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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 5927ce0 | I also believe strongly in the powerful words: "I took the road less traveled, and that has made all the difference." They are good ones to live by. The big, final motivator was that I really wasn't enjoying my university studies. I loved the Brunel and our small group of buddies there, but the actual university experience was killing me. (Not the workload, I hasten to add, which was pleasantly chilled, but rather the whole deal of feeling .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| c166aaa | Neil's feet were still numb from the frostbite. Long exposure up high, sat waiting in the snow for all those hours at the Balcony, had taken their toll. At base camp, we bandaged them up, kept them warm, and purposefully didn't discuss the very real prospect of him losing his toes. He didn't need to be told that he was unlikely ever to feel them again properly. Either way, we realized that the best option for them was to get him proper medi.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| be1b540 | I mean, what does it say about someone if you describe them as a 'trying' person? It means they try our patience to the limit!) Somewhere in our brains the word 'try' gets associated with phrases like 'He tried his best' and 'Try again' or 'I'll try to make it'. It's almost as if to do something means you're setting yourself up to fail short of your goal. So I swap the word 'try' for the better version: If you endeavour to do something, .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 7c959a5 | It is always strange looking back at a time that has had such a profound impact on one's life. And when it comes to Everest, I see two very clear things: friendships that were forged in a tough crucible, and a faith that sustained me through the good, the bad, and the ugly. I survived and reached the top of that mountain because of the bonds I had with those beside me. Of that I am in no doubt. Without Mick and Neil, I would have been nothi.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 32396c6 | It took me quite a while to begin to recover physically from Everest. The thick, rich air of sea level, in comparison to the ultrathin air of Everest, was intoxicating--and at times it felt like too much. Several times I fainted and had quite bad nosebleeds. As if from oxygen overload. Above all, I slept like a baby. For the first time in years, I had no fear, no doubts, no sense of foreboding. It felt amazing. Everest had taken all my hear.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| e76c609 | One of the other questions I often got asked when we returned home was: "Did you find God on the mountain?" The real answer is you don't have to climb a big mountain to find faith. It's simpler than that--thank God. If you asked me did He help me up there, then the answer would be yes. Every faltering step of the way." | Bear Grylls | ||
| b7caf02 | My Everest story would be incomplete if I didn't give final credit to the Sherpas who had risked their lives alongside us every day. Pasang and Ang-Sering still climb together as best friends, under the direction of their Sirdar boss--Kami. The Khumba Icefall specialist, Nima, still carries out his brave task in the jumbled ice maze at the foot of the mountain: repairing and fixing the route through. Babu Chiri, who so bravely helped Mick w.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| e920eb9 | Trucker and I hoped simply to try and stay "gray men" and not be noticed. To put our heads down and get on and quietly do the work. This didn't exactly go according to plan. "Where are the lads who speak like Prince Charles?" The 23 DS shouted on the first parade when we arrived. "Would you both like newspapers with your morning tea, gents?" the DS sarcastically enquired. Part of me was tempted to answer how nice that would be, but I resist.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| bf66abb | If I had to sum up what happened on that journey for me, from the hospital bed to the summit of the world, I tend to think of it as a stumbling journey. Of losing my confidence and my strength--then refinding it. Of seeing my hope and my faith slip away--and then having them rekindled. Ultimately, if I had to pass on one message to my children it would be this: Fortune favors the brave. Most of the time. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 9f0bdaa | The other final memory, from growing up on the island, is of going on a monster run one day, and getting very bad groin rub on the last mile towards home. I had endured the rubbing for the previous eight miles, but it was now becoming agony. No one was around, the village was deserted, it was a warm summer's evening, so I took my shorts off and continued the final leg of the run naked. No | Bear Grylls | ||
| b18acfe | Finally, I broke through and hit the steep track on the far side of the forest, and spotted the lone DS tent, silhouetted against the skyline. The routine when arriving at a checkpoint was rigorously enforced. You approached the checkpoint, crouched down on one knee, map folded tightly in one hand, compass in the other, and weapon cradled in your arms. Then you announced yourself. Name. Number. The DS would then give you your next six-figur.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 15af688 | Our next test weekend was in a particularly hellish area of the Welsh mountains--remote, godforsaken, and full of even more boggy, ankle-twisting moon grass. The area became known affectionately by the other recruits as simply: "The asshole of the world." | Bear Grylls | ||
| b0b1a6f | The next few weeks were a real struggle. Mental turmoil was a new emotion for me, and not a fun one. I felt I had let myself down, and that I had wasted four months of my life to hard, cold misery, and all for nothing. I was depressed and I felt useless. And that was on a good day. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 8cff173 | Psalm 121 says: Good person to have on side, I always figure. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 59bc7f4 | By the way, it is also good to know that faith isn't one-sided. As Christ said: 'I have come to seek and save.' He is out looking for us, too. So be brave and let Him do his side of the bargain. | Bear Grylls | ||
