Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Make The Impossible Possible! Colin O'Brady On Being The First Ever To Cross Antarctica Unassisted And Climbing Mount Everest TWICE!

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Colin O'Brady (@colinobrady) is a professional endurance athlete, adventurer, motivational speaker and bestseller author of the books "The Impossible First" and "The 12 Hour Walk". Some of his most impressive conquests include a world-first solo crossing of Antarctica, a world-first ocean row across Drake Passage (from South America to Antarctica), and summiting Mt. Everest twice. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the transformative power of talking a 12 Hour Walk, breaking your limiting beliefs, what climbing Mount Everest is really like, what motivates him and much more! Learn more about Colin at http://colinobrady.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Create a beautiful website for your podcast is just 5 minutes: https://www.podpage.com/?via=cvv Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, yeah, welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet, and if you haven't yet, please take a moment to leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's so quick to do it, and I can't even explain to you how much it helps the show. So thank you in advance for that. I am freshly back from Nashville, where we hosted a live episode of Insight with special guest, Claudio Castagnoli, who you'll be hearing that interview with him in the next week or so.

And how is such a great conversation. It's really the first interview he's done since, one, leaving WWE, and two, becoming Ring of Honor world champion. And it was also so great meeting so many of you in person at Starcast, and to be able to shake your hand or give you a hug. And the plan is to do a lot more in-person live interview. So I'll keep you posted about when the next one is happening because it would be so awesome to spend some time with you. And it was so awesome spending some time with Colin O'Brien on this episode. Colin is a freaking beast.

Not only has he climbed Mount Everest twice, he also holds the world record for the Explorer's Grand Slam, which is climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. as well as the North and South Pole. Oh, yeah, and he's also the first person to ever complete a solo unsupported, human-powered crossing of Antarctica. That took him 54 days and 932 miles. And it's Antarctica, so it's like minus 80 degrees with the windshield. His story is equal parts fascinating and inspiring, and I know you're going to love this.

He has a new book out called The 12-hour Walk that talks about his conquests and also the power of unplugging and spending some time with yourself, just walking without any external distractions. You can find him on Instagram. He's at Colin O'Brien. You can find me at Chris Van Fleet

and take a screenshot of this and tag us, let us know what you thought of this. I know you're going to love it. Here we go. It's me and Colin O'Bradie. Colin, thank you so much for coming on. So great to be. be here, Chris. Thanks for having me, man. I'm just so fascinated by everything that you've done,

and I think it makes me so curious, like with everything you've kind of ticked off your bucket list, is life still interesting to you? Oh, absolutely. Just because you walk across Antarctica solo and summit Everest a couple times, you know, there's still, what I love to ask people is what's their Everest, you know, what's their goal, what's their dream? That's something I like to ask other people, But I also asked myself that question. After I summoned it Everest the first time, it's not like I was like, I'm going to kick my feet up and do nothing for the rest of my life. It's a continual pursuit of the fulfillment, the curiosity, the adventure of life. I was looking at your YouTube page.

I love that video at the top of all the adventures you've had in the last like couple years with the alligators and all this kind of. Dude, there's always stuff, right? Like, you know, you know. I mean, if Everest was quite literally your Everest, what's your Everest now? You know, it's funny. You know, I humbly sit here, you know, with 10 world records, explore a lot of places in adventure and extreme things. Also, gone deep inside my mind in a lot of different ways. My new book that just, it's coming out right now called The 12 Hour Walk.

I answer that question, literally the last page of the book, so spoiler alert. But I answer that question. I ask people throughout what's their efforts, you know, how do they want to live their best life? What does that look like? And the book is really a prescription for people to get out of their own way, invest one day in themselves, their mind and live their best life. But I answer the question myself at the end. And my answer to that question right now is my next ever is, is actually to inspire 10 million people to take this 12-hour walk. Like what this book is, it's a book. It's a book that'll change your life. But it's also a prescription.

It's actually a challenge. It's an invitation for you to take one day. We could talk about how I came up with this, all this. But it's simple. It's for anyone anywhere to take one day, put their phone on airplane mode, walk out their front door, and spend 12 hours walking alone in silence. And I'd I'm ridiculous, but in one day I've seen this change people's life, unlock the most powerful mindset they've ever had, make shifts. And look, I know you're probably thinking some limiting beliefs are popping up, but we'll talk about that, but it's meant to meet you where you're at. It's like 12 hours of walking, you know, sure, that's hard if you're not in super great shape. But take as many breaks as you want. You know, walk for an hour, take a break. My 77-year-old

mother-in-law completed her 12-hour walk. And what that looked like for her was she walked one time around her block and then she sat on her front porch, but she maintained the solitude and silence for an hour and then she did another lap around her block. So the 12-hour walk is even more of an exercise of the mind, the spirit, the perseverance, the grit. And what I like to say, we can unlock a possible mindset, an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibility. So long answer to your question, Chris, but my excitement was getting me fired up right now is to take what I've learned in this world of adventure and inspire people to take that adventure, unlock their own life, whatever that looks like, and reach the summits of their dreams.

The thing, though, Colin, is like just putting your phone in airplane note for 12 hours, that's a huge accomplishment, like the walking, not even being part of that. Exactly. You know, we live, look, and this is, it's not a vilification of technology overall, right? Like, I love the internet. I love social media. I love, you know, the things that you love as well, you know, internet, Zoom calls, you know, whatever.

Like, I like that because it's a way we can be connected to the world. Yeah. But I do feel like we're living in a time where we are. constantly bombarded by external stimulus, right? And our phones are buzzed, our notifications, whenever. And it's not to say, hey, after this 12-hour walk, now become a monk. You know, that's not part two. Become a monk and delete everything forever. It's actually just saying, like, we do need a reset sometimes. We do need this moment to get to know ourselves. I've asked so many people in researching this book and sharing it with the world, you know, what's the

longest time in the last five or 10 years where you've spent without any external stimulus? And I define this, okay, sleeping doesn't count. Anytime. time there's somebody else in the room you're talking to or you're interacting that that resets the clock. Every time you look at your phone, the clock resets. Every time you listen to music, podcast, TV, whatever, any sort of external stimulates resets the clock. And the average, yeah, I'll ask you to question, Chris, but the average answer is like 30 minutes, maybe, you know, an hour. I mean, yeah, I went fishing last week and I guess I was talking to people, so that doesn't count. Yeah. It's just, it's rare. And what I realize is what I, what I have found with the people that

have done this walk. And like I said, my goal was inspired 10 million people. But people are changed on the other side of it because it's a step outside the comfort zone. It's funny enough, it's an accessible step. This costs nothing. You know, I don't get anything. You don't get like a dollar for every person I inspire to do this. Like, I just want to share this with people because it's powerful and it will change your life. And what it is is that the tools are inside of us. And those external stimulus is important. There's a chapter in the book about cultivating communities, surrounding yourself with amazing people, having, intentionally having that external stimulus to uplift, but knowing yourself, taking a moment to look into your inner thoughts and they'll tell you what, there might be

a few hours in your 12 hours where there's some demons, man, they're definitely a live. You're going, some doubt, some fears, some limiting belief. You know, why haven't you achieved what you want it? I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I'm not strong enough. What if I fail? What have people criticize me?

