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Any mental flaw, any physical failing will be exposed by the relentless series of challenges aimed at finding your breaking point. Lung-bursting cross-mountain marches through the snow, uphill sprints, carrying another recruit in a fireman's lift up and down steep hills, often in driving rain, sometimes in sub-zero temperatures. As selection goes on, these 'beasting' sessions get harder and harder. And yet I also found that the more of them..
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All you have to do is give it an opportunity to be unleashed. So pick big targets and surprise yourself with how capable you really are deep down. Remember David and Goliath? Rather than David, the young shepherd boy, looking at this giant of a warrior and thinking, 'Yikes, he's huge, I'm beat' - he thought, 'With a target that big, how can I possibly miss!'
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All you have to do is give it an opportunity to be unleashed.
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Remember that society's status is hollow and transitory, but genuine character and action endures and shines long after the fluff has gone.
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If you're always thinking about what you want to say, then you're never really listening to what other people are saying. And that means you are missing out. Likewise in life, if you talk too much, you'll miss the chance to get to know other people properly and understand their points of view fully. Conversely, if you make sure the listening exceeds the talking, then when you do speak, you'll find that people will be far more interested in ..
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People always value others who really listen to them. Quiet, considered and genuine listening is such a gift to give someone, and you will become recognized and loved for this skill. It is always empowering to others if you truly listen well. And don't listen to reply, but listen to understand. That means don't always be thinking of your next sentence or your reply while people are talking - rather just listen carefully to understand how th..
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So, remember that our goals are reached by how we prepare and train in the many months before crunch time. Train right, and the summit or gold medal will be the inevitable culmination of your commitment.
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In order to thrive and survive in the game of life, it is important to understand that we don't have to have all parts of our life totally together - nicely sealed and wrapped - for it to be a success. In fact, the opposite is true. To live a life of adventure and impact we just need to have the will, and then to begin. There is power in that first simple step. The rest is then the process - hard and challenging, to be sure - but still a pr..
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And finally, remember that light can only shine through broken vessels, and we are all a little broken.
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Light can only shine through broken vessels.
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I remember in the North African desert once, when we were training with the French Foreign Legionnaires, that we had a particularly unpleasant night. The corporals took shifts to ensure that we were woken up every 15 minutes until down. They would burst in and throw our kit all around and out of the windows, turn the beds upside down, empty the lockers into the desert sand, only to do it all over again as soon as we had tidied up. It was a..
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You see, Bobby knew that when it gets hard we all have two responses to choose from: to moan, or to put our heads down, smile and get on with it. Remember: no one likes a moaner. Wouldn't we all rather work with someone who, when the workload gets insane, simply says: 'Right, let's put some music on, divide up the tasks and get cracking. Breakfast is comin'!' Life is full of rough patches. All big goals, however glamorous on paper, will ine..
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The next morning, two others returned to the two stricken climbers' position. After chipping blocks of ice off their faces, they reported them to be breathing, but severely frostbitten and 'as close to death as a human being can be'. The call once again was made to leave them for dead. The climbers trudged back to camp and reported the deaths. But then something incredible happened. Beck Weathers opened his eyes. Beck says he saw his wife a..
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Never underestimate the human spirit. And it only takes a tiny ember to start a great fire.
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Have you experienced the hypnotic patter of rain on your tent, the clear call of an owl or the rustling of the wind through the leaves at night? It's a feeling of absolute freedom and belonging - a chance to reconnect with both ourselves and planet Earth. Money can't buy the quiet calm that comes from sitting beside a mountain stream as it 'tinkles' through the rock and heather. Money can't buy the inspiration that you feel sat on a cliffto..
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My grandfather always had a little framed picture by his bed that simply said: So every once in a while, take out your backpack and head off for a night under canvas. Even if it's only for one night, and even if it's only in your garden. Once you have learnt to tie a bowline or cook a simple meal over a fire that you've built yourself, you'll never forget it. I mean, who doesn't want to learn how to make fire without matches? It is one of t..