| cdbdfb4 | The next few weeks were a real struggle. Mental turmoil was a new emotion for me, and not a fun one. I felt I had let myself down, and that I had wasted four months of my life to hard, cold misery, and all for nothing. I was depressed and I felt useless. And that was on a good day. The only silver lining was that my squadron training team had invited me back to try once more--if I wanted to. It would involve going all the way back to the st.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 7770a69 | Finally, I could see the four-ton trucks below me, parked in a small turnout next to a dam at the foot of the mountains. I raced down to the dam and clocked in. I knew I was slow, as I could see all the other recruits huddled in the woods next to the dam's entrance. Wispy trails of smoke drifted up from the many little self-contained army Hexi stoves, each heating individual mugs of sweet tea. I knew the score. Each recruit quietly working .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 41ed6af | Ed Amies, one of my oldest and closest friends, told my simply that: "So often, God's callings have a birth, a death, and then a resurrection." I had had the birth, and had got stuck into Selection; I had had the death, at that fateful dam in the Welsh mountains--now was a logical time for the resurrection. If my faith stood for anything it was this: miracles really can happen." | Bear Grylls | ||
| 9742c96 | Ed Amies, one of my oldest and closest friends, told my simply that: "So often, God's callings have a birth, a death, and then a resurrection." I had had the birth, and had got stuck into Selection; I had had the death, at that fateful dam in the Welsh mountains--now was a logical time for the resurrection. If my faith stood for anything it was this: miracles really can happen. So I made the decision to try again. This time, though, I woul.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 5eece5a | It was now wintertime, and winter Selection is always considered the tougher course, because of the mountain conditions. I tried not to think about this. Instead of the blistering heat and midges, our enemies would be the freezing, driving sleet, the high winds, and the short daylight hours. These made Trucker and me look back on the summer Selection days as quite balmy and pleasant! It is strange how accustomed you become to hardship, and .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 40846b9 | The sun was warm on my face. I knew we were safe at last. The vast bottle of Champagne, that had sat like some Buddha at base camp for three months, was ceremoniously produced. It took four of us almost ten minutes, hacking away with ice axes, finally to get the cork out. The party had begun. I felt like drinking a gallon of this beautiful bubbly stuff, but my body just couldn't. Sipping slowly was all I could manage without sneezing, and e.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 17ba145 | Shara met me at the airport in London, dressed in her old familiar blue woolen overcoat that I loved so much. She was bouncing like a little girl with excitement. Everest was nothing compared to seeing her. I was skinny, long-haired, and wearing some very suspect flowery Nepalese trousers. I short, I looked a mess, but I was so happy. I had been warned by Henry at base camp not to rush into anything "silly" when I saw Shara again. He had to.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 60b8f53 | Shara met me at the airport in London, dressed in her old familiar blue woolen overcoat that I loved so much. She was bouncing like a little girl with excitement. Everest was nothing compared to seeing her. I was skinny, long-haired, and wearing some very suspect flowery Nepalese trousers. I short, I looked a mess, but I was so happy. I had been warned by Henry at base camp not to rush into anything "silly" when I saw Shara again. He had to.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 6356e2a | There was another whole bunch of hopefuls. They would diminish down at a startling rate. We had seen it happen before. This time, though, we were there as the "old hands." And it helped. We knew what to expect; the mystique had gone, and the prize was up for grabs. That was empowering. It was now wintertime, and winter Selection is always considered the tougher course, because of the mountain conditions. I tried not to think about this. Ins.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| b5bb4f5 | My worst ever speech was one I did for a pharmaceutical company in South Africa. They were paying me $1,000 and my airfare. It was a fortune to me at the time, and I couldn't believe my luck. That would last Shara and me for months. I soon found myself at a hotel in the Drakensberg Mountains, waiting for six hundred sales staff to arrive at the conference center. Their bus journey up had been a long one and they had been supplied with beer.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 49dccc9 | The best advice came from the legendary actor the late Sir John Mills, who I sat next to backstage at a lecture we were doing together. He told me he considered the key to public speaking to be this: "Be sincere, be brief, be seated." Inspired words. And it changed the way I spoke publicly from then on. Keep it short. Keep it from the heart. Men tend to think that they have to be funny, witty, or incisive onstage. You don't. You just have t.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| bad3ac2 | The that gets published each year sends out the message that having more money than the next person is something to aspire to. This had led to a culture where - once we have grabbed hold of whatever money we can - we hold on to it as tightly as possible...or else! This same culture says that if you give it away then you will simply end up poorer. But the little-known secret of money is that it really works in reverse: it is only when a pe.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 1c55ab5 | It's not how much money you have that matters, it's what you do with it. That's how to become really rich. Let me give you an example of someone who is ridiculously rich, in every sense of the word. Let me introduce you to Dave. This is how Dave works: whenever he comes across great, everyday people, whoever they are - whether it's a shy 17-year-old just leaving school with a longing to visit his absent father who now lives in Canada; or a .