And the book really breaks down all those common limiting beliefs that we all face. You know, even me sitting here with 10 World Records, like, I bring you in this book to the stories. I bring you into a rowboat and Drake Passage where there's 40 foot swells crashing over my rowboat someone no one's ever done. I bring you to being alone in Antarctica crossing solo and crying by myself out there so much so that the tears are freezing on my face. Sometimes people look at, oh, you're New York Times bestselling author, you've done these world records, you might nothing has gone wrong. And quite possibly the opposite. I have failed so many times. I love to say winners lose the most because that means you're out there trying

and stuff. Winners lose the most, right? But, you know, failure plus perseverance equals success. And so this is really about the fact that you take a day, you close, put your phone in airplane mode, you take this time in silence. You get to know yourself better. You acknowledge some of those weaknesses, maybe, some of those doubts. But as you walk, as you move, what I find when people get back to their front door, they've also taken that hard look in the mirror, but also solved some of their own problems because we have so much power and strength inside of ourselves to achieve extraordinary things. It's all in there. But you just got to take the time to take that risk. Put that phone on airplane mode. Take this journey. Take this challenge. And it will certainly be the beginnings of

unlocking your best life. I have no doubt. So the impetus for this was like, you know, you crossing Antarctica solo. It's 54 consecutive days. And it was 12 hours for the most part walking every day. So what was going through your mind during those 12 hours being unplugged for almost two months? Yeah. No, I mean, it starts there. But I'll preface that by saying, but it gets to a place that is way more accessible than going all the way to Antarctica. So yeah, I, you know, I set myself this massive goal a few years ago to become the first person in history across the entire continent of Antarctica solo. So, of course, that means alone unsupport. It means no resupplies of food or fuel along the way.

So whatever you get dropped with off the edge of the continent, that's all you've got the whole time. And so for me, that meant a 375 pound sled that I was pulling behind me, basically full of food and fuel. One of the reasons I was crying, like I mentioned those early days with the tears freezing to my. My face was, I couldn't even pull my sled basically a mile. I'm like, how the hell am I going to pull this 1,000 miles? So I had to fight and battle those demons. And then unaided or human powers, which means no kites, no dogs, nothing to propel you, just mono-e-mono, you know, dragging the sled.

And people had attempted this over time. A guy, you know, made it 71 days in this expedition once and died just 100 miles from the finish line. Another really, you know, famous explorer, you know, ran out of food and needed to be evacuated from there. People kind of said this is on the edges of what's possible. And so I attempted it. I tried to do my best out there.

And what I found is I was going to run out of food. If I took a day off, I was going to run out of food and fuel. If I walked any less than 12 hours per day, I was going to run out of food or fuel. And I was actually turned out it wasn't just racing history, but I was actually racing this other guy, this badass military British dude named Captain Lou Rudd who kicked my ass in the first week, I will say. But I did catch up to him. I just want to pause you for a second. Is that part of the story so fascinating to me when I've heard you tell this on other podcasts? Did you guys both know that you were starting the mission, the goal at the same time?

It's strangely no, right up until right before. So basically what happened is him and I, and it's not uncommon in the world of adventure, especially when you're trying to do a world first or a world record that you don't broadcast it to everyone in the world a year before you're doing it. Because other people are like, oh, if he's trying it, I'm going to try it. You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, if he's doing it in a year, I'm going to do it 10 months from now. Yeah, exactly. And so we both went about our preparation quietly.

But there's a lot of logistics and complications in Antarctica is the most remote place in the world. And there's a lot of rules, regulations, red tape, whatever. It's what turns out there's really like one guy, one company who has a bush plane that can land on the edge of the continent to land you out there. And since there's like one guy, obviously we both called the same one guy. That guy didn't tell the other ones about it's each other. And then there's only one season where you can actually do this crossing, which is the Antarctic summer. our winter in the northern hemisphere. It wouldn't probably like minus 25.

Yeah, yeah, it's only minus 25, minus 30, you know, with a 50 mile per hour wind show that makes it, you know, 50 mile per hour wind, it gives it, you know, minus 70 wind chill. Just casual. Summer. But, yeah, instead of minus 100 and 24 hours of darkness, it's 24 hours of daylight. So yeah, it's still freezing cold. Don't get dissuaded by that. But both Lou and I looked at this expedition and it was pretty, it comes pretty clear.

Anyone who looks at it goes like there's one guy, one plane, one date you can start, whatever. So the week before we're about to depart, we find out about each other. And then we quickly find out that we're not just doing the same time. Like the guy has just double book the plane and he's like, yeah, you guys are going to sit next to each other at this cargo plane and I'll fly you to your starting point and off you go. So before I know it, I'm sitting and this guy is a total badass. We really intense competition, although we've become friends in the aftermath of all this. He, you know, special, you know, as equivalent of a Navy SEAL in the UK is a special force is like badass military dude, done some incredible projects in Antarctica, highly respected for good reason.

And so I'm sitting next to him. It's not like, it's not no longer like, oh, hey, we're racing history. He looks over as a long lineage of British love polar exploration. Americans, there's not as much history there. And he looks over me, he's like, you know, it should be a Brit that cracks this first. Like, I'm like, what are you doing here? You young whippersnapper. You know, he shouldn't be down here. And I was pretty intimidated. But we both get dropped off. Funny enough, we decide we're going to get dropped off one mile equidistant from the first waypoint. So we're not standing right next to each other. So I get out of the plane, but the plane doesn't even take off. It just drives, you know, a minute across the frozen ice and I see him hop by the plane.

