your life. Very impressive. Thank you. I also think part of preparation, sort of the intangible part, is preparing to not have the

answer. What I mean by that is also saying, hey, I prepared as much as I possibly could for this, and then also acknowledging, but when the whistle blows or the game starts, you're dropped off on the edge of Antarctica or the business meeting begins, this also could go in a way that you didn't exactly prepare for. And I think that's the one fallacy in preparation is when people go like, oh, I prepared for these 97 questions, but I didn't prepare for the 98th, and now I don't know how to answer it. You still need to be able to think on your feet. And that's kind of what I said back to even when we were talking about education, where I said, yeah, I came out with a bunch of facts in my brain, but mostly I came away with

a framework of how to think about things. One of my key factors of preparation is preparing for the unpreparable, for lack of a made up non-word word. The preparing, actually acknowledging things are going to happen out here that I would never have expected to happen. So be prepared to deal with that when it comes. Let's talk about the importance of competition as a motivating factor on our path to success.

And I just want to go back to SoulCycle because I used to be a three-day-a back to SoulCycle because I used to be a three-day-a-week SoulCycle rider. I used to be in way better shape then than I am now. This is seven, eight years ago. David Beckham would ride next to me every day. I put the best riders in the front row. I'd be on the left. He'd be on my right. The first time I'm sitting there looking at David, holy shit, this guy is a professional athlete, one of the best soccer players in the world ever, and I got to ride next to him. And it was very motivating to me to be a better rider. And eventually I earned his respect because we'd come in each day, we'd get a fist bump,

and he knew what was going to happen. And it was awesome for me to do that. It helped me become a better rider and it helped me to get into much better shape at the time. You did something or had something similar happen to you. Let's go back to October 2017, when you set out to be the first person to cross Antarctica alone without any type of support. There isn't a Delta flight that can take you to the edge of Antarctica where you need to leave from. There's only one plane. It's a cargo plane that flies there only one time a year. And on the ride over, you find a big surprise. You're shoulder to shoulder with a badass ex-British Special Forces guy named Lou Rudd, who's a very prolific and accomplished polar explorer,

and is going to be trying to accomplish the exact same thing, crossing at the exact same time. Now you're not just racing history, you're racing Lou. You did a bunch of interviews before you left. So now the pressure is really on. At first, you were intimidated by Lou, and rightfully so, because he started off kicking your ass. You couldn't keep up with his pace. But on the sixth day, you caught up to him. When that happened, he started talking to you, which you didn't like because you're so focused and don't want distractions. And then when he sort of starts trash talking, you really didn't like that either. You not only beat him, you made the journey in an incredible 54 days.

In search of excellence, how important is competition as a motivating factor to our success? And is it necessary to bring out the best of us? Yeah, I mean, that was an unexpected twist and turn. And talk about preparation. You know, I prepared to be out there racing history, how many calories do I have in my sled, et cetera, et cetera. And what I did not prepare for was, I thought I was going to be racing history. And I didn't prepare for a head-to-head, one-on-one, mano-a-mano, 1,000-mile race battle. And not just

with anybody, but with one of the most accomplished polar explorer military badasses to ever walk the planet. Intimidating to say the least. So of course, I had to readjust by mine. As you mentioned, he certainly did kick my butt in that first week. After the first day, I thought maybe I'll never see this guy again because he's that much stronger than me. He was more experienced, stronger in the first week or so than I was. And unfortunately, I did catch up to him.

And I stayed in front of him after day six. But there was not a single day between day six and day 54 that I didn't quite literally look over my shoulder, but more importantly, emotionally look over my shoulder in that it was windy. It was cold. I mean, the average temperature is minus 30, minus 40 in Antarctica. The wind would blow 50, 60 mile per hour in my face regularly, day after day after day. And when the weather gets terribly bad in Antarctica, the wind would blow, you know, 50, 60 mile per hours, you know, in my face regularly, day after day after day. And when the weather gets terribly bad in Antarctica, the general rule of thumb in all polar travel is take the day off. I mean, it's usually bad, but when it's really bad, you're like, okay, hunker down in the tent, wait a day, wait till tomorrow. And every single time that urge happened for me to like, you know what, maybe I should take this day off. I thought to myself, what would Captain Lou do?