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 4a745cb | Luckily those simple values meant much more to him than my school reports - which weren't always glowing! I have always tried to follow his advice, but I also adapted his mantra to take it one stage further... So here is what I tell young Scouts or young adventurers who ask me what the key is to living a fulfilled life. I keep it pretty simple. I call them the five Fs. None of them requires a degree, and all of them are within our reach. Ju.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| fba9e91 | So here is what I tell young Scouts or young adventurers who ask me what the key is to living a fulfilled life. I keep it pretty simple. I call them the five Fs. None of them requires a degree, and all of them are within our reach. Just make them your priority, write them on your bathroom mirror, let them seep into your subconscious over time, and soon they will be like a compass guiding you to make the right decisions for your life. - but.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 6f842e2 | For you, O Jehovah, are good and ready to forgive; | Bible quotes about love | ||
| 9b3e223 | But it was the other things I witnessed in India that really blew my mind. In the back streets of Calcutta I saw sights that just should not happen: legless, blind, ragged bodies, lying in filth-strewn gutters, holding out their blistered arms to beg for a few rupees. I felt overwhelmed, inadequate and powerless - all at once. I sought out the mission run by Mother Teresa and saw there how simple things - cleanliness, calm, care and love - .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 4f9c545 | Sometimes things just don't 'feel' right - even if all the outward signs seem to be pointing us towards a certain course of action. When that happens, listen to that voice. It is God-given and it is our deep subconscious helping us. You see, we all tend to act in accordance with our rational, conscious minds. Talented climbers and adventurers know that to reach a summit or achieve a goal we have to use all the 'weapons' in our arsenal - no.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 82e8b01 | Jenomze ,,nemozne" neni dobre slovo, kdyz se pokousite prezit." | Bear Grylls | ||
| c191f89 | I am human. It is always best not to deny to yourself that you might occasionally suffer from a little bit of stinkin' thinkin' - so give it its moment, then boot it out! So don't beat yourself up about having a bad day - I have had loads of them and will have many more in the future. Take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back for being human after all, then get out there and get moving again. Oh, and I have a good trick for doing stuff, .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 32e30a3 | Only the poor in spirit are really poor. He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self-respect, is still rich. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 7c44241 | Expeditions into jungles or across deserts or raging oceans are never easy. However much we might romanticize the lives of explorers, when you are in the middle of an inflatable boat with 50-foot waves all around, you haven't slept for three days, or you have been struggling with an injury in silence for a week, it is the little things that count. Let me give you a couple of examples: once you get above 25,000 feet (7,500 metres) on a mount.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 52094b7 | Another time, while on patrol with a small four-man team from my SAS squadron, out in the deserts of North Africa, we were waiting for a delayed helicopter pick-up. A 48-hour delay when you are almost out of water, in the roasting desert, can be life-threatening. We were all severely dehydrated and getting weaker fast. Every hour we would sip another small capful from the one remaining water bottle we each carried. Rationed carefully, metho.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 7d69fad | Let me give you one of my favorite examples of the difference between trying and endeavoring. When a new motorway was built, taking passing traffic away from Colonel Sanders' restaurant, his business crumbled. About to retire with just a paltry military pension, he was facing a bleak future. But the one thing he knew he had that was of value was a mighty fine chicken recipe. He didn't have the money to open a new restaurant, but he figured .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| ea88da7 | If you've got a friend who's always putting you down, or always telling you that your ideas are naff, or who takes the mick out of your taste in clothes, music or books, then I bet you go home after seeing that friend feeling less good about yourself. We've all had friends who turn up, open their mouths and spew out a torrent of negative junk about their lives. Now, if someone came round to your home and emptied an actual bag of trash all o.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 6a55b28 | The less you see of your toxic friends and the more you see of your enthusiastic friends, the better you will feel about yourself, and the better you will become. So spend your days in the company of people who build you up and who see your mountain as achievable. It is why I pick team members on big expeditions so carefully. I don't pick people just for their skills - the world is full of skilful people. I pick those who have that rare co.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| ec41f0a | Can you imagine how I felt after Chris had let me drink his last drops of water? Gratitude doesn't come close. One of the regiment's toughest, most hardened of soldiers was showing that he was looking out for me way beyond the call of duty. And once I had been shown how much he cared, I knew that, in return, I would never let him, or the regiment, down. That simple act of kindness, of caring, is always at the heart of great brotherhoods. Ca.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 0d9191a | Trying often comes before failure. Endeavour more often leads to success. But they are just words, I hear you say. Why does it matter whether we say 'try' or 'endeavour'? It matters, believe me. | Bear Grylls | ||
| c8895f2 | If people ask me today what I love about climbing mountains, the real answer isn't adrenaline or personal achievement. Mountains are all about experiencing a shared bond that is hard to find in normal life. | Bear Grylls |