And we kind of wave at each other. It's like that starts a 1,000 mile, two month long head-to-head battle. And, you know, the 12 hours, as you mentioned before, come, came from, at first I thought I could only, you know, a few hours or eight hours or nine minutes, just on my limit. But eventually, I built up to 12 hours in this day when I passed him and I thought, well, starting to look at the math and the spreadsheet. My wife back home was going to help me with the detail. She's like, you're going to run out of food, fuel, calories, whatever, unless this becomes your new normal. And so for the next, you know, every day since then, to the end, 54 days total, I walk for 12 hours. And I had an intentionally deleted my music, my podcast, pretty much all the external stimulus with a thesis

of at first that's going to suck, which it did. But eventually it's going to be better, meaning I'm going to try to find these places in my mind of flow state of bliss, of meditative flow. And I'll tell you what in those first few days. I was like, man, you're an idiot. That was the stupidest. Like, give me a podcast. Give me a few stuff to distract myself. Were you ever close to going, ah, I'm going to, I'm going to, honestly, I'm out of here. Quite a few times, including literally two hours in when I couldn't pull my sled. I called my wife and I said, I know we call our project the impossible first. I think we named it the right thing. This is for sure impossible. I see Captain Lou disappear up the horizon and I'm crying

there. So there were a lot of doubts and a lot of fear. But interestingly enough, as my body decline. I mean, by the end, I had lost so much weight. I couldn't carry enough food to feed myself properly. I was burning 10,000 calories a day. I mean, I was ribs and a bag of bones, and I was roughed up by the end. But my mind got stronger, interesting enough. As my body got weaker, my mind got stronger. And in the last, you know, week or so, and certainly in the last 48 hours, I did this one continuous, 33 hours, 77 mile push continuous to make it to the end. And ultimately, you know, I got there first. I set the record. I was the first person in history to complete this. but what I found inside this silence and this stillness and this harshness of Antarctica

was this deep bliss, this deep fulfillment, this deep connection to purpose, family, energy, love, like just like all of the like high vibe resonance of life. And I thought that I could take that with me forever. You know, I was like, I learned that lesson. Hell yeah. I know how to tap into this. And that gave me a lot, a lot of strength. And then the following years, a lot of positive things happened.

wrote a book, New York Times, I celebrated my first book, just a lot of positive momentum, did another expedition, you know, a lot of things going well, and then COVID hits, right? COVID hits. And just like the rest of us, I mean, my life, you know, no worse than probably in a lot of ways there's a lot of people worse off than me, but like just a scary time, right? Well, everybody's life just came to like a screeching halt. Right, like everything's canceled. I had an expedition plan to Everest canceled, book tour canceled, all the things I had planned

canceled and I'm just looking at the news and it's just getting worse and worse like don't leave your house people are dying you know all this fear all this anxiety and and I fully succumbed to that man I was in Oregon where I'm from on the Oregon coast was just my wife and my dog and like I remember like a month in my wife looking she's like you haven't gotten out of your pajamas in three days just sitting here like doom scroll on your phone like you know it's not really my orientation the world pretty optimistic guy but like depression anxiety fear just like the whole situation just in a bad funk And so I said, she's like kind of starting to think through like, when was the last time you felt really filled up? When you felt like, you know, peak moment, just be good in your body, mind, soul.

And I thought, you know, it sounds ridiculous because Antarctica felt like it was trying to kill me every. Like the personify Antarctica is this place that's just trying to kill me every single day. But strangely, I was like, the last time I was like just tapped in was when I was out there. And so I said to my wife, I go, okay, this might sound ridiculous. But tomorrow, because I'm willing to try anything at this point to break the cycle of negativity during COVID, I'm going to go for a long walk. In fact, I'm going to go for a 12-hour walk alone in silence. Like I did in Antarctica and she just laughs at me because she knows all this crazy shit that I've done over. She's like, all right, see it sunset, basically.

And I go out 20 minutes in, I'm walking on the Oregon coast and my phone buzz is in my pocket. And I'm like, instinctively pull my phone on my pocket who's texting me or whatever. And I kind of stopped myself short. I'm like, I've been scrolling social media, do scroll on the news, Zoom calling my parents, checking in and take their okay. Like, what am I? I don't need my phone right now. And so I just like, phone on airplane mode.

And I commit to it. I just commit in that moment. And it was a profound experience. I came back to my front door on the Oregon coast. And my wife, before I even said a word to her, she was like, you're back. You're back. Like, you just see it, the shift. And it was true.

And so I thought, okay, whatever. I'm the guy who walked across Antarctica. I'm the guy, you know, whatever. all, you know, physical feats of, you know, endurance and strength. Like, maybe this is just some ridiculous thing that works for me. But as we all knew during that time, you know, friends, family members, people struggling, right? You'd call your buddy and be like, yo, man, like, I'm not doing well. Like, you know, and so I started just kind of offering this up to people, just kind of saying like, hey, this might sound ridiculous, but I tried this thing and it actually like really

made a massive shift for me in one day. And people had, you know, the time to do it. So before I knew it, I had all sorts of friends from different backgrounds. And even, like I said, my 77 year old mother-in-law, like, you know, young, old, you know, rich, poor, it's like, oh, you know, every demographic, people trying this thing out. And every single person came back. Like I said, some people walk five miles. Some people walk 50 miles. Some people took a lot of breaks. Some people didn't. But the effect, the silence, the stillness, the commitment to that was the same. And people, people, people are walking out the front door. I'm telling people like, well, if I'm in Manhattan, I can't possibly, no, no, no, no. It doesn't matter if there's cars driving past you or other people

walk in the street. You're committing to silence. You're committing to your own silence. You're not talking to everyone that's walking. down the street, but you're in signs. You can do this literally anywhere out your front door, big city, small city, trail, road. It doesn't matter. And so this book at its core, it'll excite you. There's a nice review that came out recently that said, you know, whether you're looking for adrenaline seeking storytelling, edge of your seat, adventure, or personal development, or a combination of both, there's something in this book for everyone. So it's not some academic textbook that kind of is going to boy you to sleep. But it is about

this call to action and it's ultimately about mindset. It's ultimately about the 10 most common and limiting beliefs that we all face. Like I said, I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. What if I fail? What if people criticize me? And breaking that down and empowering people to what I call a possible mindset. I believe that all of us have this ability and an empowered way of thinking that unlocks the life of limitless possibilities. But don't just read my book and take my word for it. I want you to read my book. I think there's a lot of positivity in there. But take the action. Do the thing. The 12-hour walk itself is what imprints this. I will tell you the people that I known. Like I said, my goal was to inspire 10 million people. Chris, hopefully you're one of them,

is when people take this walk, the shift in one day is huge. The shift towards people's left life. The people think people sort out in their brain by taking that day, that silence that space. It's hugely, hugely impactful. And I'm just excited to spread that word. I think the thing that's so great about it is it's within reach because I think a lot of people will look at you and see all the accomplishments you've had, like, walking across Antarctica or climbing the tallest peaks in the world. Or they'll look at someone like Tom Brady with seven Super Bowl rings and they don't see all of everything along the path to get there. They just see the finished product. I love that this is attainable. You could literally start this right now. You're, you know, minute one of your 12-hour walk could begin right now. Then I also think about the idea of like, well, if you've accomplished that, what else could you accomplish in your life that you're not allowing yourself to do? 100% and that's the power of the 12-bar walk it proves to you this inner strength you know

this this what's interesting that I found and what the book is about I love what you say about you know the Tom Brady super bowl example I don't consider myself a Tom Brady that's for sure but I've had some success what the book breaks down is I bring you through these rich storytelling that you know that the edge of K2 in the middle of winter in Pakistan where you know unfortunately I lost some friends in a climbing accident or this roboat middle of Drake Passages, Crazy Ocean or, you know, Antarctica Solo, various other things. But it's actually me showing you that I have all these same living belief. That the stories are, and I'm awesome and I did it.