I'm ahead of him now. What if he goes and I don't go? I worked this hard to stay in front of him on one day just because I wasn't tough enough or strong enough or brave enough. He goes. And so this imagination of him, my competition, getting out of his tent and pushing in these horrible conditions got me outside of my tent every single day. I quite literally didn't take a single day off in all 54 days, even though my plan originally had been to take some days off. I finished on basically my last bite of food. And I had been

way on a calorie deficit long before that. I had to adjust back from 7,000 calories all the way down to about 5,000 calories for the last 15 days. And I still didn't really have much food when I got to finish, but I guess that basically my last bite of food. What that means is, had I taken those days off, had I gone even a couple hours less per day, I know we're going to get into my book, The 12-Hour Walk. I originally thought I was going to go 10 hours per day, but because of him, upped that game to 12 hours. I never would have made it to the other side. I never would have made it to the other side. And Lou and I, in the heat of the battle, it was an intense competition, really fierce. But we've maintained a friendship afterwards. I actually waited for him at the

finish line and he completed his crossing a few days after I did, which is a hugely proud achievement for him as well, given the fact that no one in history had ever been able to do this before. And as the competition has subsided and what's been replaced with is camaraderie between us. There's 8 billion people on this planet. There's one guy who knows what it's like to make this solo crossing. And I'd like to be able to call him up from time to time. And we've maintained a cordial friendship over the years since. And one thing we both agree upon, and I can't overstate this, is that I don't think, and both of us don't think that either one of us would have made it to the other side had the other person not been there. Meaning the competition, that looking over the shoulder, that encouragement, the subtle, weird, competitive

encouragement in these really, really brutal conditions, that's actually what took us from being good to great. That's actually what lifted up our truest, truest potential to let that shine through. And without that, I think it would have been very easy to take it a little bit easier on a couple of other days and ultimately would have led to not making it to the other side. Let's talk about the phrase, the possible mindset, which is the first page of your awesome new book, The 12-Hour Walk. Can you tell us what it means and how it can change our lives? And in search of excellence, how important is it to remove the limiting beliefs we all face in our lives? And how do we get over the fear of failure,

which prevents too many of us from ever trying or starting things and from reaching our potential and living our best lives? Yeah. So I mentioned this with my mom in that hospital room in Thailand. I didn't necessarily have a framework or call it this at the time, but I've grown to calling this concept a possible mindset. And I define that as an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. And I fundamentally believe before we take any action, before we take any steps, before we send any email, success really is dictated by our minds. I think it really starts in our minds and in our souls. And having what I call a possible mindset is hugely important for

that. This belief in self, this belief in the limitless possibilities. I think too often, we are held back by limiting beliefs. And my new book, The 12-Hour Walk, really focuses on what I found to be the 10 most common limiting beliefs that all of us face. And I found that people face this at all different walks of life, young, old, financially successful, not financially successful, doesn't really matter. These limiting beliefs kind of cut across a lot of different demographics. And they're, I'm afraid to fail, as you mentioned, or what if people criticize me? Or what if I don't have enough money? I don't have enough time. I don't like being uncomfortable. I don't know what to do. I'm not a fill in the blank, meaning I'm not this identity. I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm

not a runner. I'm not a whatever, fill in the blank. And of course, the book, The 12-Hour Walk goes into this in much greater depth, how we can really overcome and make these shifts in our mind and our minds. But, you know, ultimately, I think it really comes down to, I know we're going to talk about what The 12-Hour Walk actually is, but it comes down to finding exercises to actually flex and develop our mind. We know that if you want to take, you know, you want to get big biceps or you want to, you know, have six-pack abs or something like that, it's like, well, you got to take, you know, you want to get big biceps or you want to have six pack abs or something like that. It's like, well, you got to go to the gym.