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Without doubt, we all get handed 'lemons' sometimes in life. No one is immune from this. Maybe it's an incurable illness, or a soldier caught in a roadside bomb; maybe it's a duff education, a dysfunctional upbringing, or perhaps your plane crashes in the jungle, your car breaks down in the desert or you lose a loved one. We all know that, right?
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Now, there is 'good' kit we need to carry and then there is 'bad' kit. The 'good' is the list we are going to start compiling. The 'bad' is the stuff we are going to drop. Ultimately I want you to be empowered with a super-efficient, totally functional kit list made up of solid principles on which to build your life and adventure. And here is the reason why we want to keep our kit list light: On an expedition, obviously you never want to ca..
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And this is a great time to say 'No more!' to living out of fear and other people's expectations. It is never an easy time to face some of those old negative feelings, but it is always a good time to change the way we pack and what we choose to carry further down the road of our lives and adventures. But when we shed the bad and travel lighter, a few things happen. First up, I bet that you will laugh more, you will worry less and you are mu..
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Look at the stories of people who have changed the world - they have so often started with little, but they distinguished themselves by how they approached life, opportunity, relationships and struggle. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi. You name them. The list is huge but the common qualities are small. Resourcefulness and a determination to survive the 'lemons' are invariably at the heart of these successes. The secret to a life ..
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We can't always choose our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to what life throws at us, and there is power when we realize our ability to alter our destiny. A life in the wild has taught me not to fear the unexpected, but to embrace it. In fact, I have learnt that those curve balls from left-field are very often the making of us.
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It was during the first time I attempted SAS selection. I was totally lost in a vast boggy wetland, torrential rain was driving down, and I was utterly spent. I was also way behind time, and I knew it. When I finally made it to the penultimate checkpoint, the corporals kept me there doing endless press-ups in the wet marsh with my heavy pack still on my back. I knew this was costing me even more valuable time and energy. I was feeling faint..
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The next morning I would be returned to camp with the others who hadn't made the grade. I was totally dejected. That night in those woods, warm and dry under my shelter, blisters attended to, dry socks on, and out of the wind and rain, I learnt an enduring lesson: warm and dry doesn't mean fulfilled and happy. Only a few hours earlier I had been longing to be warm and dry and safe. Yet lying there, knowing that my buddies were starting out ..
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It's a great perspective, because so often we see a crisis as something to be avoided, when in reality it can conceal both adventure and advantage. I am not saying we should seek out a drama, but rather, when crisis strikes, we should use it.
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Most people crumble when squeezed, but the champion feeds off it. Develop this trait, even if you don't feel it naturally applies to you. Embrace the dramas whenever you can - in order to practise! Tell yourself: 'I am good in the crisis, I am calm in the storm.' Tell yourself this until it becomes your reality.
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JOHN 10:10
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This quote from T.E. Lawrence means a lot to me:
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Sometimes the journey ahead can feel so daunting and so implausible that we lack the courage to take the first step. And there is never a shortage of good excuses: it's not the right time; the odds are too stacked against me; or no one like me has ever done it before. I'm also willing to bet that Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Everest, or even Thomas Edison, trying thousands and thousan..
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There's a poignant poem by Christopher Logue that I'm often reminded of when people tell me their 'reasons' for not embarking on a great adventure. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you can just take that first step off the edge, you might find that you, too, can fly. If you can just take that first step towards your own dreams - take that enormous leap of faith towards beginning whatever it is - then new possibilities open up before you...
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Above the gates at Delphi, a short inscription greeted every weary traveler: This simple advice was considered the most important piece of knowledge anyone could possess. And to understand what the oracle told you, you first had to understand yourself. There is good reason for this: if we do not know our own mind, our dreams, strengths and failings, how can we reach the heights we seek? We become like a ship with no rudder. Which is why kno..
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So how do you get to know yourself? The first way is to spend some time alone - just you - without all the outside influences of peers and family that so powerfully shape our aspirations. Give yourself enough time to hear your own heart's desires, rather than being drowned out by what others want you to do with your life. I am sure the advice your family gives you is motivated by great love, but that doesn't necessarily mean their advice ab..