It's like, no, this is me afraid. This is me afraid of failing. This is me, you know, you know, this is me actually failing. This, you know, like the book comes from a place of vulnerability that's like, look, man, like we're, I don't care who you are. We're all dealing with this shit, this negative inner dialogue. But we can rewrite that. We have the power to.

Like you said, built as an accessible way of like people, well, I don't know what to do. And I, you know, this two year long process, the sign up, it's like, no, you can make this change today. I promise you, you spend these 12 hours, you invest this one day in yourself. You walk back in that front door, a completely different, stronger, better version of yourself. And I think it's important to point out, like, I think that on the outset, people look at a

12 hour walk as like, this is some sort of a fitness challenge. No, this is like a mental health challenge. Totally. I say that at the very, I say that at the end of the book, actually, I say people like, on the surface, like, oh, yeah, it's like a marathon or a train for this. It's like, that's why I say it meets you where you're at. If you're in an ultramarathon shape, you know, you might not get tired and you might go more miles than the next guy.

But this is an exercise in the mind. I'm fond of saying the most important muscle any of us has is the six inches between our ears. And I use that word muscle for the mind very intentionally because for some reason, we all have this, even if we're not in the fitness or working out or whatever, it's like, you're like, you want to get jacked for your summer beach body. you're like, go hit the gym, like lift weights, do the bicep curls, do the, you know, ab work, whatever. Like that we know that.

Just like almost like intuitively, we understand that concept. But it's the same for the mind, but we don't intuitively understand that, which is if you want to strengthen the mind, you got to do the reps, you got to do the bench press. You got to do the bicep curls for the mind, right? And that's what this 12 hour walk is. It's like saying like, I'll tell you something you probably haven't done recently. Put your phone on airplane mode and listen to your internal thoughts for 12 hours. Like, yo.

That scares a lot of. That's scary, man. That's scary. You know, it's scary. It's hard. But this is supposed to be a step outside of the comfort zone. One thing I've realized, you know, I was severely burning a fire in Thailand in 2008. I was told I would never walk again normally.

Really, really low moment in my life. And as I go through the book, I tell you about all sorts of setbacks crying. Like I said, crying an article on day one with frozen tears on my face. Like, that's a bad. That's a low moment, man. But then I got to the other side. Or I've accomplished these things after being burned and recovering from this accident. So I realized, like, the peak arc of life is this scale of one, I think of it as a scale of one to

10. I think of, you know, one being our lowest moments, these, these low moments, the frozen tears, the burn accident, whatever massive setbacks we have. And the 10 being these high highs, these accomplishments, these challenges achieve for me, achievements, but also just this fulfillment, you know, the marrying my wife, the day of first challenge, we're at these peak moments. And what you realize is that I realized that the ones that I've had, or excuse me, my 10s didn't happen in spite of my ones, but because of my ones, right? Like actually, all of those peak moments,

those high highs are because I've had a willingness to take that risk, to step outside of my comfort zone. And I think too often, because of modern conveniences, a lot of people are stuck in what I call the zone of comfortable complacency, this four to six range, where it's like, you got a job, like, it's fine, it pays the bills, whatever, but like, you know, it's a five, you know, or you're dating someone and, like, it's not toxic. It's not abusive. It's not horrible. It's just sort of like, we've been together for a few years. We co-habitate or we co-parent, you know, whatever. It's like, eh. Like, it's fine. I don't want to, like, blow this off because it's like fine. People ask me all the time. Colin, are you afraid of dying of dying of dying of dying? I'm like, man. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know you resonate with this, Chris, which is, but I'm more afraid of not living, man. I'm more afraid of not living fully. And if living fully means I'm going to experience some ones, I realize allowing myself to experience some ones also a open. the door to the tent, the full pendulum swing of the tapestry of life. The 12-hour walk, there are going to be some, maybe a one, but there certainly might be some two or some three,

some tired feet, some negativity in your mind. You're questioning, why the hell did I do this stupid 12-hour walk thing? But you get back to your front door. Oh, wait, I accomplished that. I did that. I proved to myself that I could battle against my own limiting beliefs and look what I've done. I want to tell that to my mom, share it on my social media, talk to somebody about it, share it, share what I learned because you allowed yourself to not have another five day. Like, think about the amount of days in the last year that you can't even remember. Like, I don't even know what I did last Tuesday. I just on autopilot. I went to, you know, did the thing, the to-do list, the whatever. Like, I promise you, you're going to remember this 12-hour walk a year from now, five years

from down, 10 years from now. When you stack those things that are meaningful, you allow that full tapestry of life. You break free of that zone of comfortable complacency. And that, I think, is where the juice of life and growth and depth lives. But I'm fascinated by the idea that we define ourselves by either the things that we've done or the things we haven't done in our life. Like, we all know that person who ran one marathon 15 years ago. And they're like,

well, I ran that one marathon. I'm a marathon runner now. And then you see actual marathon runners who like do this every month. You know, it's like a marathon a month or something like that. And I love the idea of this, that this 12-hour walk can be the thing that defines you,

can also be the jumping off point to all those other things in your life that maybe I've been sitting on the back burner for, you know, most of your life. A hundred percent. And, you know, we talked about the top of this, but like that question I love to ask, and it sounds like your mother-in-law recently read the book and was asking herself the same question, you know, what, what's her efforts? What's your efforts? And it's a, it's an easy question, right?