You got to lift the weights, you know, lift the bench press, whatever, put in those reps. But I think it's so funny that I fundamentally believe that the most important muscle any of us have is the six inches between our ears, our minds. And I say that word muscle very intentionally here. And so that people can equate like, oh, right. I want to strengthen my mind. I want to overcome this fear of failure. These other limiting beliefs I might have. Well, I probably need to take my mind to the mental bench press. I need to do the reps on the mental bench press to actually flex and develop that muscle. And so the 12 hour walk, the book itself is really, you know, through the lens of edge of your seat storytelling, through the richness of that story, and really through this call to action of inviting people

to take a 12-hour walk of their own, is a guide of how to unlock your best life, your best self, your truest potential through actually flexing and developing that muscle, your mind. Let's talk about the book, The 12-Hour Walk, which is an incredible new book. We could spend 10 hours on this because it's awesome, but unfortunately, we don't have time for that. What is The 12-Hour Walk? And can you briefly, very briefly describe the 10 steps we need to get there? Yeah. So The 12-Hour Walk is a book, but more than a book, it's really what I consider a global movement or a concept and a call to action. My goal ultimately is to inspire 10 million people to take The 12-hour

walk, which is something that is accessible basically to every single person. It's free, it's outside of your front door, and it's in a matter of between sunrise and sunset, a way to transport yourself and really have a deep, deep positive impact on your life. I was walking 12 hours a day when I was crossing Antarctica. That was my daily cadence of what I was pulling my sled. And in those moments, I had deleted all my music, all my podcasts, was in solitude and silence. And as my body kind of got weaker and weaker, strangely enough, my mind got stronger and stronger. And those last few weeks in Antarctica, even though I was so beat up and had frostbite and my body was falling apart, I found these places inside of my own psyche that

were strong and powerful and deep flow states and deep inner peace. And I kind of carried that with me for many years. And then during COVID, I was locked down in my house and I actually lost that equilibrium. You know, doom scrolling the news, you know, being all upset and worried about what was happening in the world, trapped in my house. I found myself depressed, anxious, afraid. And I thought back, when was the last time I had this sort of full equilibrium presence of mind? And it was from walking in Antarctica. So I said, you know what? I'm going to recreate this as much as I can here. I'm not in Antarctica. I'm on the Oregon coast. But I walked up to my front door and went for a walk for 12 hours in stillness and silence. Told my wife I'd be back around dinnertime. Turned off my phone, walked, took breaks, but I

took a day alone. No music, no podcast, alone in my phone, walked, took breaks, but I took a day alone, no music, no podcast alone in my own head in solitude. And as I came back, I had regained a lot of that equilibrium. And I walked back in my front door. My wife says to me, she goes, you're back. And I said, yeah, I told you I'd come back around dinner. She goes, no, no, no, I can see it in your eyes. You're back. You're back. And that was sort of when this 12 hour walk idea was born. To be honest, I didn't think that that was really for anybody else other than me. I'm the guy who walked across Antarctica alone in silence. So sure, I like walking in silence.

No big deal. But I did recommend it and I suggested it to a few friends and a few more friends after that. And a lot of people started taking me up on this idea. Walked out the front door during COVID and would go on these long 12 hour walks. And I tell people, I don't care if you walk for one mile or 50 miles, take as many breaks as you want. My 77-year-old mother-in-law did it by walking one time around her block in North Carolina and then sitting on her front porch, but maintaining that stillness and silence for an hour of break and then walking one more time