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Success almost always follows great attitude. The two attract each other. You may not be the fastest, the fittest, the cleverest or the strongest, but there's nothing to stop you from being the most enthusiastic person you know. Nothing at all, except your willingness to step up and be a little different from the crowd. So make enthusiasm a daily decision, even when you don't feel like it. We can all choose our attitude, and one of the best..
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Before I climbed Everest, I saved up to make an attempt on a peak called Ama Dablam, one of the classic and more technically difficult climbs in the higher Himalayas. For many of the weeks I was there, I climbed alone, plugged into my headphones and utterly absorbed in each step, each grip. I was in tune with myself. I was in tune with the mountain. It was just the mountain and me. During those times, I really had the chance to push my own ..
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William Blake said: He was right. We need time and space and adversity to really get to know ourselves. And you don't always find that in the grind, when your head is down and you are living someone else's dreams. Wherever you are in your life, it is possible to find your own challenge and space. You don't have to go to the jungle or the Himalayas - it is much more a state of mind than a physical location.
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I have met enough unhappy millionaires to know that money alone does not make you happy. I've seen people work so hard they do not have any time for their families (or even time to enjoy the money). They doubt their friends' motives, or become paranoid about people trying to steal from them. Wealthy people can all too easily end up feeling guilty and unworthy, and it can be a heavy load to carry - especially if you don't treat that fickle i..
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Wealthy people so often find that the summit of their mountains - the success that they sought - isn't enough. And they are right. It isn't enough to satisfy our deep hunger for meaning and purpose. (And we will talk about that later on.) In essence, you have got to build your house on good foundations - on rock, not sand - and money as a goal in itself will never satisfy you. So choose wisely. And be careful what you wish for. When you sta..
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A final note on this, one little secret: when you truly commit yourself to your dream, when you ooze enthusiasm and let your talents shine (however small or fledgling they might be at the start), you will often find that the money comes to you by default. But if you just chase the money, like a butterfly, it will often fly away. Follow the dream and let your talent thrive, better people's lives, stick to it through thick and thin, and I bet..
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Or in other words: Think about it. What do you worry most about? Is it inside or outside your sphere of influence? You see, most of us fret and panic about stuff we have no control over - things we can't change. Mick's advice made me realize that if I can't change it, I just won't worry about it. Instead, spend the time and mental energy effecting positive change where you can, not where you can't. It is sound advice, but it isn't how most..
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Fears and worries - about things that are long passed, or that may never materialize in our future - all weigh us down and slow us up. So where you can, drop the worries. Jesus talked a lot about this, and this was a guy who had some serious reasons to worry. After all, he was about to be tortured to death on a cross, bearing the pain and burden of every bad deed and thought ever done by mankind. Now that is a proper-sized weight to carry! ..
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It was always said to me with a wry smile, as if I was being told something of infinite power. And he was right. In turn, that enthusiasm adds the extra 5 per cent sparkle to everything we do - and life is so often won or lost in that little extra bit that carries us home over the finish line.
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It's good training for the rest of your life, too. If something is important, always check - never assume. It's usually ego that stops us from asking the 'silly' questions, but I know a lot of 'smart' people on expeditions who have tripped over their egos and fallen flat on their faces. When it comes to navigating on an expedition, this ability to be clear and un-'assuming' is especially important. All of us have, at times, when navigating..
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Think of your favorite sports star. Let me tell you, they spent every waking moment of their teenage years in the gym, pounding pavements or knocking a ball against a wall. You just don't get good at something unless you dedicate yourself to it. It's not rocket science: the rewards go to the dogged. But sacrifice hurts, which is why so many take the easy option. But what most people don't realize is that sacrifice also has power. Knowing t..
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In my experience, many people cross their arms, sit back and say 'Why should I?', and then let great possibilities slip by them. A champion in life always goes against the grain and takes the path less trodden. And that means learning to say 'Why not?' instead of 'Why?' This is especially important in the early days of building a career or following a dream. You have got to get out there and get busy opening up lots of oysters in search of ..
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As Harrison Ford once said: 'Them that stick it out are them that win.
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