It's an easy metaphor of like, what's your big goal? I'll answer in a couple ways. One is having climbed Everest myself, I still have to ask myself that question. over and over again, like we talk about it and just climb, like you said, you're not the marathon guy did the once 15 years ago. I did a marathon, you know, whatever. I mean, if I went to a party and there was someone there who climbed Mount Everest, I'd be pretty fascinated to talk to them. But what's interesting is that iterative nature of that, which is, again, where the 12-hour walk

meets you, it's a worthy question throughout your life, right? What's my next Everest? What's the next thing that's going to light me up? Not because you're constantly seeking or craving the next thing, the next thing, but really it's like, that's a life fully lived of not just also resting on your laurels, right? And not just being like, well, I did it. Now I'm just going to mail it in for the next like 40 years and talk about the good old days, right? And I open up this book actually talking about a conversation I had with a guy who was 75, 80 years old, you know, very successful financial guy. And he's still going like, man, what is my efforts? You know, even at that late stage of life of questioning, you know, do I have regrets or go now? Can I,

is there a way to not live with regrets? What still is going to let me up? And that answer, you know, could be make a million dollars. And keep. save a million lives. If we start that business, it could be learn the piano, it could be spend more time with my kids. Like, there's no right answer to that question. And that's what's great about the 12-hour walk. It's a solo thing. It allows you to answer that question for yourself. I don't have that answer for you. Chris doesn't have that answer for you. We only have that for ourselves internally. Everest has always been really fascinating to me. And I've heard a lot of people talk about how recently Everest's change has become like this tourist destination. What is it actually like if you

make the commitment that you're going to climb Mount Everest. I hear you're climbing it now with hundreds of other people every single day. So that is unfortunately a misnomer that's sort of been passed down based on one picture that got taken back in, I think it was 2018 and 2019 by a really incredible climber NIMS who did this incredible World Record project over there. A guy, a friend of mine, he's done some amazing things. But he took a photograph and it went viral on the internet. And it was a picture of basically a bunch of people towards the summit lined up on this ridge. And what happened, that one specific day is a complete anomaly, weird edge case scenario, which is basically Everest can only be climbed in the third or fourth week of May.

And that's because 50 weeks out of the year, it's getting battered by the jet stream, 100 mile per hour winds on the summit. Right before the monsoon season over there, the jet stream shifts off the mountain. So people sit there for a month or two, planning, preparing, acclimatizing, going up the mountain, and they wait for this weather window. And that weather window usually lasts about a week or 10 days. The typical ever season now will have 500, 600 climbers on the mountain throughout those two months. And maybe people summit throughout 10 to 12 days. So maybe there's 30 to 40 people on any given day.

But on this season, I think it's 2019, 18 or 19, there was terrible weather. and the good weather never came. And so all these people were stacked up and it was a perfect storm. And there was one good day of weather, basically. And so every team on the mountain went at the exact same time. And it caused, you know, it's a tiny little narrow ledge to get to the summit. And it caused a traffic jam and this guy took a picture of it. And everyone's like, oh, there's a line to get to the summit of Everest.

It's like that every single thing. That's the narrative. Yeah. I know. So first of all, there is, certainly has it become more commercialized than it was, you know, 20, 30, 50 years ago, 100%. Yes. Yes. Are there people on that mountain that shouldn't be there? You know, rich business guy from whatever who just wants to, you know, walk around the cocktail party and say climbed Everest but didn't really want to train for it. Like, yes, unfortunately, there is some of that over there. But even that year where that picture was taken, the other 364 days of that year, there was literally nobody on the summit of that mountain. And it's unfortunate that that narrative has been been passed down because it is, again, it's totally fine if it's not something you're into, but it's still a very worthy.

challenge. I've been fortunate to sum it twice and I actually close out the 12 hour walk about this. I want you to get the books. I won't tell you the whole story, but I did have the opportunity to climb with my wife on Mount Everest. And that was a big leap for her. She was not, she's not someone who's a lifelong adventure, lifelong mountaineer, but she committed to that goal and then quit that goal and then recommitted that goal. But again, that the whole story plays out in the book. But that was a special experience. to be up there with her and to have that experience and the vulnerability and the intensity of that. But, you know, when people say, oh, it's this carnival tourist destination, I don't know what other tourist

destinations where you go to where you're walking over dead bodies that have been frozen there for five years. That's a real thing. Yeah, the first day I submitted in 2016, three people died that day. My wife and I were up there. We passed numerous frozen dead bodies, you know, up there. You know, the risks are real. The challenges are real.

Has it been tame somewhat since, you know, 19. 1554 when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensignorget made it to the summit and they were on the very edges of that without Cortex and the technology of GPS. Yes, of course, it has changed since then. But it is by no means a day hike that is to be taken lightly. That's for sure. Yeah. So if someone has the resources and the money to fly over there and do this, is it possible without training? Like what does it look like? No, I mean, most people train a lifetime for it, right? Or most people definitely dedicate a significant portion of time. You know, one example would be the shortest time frame that I've really seen this happening in terms of going from no mountaineering to

summoning is a couple of years. My friend, you know, Mike Posner, he's the famous pop musician that took a bill and a beast or whatever, he's a good friend of mine. And he walked across America in 2019. And got bit by a rattleseck on the way. Got bit by a rattleseak on the way. Crazy adventure. And he were buddies. And we would talk while he was walking and he FaceTime me and stuff like that. And he knew, you know, I had done my Antarctica crossing. And he said to me at the end of his walk across America, which was super cool. A lot of people followed along.

Yeah, crazy story about the Battlesnake. You know, he said, you know, Colin, I've been walking across. And he walked on roads, right? He goes, but I've been looking up at the mountains this whole time and realizing, I've spent no time in mountains. I'm down here on these roads. Like, I want to go up to the top of mountain. And obviously we're good buddies. And I said, well, if you fly up to Portland after you.

walk, I'll take you up. Mount Hood, which is the tallest mountain in Oregon, so the mountain I I learned to climb on. And it's a great mountain for learning how to mountaineer because it requires ice acts, it requires crampons, it requires some technical proficiency. But I have a high degree of confidence that I can teach somebody a friend, particularly if they're in reasonably good shape and get you to the top. So you have that big mountain experience. You know, it's not just a day hike. It's not a trail. It's just hike in to climb. And so I take him up there and it's just me and Posner at at sunrise and he just is just elated. He's just lit up. Talk about a 10 moment for both of us. But his out of people that fall in his discoveries. His stoke is so high. He was like,

oh my God, man, this is freaking amazing. Like, I want to be the mountains. It's incredible. And when we're walking back down, he says, do you think I could climb Everest one day? It's actually the question you asked. He's like, I literally that morning taught him how to put on his grandparents, taught I'm how to use an X, right? He was like, very, very much. I'm a beginner. I don't know any of this. But I got him to top of his first mountain. And I said, I said, definitely, man, if you commit to training for it. And he's like, well, can you train me? I'm doing this other expertise.

I don't have enough time to just sit here and train you. I'd love you able to do some climbs together. But I introduced him to my good buddy in mine named Dr. John, who's an amazing climber, some of it ever several times, him and I had done a bunch of projects together. And John's also an incredible, you know, guide for people. That's kind of like what his job is. He's a professor and a mountain guide. And so I said, you guys should meet.