around her block. She's not doing it any better or worse than my ultramarathon friend who goes 50 miles in his 12-hour walk. But more than anything, it's an exercise of the mind. And each one of those 10 factors that you mentioned, each chapter of the book is around one of those limiting beliefs. As I said, I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I'm afraid to fail. I don't like being uncomfortable. But the 12-hour walk, rather than just reading the book, the book is powerful and sets you up for the walk of yourself. But I find that lessons imprint the deepest when you have a somatic or a lived experience yourself. And so the 12-hour walk, the walk, doing the walk and completing it yourself

is actually a way to imprint these lessons. And the book, again, you know, we're speaking briefly here, but the book, again, gives guidance how the walk itself actually lends to you to overcome those limiting beliefs. And I've seen it. I've had thousands and thousands of people complete the walk at this point all over the world. I think 30 or 40 different countries, people have done the walk at this point and growing every single day. And you can do this any single day out your front door. I've got a website, 12hourwalk.com. You sign up, it's completely free. You download my app that helps track your walk and tell you how far you've gone, etc. But more than anything, people come back. And again, all different cultures, all different parts of the world, all different places,

they come back changed. Wow, I've never done something like that. Wow, it was the first time I was able to dive into my psyche in a way without the distraction of phone buzzing or people talking to me. It's a walking meditation of sorts, but it is a very simple but very powerful medium. And I'm really proud and excited to continue to share and perforate this idea. from exotic beach locations around the world. It's the perfect housewarming gift, a great addition to any home or office, and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner.

Bliss Beaches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five-star rating. Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of Bliss Beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. I do a lot of mentoring and coaching. It's a passion of mine. And one of the most common

reasons that people come to me is to ask me for advice because they don't know what they want to do, what they should do after they get out of school or for the next job if they're ready, or if they're already in the workforce, or for a new career if they don't like their current one, or in their personal relationships with a significant other. But you think this is sort of a waste of time. You said that everyone really knows what they want to do. Can you explain that? Obviously, there's a time and a place to make a pros and cons list, a do's and don'ts, what you like, what you don't. But I do find that we all actually do have a pretty strong inner knowing, that we do all have a strong intuition. And so I found, and I recommend this to the 12-Hour Walk, and I won't share the

story here, but a story of where my intuition saved my life in a really significant climbing disaster in Pakistan. And I say to people, here's an example. You've been in a relationship for a few years, and you're thinking, oh, is this the person I should marry? You're lying in bed at night thinking, is this person lying next to me the person that I should marry? And you have the answer. And you go, oh, well, he or she's from a good family. And then you start playing all the pros and cons. This is their job and this is their likes and dislikes and whatever. And all that's just like data. And that's not like noise. And I say like, look, you know, deep down, you know the answer to that question. This is a 12-hour walk is an invitation to say like, go for a 12-hour walk in stillness and silence of your own brain. You are going to come back more connected to your

intuition and your inner knowing. And so again, I can apply that across all sorts of big decisions and decisions people make. But I fundamentally do believe, particularly in the big questions, the kind of heart-filling, fulfillment-level, purpose-driven types of questions, that we do have the answer. We do have the answer. We do have the answer inside of us, and only we know that. But I think in a busy, noisy world, sometimes it's easy to be distracted from your deeper truths. And so tuning into that stillness and silence can be a really powerful way to unlock that. Another limiting belief we have is I don't have the time. And on the flip side, by the way, when someone says I'm busy, and I can't do it and I don't

have the time, I think it's one of the greatest insults in life. I think it's disrespectful. It means you're not important. And everyone has time for things that they believe in and that they want to do. We all have the same 168 hours in a week. What's your brief advice on this for people who think they don't have the time to go out and do things? Take a walk. I struggle with this all the time. I work 70 hours a week, typically minimum, seven days a week, including four hours or five hours on Saturday and Sunday, both.