Didn't expect this to happen, but Posner flies to his house five days. later. They climb a mountain in Colorado and very quickly, Posner says, I'm putting my music career more or less on hold. And I'm going to commit to training for Everest for the next 18 months. And he went all in. John and him climbed 80 peaks together. He learned all the things about mountaineering, went on some exhibitions. Tim and I met up a bunch of other times to climb together. And long and story short, on June 1st of 2021, the same day that I got to the summit with my wife, we all went over there on an expedition together. Posner got to the summit of Everest. But that's from that's, you know, 18 months of like putting life on hold and committing and

dedicating himself to it. So can it be done in a short period of time? Yes, if you're like really all in on it. But he got his body, his mind, all things right? And he'll even tell he's been a lot of podcasts talking about his story of that. Like it was on the edge of his limits. Like he was, you asked me, hey, pose, you want to go back up Everest again? He's like, not man. Like once was like good enough. Like I like, he's just like, glad I did it. Don't need to ever do it again. So it's not a day hike, that's for sure. How many days does it take?

It's usually a typical expedition last two months. Two months, wow. Two months. Yeah. So what people don't realize is that. I think there's so many misnomer's about this. Yeah, you got to go over there. So the thing about the human body, right, is we, if I dropped you off on the summit of Everest, Chris, right now, I had a magic helicopter and drop you off from the summit of Everest, you would survive for like about a minute before passing out because you're

you're sitting at sea level, your body's not acclimatized, you would feel like there was no oxygen, you'd pass out. Even if I gave you some supplemental oxygen, which you know, some large percentage of climbers used, you would also probably pass out in five or 10 minutes. That wouldn't sustain you either because the air is so thin. So the way you actually have to climb Everest, even if you're using supplemental oxygen for the summit push, is you have to acclimatize your body, meaning you start, you know, on this trek to base camp at 7,000 feet and you feel out a breath. And then you climb to 9,000 feet to this little tea hut and you spend a couple nights. And then you climb a little bit higher to 11,000 feet. And slowly your body creates more

red blood cells and get used to the more thin air. And then when you actually get to the mountain base camps at 17,000 feet. So that's high. I mean, that's, you know, 3,000 feet higher than anything in the lower 48. But you're just at base camp now. The mountain's 29,000 feet, you know, tall. And so you, you keep climbing. And what you actually have to do is there's four camps above base camp. You go to camp one. And then you actually don't people don't realize, then you climb back down to base camp. Then you climb to camp one, camp two, spend a couple nights of camp two, climb back down to base camp.

So your body acclimatize and you go back down to rest. And so by the time you get to the summit, you've actually gone up and down the lower parts of this mountain and the technical terrain and the crevasses and all the dangerous elements of it multiple times. And then you're finally ready to get your body ready to go touch 29,000 feet for just a few minutes. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg.

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What does your morning routine look like? Because I don't think you get to where you're at doing what you're doing what you're doing if you just wake up and kind of just go about your day, nilly-willy, willy, willy, nilly. Oh, it's a great question. You know, I, as many people have said, and certainly lots of podcasts, and, you know, the morning is a time of day that I think we can own the best, right? It's kind of before whatever is going to pull you in a million direct, this email,

this thing comes in, this responsibility, this, that, the other thing. Mine has evolved over time and it hasn't been like a constant for 10 years by any means, but I've always taken advantage of the mornings. I'm not a coffee guy, so I don't do any caffeine. But I usually try to move my body, you know, move my body first thing, you know, some sort of workout. Even if it's, you know, even if it's just like a 30 minute, you know, even sometimes I's just walking my dog, you know, just getting up and kind of moving my body. I'm guilty of not doing this often, but I try part of my routine is to not look at the phone first thing, right? Just like allow myself to wake up, move the body.

And then I always have a smoothie and some greens every single day just to get that hydration and food in. So for me, it's pretty simple. The other part of my life that has been somewhat of a constant, definitely an important part of my life, has often happened in the mornings, but not always, is meditation. You know, meditation has been an important practice for me. I have about 10, 11 years ago when I was racing triathlon professionally just after recovering from this burn accident. I was racing triathlon professionally and I was just kind of starting out that path in my life. And this girl, she comes to one of my races, a woman, I should say, she was my buddy's wife.

They just got married, Turkish woman. And she had never been to a professional sporting event before. She's like, I'm not really into sports, but she came because my buddy was coming to watch me do this race. And so they watched the whole triathlon race, obviously the blood and the sweat and the, you know, the exhaustion on your face and collapsing at the finish line. And she just says to me at the finish line, that was really cool to watch. She's like, you're obviously swim, bike and run a ton. What are you doing to train your mind? And I, she was just a total earnest, honest question because she figured I must have some like, really, you know, whatever.

And I was like, honestly, I was embarrassed, man. Like, I felt like I got caught with my pants down. I was like, oh, I, you know, do some visualization. And she was like, wait a second. You're telling me, you're doing this and you're not working on the mind. I was like, okay, full vulnerability. I'm not. Certainly not the level that you might think.

What would you suggest? This is, you know, 10 or 11 years ago. And she suggests, she goes, you know, I've done these 10-day silent meditation retreats. This is a posse on a meditation retreats. And I was like, tell me more. And she goes, yeah, it's no reading, no writing, no eye contact. There's basically in solitude for 10 days. And you're meditating 12 hours a day.

And I said, well, I haven't meditated a minute in my life. But I'm kind of a, as you can see, probably from most of these stories, I'm kind of a dive head first and the deep edge sort of guy. Right. And she's like, it's completely free to sign up. and I was like, I'm signing up, I'm signing up tomorrow. It was a few months later, right, you know, it actually started. I went on the website, I signed up.

And I went. And even though I'm so in my body, you know, like, oh, I can walk so far, move my body this. But the hardest thing for me was to sit still, right? Sit still and observe my thoughts, observe my own mind. But it was an incredibly powerful practice in a lot of ways the 12 hour walk. Certainly I wouldn't have been able to cross Antarctica had I not worked on my mind in this way. And now that derivative of the 12th hour walk, the importance of still.

and silence in our own bodies and minds. But that your question was about the morning routine. But to me, that was the dive and the deep end. But doing something for 10 days in a row, although it's amazing jumpstart. It's an amazing deep immersion. What I'm a big believer in is consistency, man. Like it's that, like it's that daily practice. I think, you know, James Clear does an incredible job talking about this impossible habits, right? It's those one percent. Atomic habits. Excuse me. Sorry. I said impossible. I was an topic habit. You're combining your book. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, he's in a league of his own with that book. It's such an extraordinary work. Yeah, right, but he talks about this. It's like it's not about some one heroic effort in one moment. It's like, you know, day by day, one percent gains, one percent gains. And I think that those bigger things can kind of shock you into that. But even this 12-hour walk, it's an investment of a day. This one day will change your life.