And I need to, it's one of the things I need to work on. Of course, I have the time to work on. I have time to hit my Peloton. What's your advice to people who like me say, I don't have the time to do certain things? Yeah. I mean, I think it's certainly one of the most common pushbacks I hear from people when it relates to the 12-hour walk. I think that it's kind of funny. I agree with you when someone says, oh, I'm too busy for that. It really just means I'm not prioritizing that. And if they're talking about something like, oh, sorry, I'm too busy to meet you for dinner anytime in the next month. It's just the fact of the matter is take it for what it is. Like, oh, you're not a priority to have dinner with this month. Like that's just what it is because we do make the times for the

things that are at the top of our priority list. And then honestly, it's important to filter that. It's actually important to know what to say no to. Also, that's really, really, really fundamental to this. So you shouldn't just have That's really, really, really fundamental to this. So you shouldn't just have whatever silly example, but dinner with every random person that invites you to dinner, because maybe you actually have other priorities, other things that are more important than catching up with whomever that month. But we do all have the same 168 hours. And one of the things that I go through for people in the book, I'm like, okay, so you don't have enough time. But I ask people like, you know, have you ever seen Game of Thrones?

And most people in American culture are like, oh yeah, I love that show. I love that show. I'm like, cool. So there's 72 hours of Game of Thrones. Somehow you figured out how to get in there, you know, watch all of those episodes, even though you don't have enough time. Okay. Or, you know, social media, we all know this.

I use social media, you know, I'm guilty of this myself. But the metrics on the amount of time people spend on social media or scrolling random stuff on their phone is astronomical. I mean, if you took back 30 minutes of that every single day, you would have so much more time. And so it really comes down to filtering and prioritizing that. But as it relates to the 12-hour walk specifically, it feels like 12 hours. Wow, that's so long, or that's so long to be alone, or that's a whole day. But here's the thing. How many days in the last 365, if you're listening to this podcast, do you even remember? What'd you do last Tuesday? What'd you do a month ago? What'd you do six months ago? Most of us, myself included, couldn't just answer for you all of

these things that you've done, just lay that out. The 12-hour walk is a gift to yourself. It's an investment in yourself. The subtitle of it is Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life. And I say to people, this 12 hours, although in the very short run mean you might have to sacrifice something for you, not work four or five hours on a Saturday or find childcare for your kids or whatever your hangups are around the time, that 12 hours has such an exponential benefit to the rest of your life that it is worth it. It is worth it.

And when people have these limiting beliefs, whether it's any of the ones we're talking about, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough time, I don't know what to do, et cetera. When they apply that to the 12-hour walk, what I love is when people hear about the 12-hour walk for the first time right now, whatever limiting belief pops up in your head, let's say it's, I don't have enough time. Be aware of that because

I say the 12-hour walk exercise happens not when you step out and walk out your front door to actually do it. The process begins when you hear about it for the first time because your mind can't help but have some reaction to it. And the reaction might be like, that's the stupidest, dumbest, waste of an idea I've ever heard. I'm going to delete this guy. I'm going to block Colin O'Brady on Instagram because he's just a charlatan. Maybe that's your reaction, but you had a reaction, right? More often than not, people say, oh, that sounds kind of interesting, but then fill in the blank limiting belief. And here's the thing. I'm holding up, just by inviting you to the 12-hour walk, whether you do it or not, I am holding up a mirror to you of your

own limiting belief, your own limiting beliefs. And what I found more often than not is if I don't have enough time or I'm afraid to fail or I don't like being uncomfortable is what popped into your mind first, it's likely that that's the same limiting belief that is looping on your brain in all sorts of other things, all sorts of ideas, all sorts of opportunities that are coming into your life. But if that first thing that comes into your mind is, I don't have enough time. But then you go, wait, I want to find time for this. And you prioritize it. Then you take the 12-hour walk. On the other side of the 12-hour walk, some other opportunity comes up for you. And your mind does the same thing. It goes, I don't have enough time. Then you go, wait a second.