And in the way it might change your life, like I've seen this happen. Is it then you're like, oh, what is now the ripple effect of this 1% shift, this 3% shift, this 5% shift that I can make every single day? Because that's the compounding effort. When I summited Evers for the first time in 2016, as part of the Explorers Grand Slam World Record Project, I did that year, I took a small pebble from the summit with me. And I've carried it around in my pocket for years. And the reason I carried around is it's a personal symbol and a personal reminder that even Mount Everett, the biggest, baddest mountain in the world is actually just a bunch of tiny little pebbles, a bunch of small rocks stacked on top of each other, like millions of steps, tiny little steps

leading to the summit. And that's in the same essence as we're talking about here, which is like just a reminder of like set the big goal, figure out what your Everest is. And I, you know, that is a huge anchor for me. But they now don't get overwhelmed by, oh, the process is so far. It's so hard. I'm never going to research. Like, what can I do today?

What one percent thing can I learn about and just get a, a little bit further to to master my mind, my body, my soul to get me 1%, one-tenth of 1% closer to actually reaching that summit. And that's how you get there. And one of the things I want to key in on here that you're talking about is like, you need to make the commitment that you're actually doing this. Because it's, you know, without that date circled on your calendar, without actually signing up, without actually putting a deposit down, whatever the thing happens to be, it's so easy to put it off for tomorrow and then next week and the next month, which turns into next year and then turns in the next decade. I call that, I call that one day. Oh yeah, yeah, one day, one day, you know,

one day. Yeah, is it day one day? Right. And so, and, and, and even with this 12 hour walk, like, it is built to be done any single day. You can do this any single day the week. You can be listening to your podcast and put your phone on airplane mode right now and start it, right? But I've also built some infrastructure around it to help support this exact thing, that that initial, that inertia to momentum that you need to create by actually signing up. So, 12 hour walk.com, you sign up. The first thing I actually is pick your date. Just commit to it.

It could be any single day, but commit to your date. And then, of course, I'm going to send you a few inspirational emails along the way to keep you on track. Well, you said it was going to be this date. So you're a week out. You're five days out. I'm cheering for you. I'm rooting for you to commit to that. And then the other thing I've done, which is fun in this moment, which is on September 10th.

Book comes out on August 2nd, but on September 10th, I'm inviting mass participation. You're still doing the walk alone. You're still doing it from your front door, you are, but there are already thousands of people signed up on September 10th doing this walk all around the world. And I've got an app that puts your phone on airplane mode, but actually allows you to track yourself. So you know where you've gone. You know how far you've gone. It's into, I've solved that problem for you. It's like, yeah, wait, but I get lost. So I need my phone. Yep, great. This is going to track you, but your phone's still in airplay mode and you'll

know how far you've gone. You won't get lost. So I've solved that for you with the 12 hour walk app. But on September 10th, I'm inviting mass participation because it's that accountability. Well, when will I do this one is it's like if you're struggling, I encourage you to do it on any day. But if you're struggling to pick a day, here's a date for you. I'm going to walk on September 10th. All sorts of people around the world are going to walk on September 10th. Accountability is powerful. And another way that I inspire people to think about accountability, even though this is technically a solo mission, is maybe September 10 doesn't work for you. But you got a buddy, a best friend, a spouse, a neighbor, you know, your sister, brother, whatever, you're like, hey, I wanted to this 12-hour walk thing.

I need a little bit of accountability. I'm going to call two of my friends, and we're all going to look at our calendar, and we're going to go, okay, three Saturdays from now, circle it in. We're doing the 12-hour walk. And that still means that at 6 a.m. or whatever sunrise is the beginning of your day, you text each other and you say, are you at your front door? Yeah, man, I'm at my front door. You at your front door?

Yeah, man, I'm at my front door. Okay, cool. Phones go on an airplane mode, and you know maybe you're meeting up for dinner that night or you're FaceTiming each other. You're connecting, but it's the same thing. You go on a 12-hour walk by yourself, but you're empowered knowing an hour, three-hour forward. It's hard. I wonder how my brothers feel.

I don't want to give up because, like, he's going to ask me how my walk went. Now I'd have to show my track on my app or whatever that is. And so there's a lot of ways to do this with accountability. And I think that that's important that you point that out, Chris. It's just like that is a great motivator. I've been motivated by great training partners, my wife, my people have to have my back. And having that accountability is huge. So although this is a solo mission, I also think of when I think about the 10 million people doing this, I think about community.

I think about like-minded people doing a similar thing at a similar time because they have desire to grow and fulfill their wildest dreams. I think so much of this is, you know, people have limiting beliefs. People think that they live within this box that they've created for themselves. Obviously, doing the 12-hour walk is one way of getting out of that. What do you think are like three ways in total? we'll use the 12-hour walk as number one, but there are two other ways people can get out of their own head about these limiting beliefs they have for themselves.

You know, one of the reasons that, you know, it's certainly not my own term limiting beliefs. Lots of people have said it, right? But the reason I love that terminology is the word belief. Like these aren't facts. These aren't truths. These aren't limiting truths about your life. These are limiting beliefs, right?

And beliefs can be rewritten. That story can be written. And I am such a firm believer that we are the stories that we tell ourselves. We are the stories that we tell ourselves. You get to choose what that story is. And don't get me wrong, I'm sitting alone in my tent in Antarctica. You know, my tent was full of all my angels and demons. All the, hey, Colin, you're an idiot.

Why the hell did you ever come out here? It's the worst idea ever. And you got to battle against that sometimes. But, you know, how do we overwrite them? Yeah, number one, I think the 12-hour walk is a great way, hence why I wrote the book about it. But there's all sorts of other way. It's that, it's like what I said. I'll come back to a little bit of what I said before,

which is taking that mind to the gym. And, you know, there's all sorts of, you know, Eastern practices like a yoga or like a meditation. There's moving your body and working out. They're stretching yourself. But I think it all does come back to committing to something outside of that four and six range, right? That four and six range. Something that's going to push you outside that comfort zone a little bit. It can be any number of things.

12 hour walk is one of them, right? And that is where you have to dare to take that risk, to dare to be uncomfortable. And we're talking about this in a physical mental context, but there's so many, there's an infinite amount of ways to put that. And what might be in my comfort zone might be outside of yours and vice versa, right? This is a personal thing. But I think it is about looking at life in a way. The other way is that I'll say that I'm really fond of thinking about is framing the world around the difference between scarcity and abundance.