I remember the last time I thought I didn't have enough time, but I still found the time. Oh, right. I don't have to listen to this. So it's not necessarily that you'll never have the thought of those limiting beliefs again, at least in a knee-jerk reaction. But you realize that you have the agency and control to actually make those shifts. When I'm without my phone for an hour or two, it happens sometimes when you buy a new phone, take it into the Apple Store, you have to download all that data. I feel naked without my phone. I feel scared without my phone. What if something happens? It's a security blanket. For so many of my friends, they feel the exact same way. I mean, it's to the point where we put it on the dinner table when we're out at a restaurant. I have a rule now, it doesn't come near the dinner table when I'm with my family and I make my kids put their phone in a cell tower

when I'm with them as well. But like you said, one step at a time. And I think if you just start with little micro movements, 30 minutes, one hour, and just kind of build up to it, it's something that I'm going to strive for. And I am going to complete the 12-hour walk. That's a promise from me to you. And I think it's a great, great concept. Let's talk about money and it's important in our lives. You do a lot of public speaking. And when you ask your audience, what is standing in the way of them living their best life, the number one response is, I don't have enough money. Can you tell us about the two different mindsets of scarcity and abundance? And in search of excellence, where should money rank in our pursuit of happiness and goals in life? It's a great question. Certainly, in researching this

book and really diving into all the concepts and writing this book, I wanted to find out from people what was their perception of what was standing in their way of living their best life. And I have a decent-sized social media following. So I asked the hundreds and thousands of followers that I have the same question, what's standing in the way of living your best life? I thought, maybe I'm going to get thousands and thousands of different answers. But it turned out that I got the same answers thousands of times. And the number one answer was, I don't have enough money. This perception that if I had more money, I would be more close to living my best life. And look, I have been in that same headspace myself, and it's not to

belittle money. In fact, obviously, we talked before, I had this massive goal. And the biggest thing standing in the way of me even attempting that first world record was having the financial resources to pull it off. The book goes deeper into this, so I won't go through all of this. But basically, there's a framework that I have in there of setting a big goal, having this belief in abundance versus scarcity, having a belief that actually, if there are financial resources you need to have to achieve whatever you want, that they exist. They don't exist like knock you over the head, buy a lottery ticket exists, but they exist by that perseverance, that pursuit, that dedication, and ultimately that belief in the abundance mindset. You know, furthermore, I think it's more important question

to answer in this moment is your second question, which is about how high should money rank in terms of fulfillment? You know, I've worked hard in my life. I'm proud of the financial success that I've had. I was certainly growing up without a lot of money. It was something that I was curious about and wanted to pursue and continue to pursue in a number of ways. That said, one of the reasons I'm so excited about the 12-hour walk itself is that it's free. Yeah, it costs you 12 hours of your time, but you can do this out your front door. You don't have to travel anywhere to do it. Assuming you have a pair of tennis shoes, they don't have to be brand new Nikes or brand new whatever. Literally, just whatever shoes you're shoes wearing take as many breaks you want.

The point is that it's accessible. And one of my funny sort of laughters during this COVID moment was, you know, I went all the way to Antarctica, and I had this epic adventure of walking across this continent. And don't get me wrong, I'm so proud of that. I wouldn't take that away from one of my proudest achievements and amazing experiences I've ever had. But ultimately, the feeling that I was looking for with that was a sort of depth of fulfillment, this presence of mind, this calm, this peace. And I found that also walking by myself out my front door on the Oregon coast during COVID cost me nothing. I didn't have to get on a plane.

I didn't have to fly to the ends of the earth to have this lesson. And so I do think that there's one of the reasons that I am proud and excited about the 12-hour walk and really spreading it as widely as I can around the world is that you don't. Many of the most incredible things in life don't cost anything. I love this phrase, no matter where you go, there you are. Sometimes we think if we have more money or the biggest house or we can fly to this exotic destination on the other side of the world, we're going to somehow be happy.