You know, money is a big topic. When I pulled my Instagram audience when I was thinking about writing this book, I said, what's the number one thing holding you back from living your best life? And the number one response by far and above is I don't have enough money. And I'm not saying you don't have to work hard for it and figure out be creative and all this kind of stuff. but there's, you know, there's this couple of these common phrases like, you know, hey, money doesn't grow on trees or, you know, this kind of stuff that just boxes you in to being like, I could never have that. That's for other people. And money is the root of all

evil. Yeah, the rule of all evil, you know, things like that, right? And the, the truth of matter is, when I used to people look at this stuff and they think, oh, that's really cool. You went to Fennartica done all these things. That's awesome that you have a trust fund and you do whatever the hell you want. Like, that couldn't be further from the truth, right? Like, I grew up very poor, didn't have a lot. But I had parents that said, you can achieve anything you set your mind to ultimately instilling that possible mindset. As that relates to one of the most common limiting beliefs, money is you could say,

when I dreamed up this first world record Explorers Grand Slam project, my wife and I had, like, no money and it was going to cost 500 grand. 500 grand. Like, there's like, like, pretty much a zero percent chance we could pull it off. We're like, well, what do we have? The scarcity mindset says, I've got a few thousand dollars in the bank and I'm never going to have a half million dollars to go try this mountaineering project around the world. Like that's just fucking ridiculous, right?

But the abundance mindset says, I don't have this right now, but what assets do I have? They can be anything. It was like, okay, I have an internet connection. I have Google. There's a couple of random people that I know that I could email to ask them if they'd have coffee with me to talk to me about brand sponsorship or marketing or we wanted to start a nonprofit at this point. We had no idea how to start that.

The point being is the scarcity mindset tells you all things you can't do. But that shift, that actually just looking in your moment, not trying to sugarcoat it, not trying to say you have more than you don't, but being like, what do I have right now that is an asset towards building towards what I want? And in that sense, it's crazy how much abundance that can open up. And this isn't a silver bowl. This isn't like a get rich quick kind of scheme, right? But this is a framing of a mind, of this limiting belief.

And as you see that abominate, what you've created, Chris, all the adventures you've gone on, all the success that you've had, it's from, there was a moment in your life where you're like, am I going to live a life like everyone else? Or am I going to look at this life of abundance? What else can I create? What other value can I create in the world? What other interesting people can I encounter? What other people can I, you know, rub shoulders up against that are going to inspire me?

Well, who can I inspire likewise? When you start seeing the world that way, it starts generating this energy, this effect, this abundance. And some of that abundance, like I said, is defined by money, but that's almost a crude way to think about it. It's just an abundance beyond that, abundance of experience, abundance of depth, abundance of fulfillment. And so I think that shift, that demarcation, you know, framing the world and what you don't have and what you aren't in every given moment to what you are. That growth mindset, that abundance mindset is a game changer. And it's so important to focus on what you do have rather than not focusing on what you don't have. And that's why I start every day and I end every

day saying out loud, three things that I'm grateful for. And that's also the question I ask at the end of every single episode. So first of all, like, this has been such an amazing, powerful, motivating conversation. So Colin, like, thank you so much for this. I think everybody should go out and get a 12-hour walk and then go on a 12-hour walk themselves. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, pick up the book, go to the 12-hour walk, sign up, put the date on your calendar right now. Don't, Don't stall. This is the moment, you know, this is that moment where you get to decide, abundance or scarcity, limiting belief or a possible mindset. Put that date on your calendar and you're one step further towards actually making positive impactful change. And like I said,

I couldn't be more excited to welcome you into this community, this tribe of global adventurers that are willing to take this journey into the mind, body, and soul. What am I grateful for? Gosh, I feel- Yeah, what are three things you are grateful? Actually, before I ask you that, I live in California, there's some, there's some big mountains. here. What would, how high would a mountain have to be for me to have technically climbed a mountain? Oh, I don't know what the technical definition of that is. The tallest in California is 14,300 something, Mount Whitney. That's a great time. I don't know what the live. I grew up next to this place in Portland, Oregon called Mount Tabor. It was like a park, but it was technically an old volcano.

It's actually in the city of Portland. I only think that's about seven, eight hundred feet. I think they call that a mountain. Well, I guess I've been to some peaks where there's that, you know, that thing that's the actual plaque. Yeah, the survey mark. Exactly. So I, as small diverges, I know we're wrapping up here, but I climbed, I did a world record where I climbed the tallest peak in each of the 50 U.S. states in, and I did that, the record. What was it in Florida, like 300 feet? That's what I was about to say is, so I did it in 21 days. I did all 50 peaks in 21 days. You've got Denali in Alaska, a big badass mountain. You've got Mount Whitney in California. You know, you've got mountains in Wyoming and Montana, you know, big, hard, challenging technical mountains.

And then you've got Britain Hill in Florida, which is in the panhandle of Florida, and it's a Georgia border, and it's a 350-foot grassy hill next to a parking lot. So if you're in Florida, a mountain looks like that. If you're in Alaska, it looks like Denali, anything in between. So I've seen them all. So we'll wrap this up. What are three things that you're grateful for in your life right now, Colin? I'm just going to go, you know, Roar Sharks style, what pops in the head first.

I'm just so many things to be grateful for. First and foremost, my wife. You know, my name is on the front of these books and my world records and stuff like that, but we've been together for 15 years. We met very young. I inscribed the book that said, Jenna B, the love of my life, the keeper of my memories. I wouldn't be who I am. She's not just my loving wife, but she is co-conspirator, co-dreamer, business partner,

just all of the things. And my life is so much better with her in it. second of all health um you know i've had ups and downs i've had interchries i've been in a wheelchair being told i'll never walk again um and that has instilled a depth of gratitude for every day that i can get up and not that i don't have my aches and pain does i get a little bit older here and there but but health you know i i've talked to some of the wealthiest people in the world and they'll tell you you know if i have a cold or if i have stripped throat or COVID or whatever that is that doesn't matter that i am a billion dollars in my bank account i want to not have a cold

right um and so i deep deep deep gratitude um for that and then i'd say um god i could go on and on but just limited it to three the last next thing that popped in my mind um is community um i i am blessed with great community um and great friends and i think that there is nothing more powerful as you reflect on a life well lived of the people you surround yourself with and that's not just people who are giving you something but people that you're supporting you're supporting and loving through all of the ups and downs, that community, that belonging, that friendship, that family. I feel fortunate to have a lot of that in abundance of my life. Three great things. Fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

So great. Well, there we go. Colin O'Brady, ladies and gentlemen, how inspiring is he, the stories he has. And the thing I love about people like Colin is that once you see someone accomplish something, that allows our brains to go, oh, that's possible for me, too. I'm not necessarily talking about trekking across Antarctica, although it's possible. I mean, you can see Colin's done it. You can see that it is possible, but really, anything you want in your life is possible. Take a screenshot. Let us know what really stood out for you. Let us know what you thought of this conversation and tag us so we can share it out as well. Colin is at Colin O'Brien. I am at Chris Van Vleet, and I think this quote from Nelson Mandela

says it best. It always seems impossible until it's done. Be great and be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all.

Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the, Rock. I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987.

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