But no matter where you go, there you are. If you're not happy with yourself on an internal level intrinsically, that fulfillment is not going to come by some sort of financial gain or reward on the other side of the world or a bigger house down the street in the neighborhood or something like that. I'm certain of that. So speaking of money and its importance, I think one of the most important things about money is the ability to give back. When you have a lot of money and its importance, I think one of the most important things about money is the ability to give back. When you have a lot of money, you can influence friends, colleagues, and sometimes people you don't know to give money in support of things that you believe in. That leads us to philanthropy, which is hugely important to you as it is to me. Let's go back to the Explorers Grand Slam and the inspiration behind it and what motivated you to do it. Can you tell us about Beyond 72 and its missions and in search

of excellence, how important is it to give back to our community? I think that one of the things that really rang true for me, I was so excited about my triathlon pursuits and trying to make the Olympics in that phase of my life. But I also recognized that if I won a race or I lost a race, it was sort of like, it was good for me, or maybe my sponsor was happy, or if I lost a race, they were dissatisfied, but it didn't have a broad reach of impact. And as I made that shift or that pivot from racing triathlon professionally to pursuing my first big world record project with the Explorers Grand Slam, Jenna and I, my wife, we sat down and we're like, what are our values? Just in general, forget about the sort of achievements, but like, what are our values? What legacy do you want to leave behind? And I was like, you know, I still want to push myself as a professional athlete at this

phase of my life. But I also, hmm, I'm thinking about that. Like, oh, I also want to have impact greater than myself. I want my actions and my energy to have a multiplying effect and an exponential effect on others. And both Jen and I have been really passionate about kids and kids' health specifically, as probably everyone's well aware, the childhood obesity epidemic, the unhealthiness, kids sitting behind screens, not moving their bodies is really detrimental to health and mental

health. And so we said, let's make sure whatever we do next, it has a tie into that. And so really, you know, one of our largest goals, and when we started that Explorers Grand Slam World Project, we found a nonprofit, which we still have today called Beyond 7-2. The seven and the two Stanford at the time, it was the seven summits and the two poles, but wanted to have impact beyond that. And the goal, and it continues to be the goal, is to really inspire young people to get outside, move their bodies, live active and healthy lives. And in a lot of ways, although not specifically directed at kids, the 12-hour walk is cut from the same cloth. I love asking this

question, sort of, what's your Everest? Because Everest was my childhood goal, and I love to ask that question to kids and adults and business people, no matter what phase of life we're at, what's your Everest? What's your Everest? And people always ask me, Colin, what's next? And I have certainly ideas for other big expeditions or big adventures or things like that on the horizon in my life, no doubt. But right now, my passion, and it's a derivative of my philanthropic work with Beyond 7-2, is to inspire people all over the world to take this 12-hour walk, to get outside their bodies, or sorry, to get outside their house, move outside their comfort zone, and I'll take this risk and really tap into the power that we have within us. And so that is really interwoven

between my nonprofit work, my work with kids in schools, the 12-hour walk, et cetera, which is to have impact that is just greater than my own sort of personal success or failure. You know, I'll conclude that thought by saying, you know, in the opening part of the 12-hour walk, you know, I share stories from my life. You know, I have some pretty exciting, fun, edge-of-your-seat, you know, stories to share with the world. But I very explicitly say, make no mistake, I'm not the hero of this story. You, the reader, or people listening to audiobook, you, the audiobook listener, are the hero of this story. I'm just sharing from you a few experiences from my life where I've learned a thing or two about a thing or two about stuff, about mindset, etc. But really, in the hopes of my goal, empowering you, the person receiving that or listening to

this podcast, to take that into their own life. And that's the impact that I ultimately care about way more so than my own personal success or failure. In search of excellence, how important is it to give back to others in our community? I think it's hugely important to give back to others in the community. You know, I think that as humans, we have such an amazing power to achieve things ourselves, but more importantly, by living our truths, I think we have this ripple effect of positivity. And so I think about even the 12-hour walk, I think about, you know, if I can inspire one person to take the 12-hour walk, that person takes the 12-hour walk. And as a result of that, they're a better husband, wife, spouse, partner,

colleague, parent, et cetera. What's the ripple effect? What's the compounding effect? And I believe, you know, as we can sort of up-level the impact, up-level the consciousness of each other, we can all raise the tide together. And I think it's hugely important that we all look for ways to give back whatever that might look like within our communities, within our families, et cetera, because I think that's really one of the most beautiful gifts of being alive. Before we finish today, I want to go ahead and ask some more open-ended questions. I call this part of my podcast, Fill in the Blank to Excellence. Are we ready to play? Yeah. When I started my career, I wish I had known. Build excellent teams. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is?

Never give up. My number one professional goal is? I feel like I've achieved it and I continue to achieve it. So I'm very happy with where I am. What's your next expedition? I have not announced anything publicly yet. The one thing I've dreamt of doing for a long time but haven't done is? Well, hopefully be starting a family here very soon. So that'll be a big one. If you could fix one thing in the world, what would it be?

You know, if I had a magic button, I might turn the internet off. Just saying. I think we the internet off. Just saying. I think we were better off before the internet. If you could be one person in the world, who would it be? I'd be pretty excited to sit down with Barack Obama. The one question you wish I'd asked you would be? Your questions were extraordinarily thorough, perhaps the most thorough and prepped questions I've ever, ever had. So, you know, kudos to you. You asked them all. Thank you. I want to go back to your social media question. You said that if you have one wish in the world, there would be no social media or internet. Can you tell us about that?

You know, it's a funny thing. I love hypotheticals. And I say to people, oftentimes people are like, oh, my phone is, you know, it's a funny thing. I just, I love hypotheticals. And I say to people, oftentimes people are like, oh, I'm suffering from my phone is, you know, detriment to me or whatever. And I say to people, I say, great. So imagine I hand you this button, it's a red button. You can push it right now. If you push the button, the entire internet is shut off. And I was like, but obviously like medical records aren't like immediately destroyed. The power plants don't go offline. You know, there's not like a huge like infrastructure crisis. Cause of course, so many things that we have going in this world are now run off the internet. So somehow that's all solved. So the water still works, the power still works, all these things.

It's part of pushing this button in this crazy hypothetical stance. But the internet is gone. It's a silly hypothetical. For me, I'm an old millennial. So I'm 37. I was born in 1985. So I do remember life before the internet. And obviously, there are so many benefits of having the internet, the interconnectivity, the fact that we're having this conversation right now, the proliferation of ideas, the democratization of information, all of those things are so, so, so, so, so beneficial. But look, this is anecdotal. I feel like people are more anxious. I feel like people are more afraid. I think people are more polarized. I think, although we feel like we're connected to so many people because we are at our fingertips

in a way, I think people have forgotten how to connect, look each other in the eyes, ask a neighbor for help, things like that. And I do think that kind of coded in our tribal DNA, going back in the thousands of years, there is something about that deep interpersonal human-to-human connection that seems to be more and more and more lost over time as the internet scales. And so again, I can see the pros and cons to both, but if you handed me that red button, I think I'd hit it and take my chances with the no internet world. Colin, I'm in total awe of the things you've accomplished. They're truly inspirational. You've inspired me to push myself further and you've inspired millions of other people to push themselves and help them realize their potential. I'm very grateful for

your time and for sharing your story with us. You know, Randall, I've been interviewed hundreds of times, done hundreds of podcasts, live TV, et cetera. And you quite honestly might be the most prepared interviewer that I've ever had. You have clearly dove deep into the preparation and the details and I'm astounded. Thanks for having me. And I'm very excited for you to take the 12 hour walk

and look forward to hearing about your experience when you complete it. Thank you. You're awesome. Have an awesome day. You too. Appreciate it. Bye.