Colin O’Brady is a 10-time world record breaking explorer, as well as a speaker, entrepreneur and expert on mindset. He completed the world’s first solo, unsupported and human-powered crossing of Antarctica. He set speed records for the Explorers Grand Slam and the Seven Summits and achieved the first human-powered ocean row across Drake Passage.
He graduated from Yale University in economics and worked on Wall Street.
He is the author of The Impossible First and the recently released The 12-Hour Walk: Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life.
You can hear Colin speak on mindset and high performance in his TedX talk.
In this week’s podcast, Sonya and Colin talk about accepting hard moments, optimism and overcoming limiting beliefs.
“The lesson here is not to disagree with every person that’s trying to give you well intentioned advice, but, but it’s also an important distinction to say like they are also projecting some of their limiting beliefs on you. My grandmother was giving me her best advice through the wisdom of what she thought a perfect or best or good life looked like for me. And it required me to do some soul searching and say, ‘Grandma Sue, I love you and I know you’re trying to give me your best advice here, but actually, I have this deeper knowing that’s telling me to chase my dreams, push my body, sleep on friends’ couches and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches rather than have a proper job. But cultivate this curiosity for human potential and that’s what I did. So criticism is an interesting thing that you don’t want to get stuck living somebody else’s life, what they think your best life is because you want to live your own best life and only you know what the answer to that is.”
– Colin O’Brady
Listen Now
Key Takeaways
- Accepting the hard moments to have more peak experiences
- Where his optimism comes from
- Limiting beliefs
- How to manage criticism
- Why do a 12-hour walk
- Which limiting belief do you struggle with the most
- The importance of vulnerability
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Links
- Learn more about the 12-hour walk
- Try Athletic Greens and AG1 using this link
- Check out my Substack about high-performance mindset
- Sign up for my weekly newsletter!
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Transcript
Sonya Looney: Alright, let’s get into today’s guest, Colin O’Brady. Colin, welcome to the show.
Colin O’Brady: Thanks for having me. Great to be here.
Sonya: So I guess my first question will just spill off of what we were just talking about before we hit record. How do you stay warm in Antarctica?
Colin: Yeah, so 2018 I walked solo across Antarctica, staying warm was one of the key components there. So the average temperature, I was out there alone, across the nearly 1,000 miles pulling a 375 pound sled. And the average temperature was like minus 30, minus 40 ambient. It’s the windiest continent in the world as well. So most of the time, I had like a 50 mile per hour headwind, so you cyclists out there can appreciate what beating a headwind to give you. And so that would take the temperature down to you know, windchill minus 70 minus 80 was pretty common out there. So staying warm, obviously, was crucial. There’s this sort of funny mantra, I suppose, in the polar community, they say, if you sweat, you die. And so it’s really about kind of moderating your body temperature. So the second get out of your tent, like you’re freezing cold, obviously, it’s minus 30 minus 40. But it’s all about you know, keeping your body moving. So when you pull a heavy sled like that, when you know you’re not moving very quickly, it gets your heart rate up, but you don’t want it to get to up. So every day out there, I’d be like, you know, puffy coat on puffy coat off gloves, bigger gloves, smaller gloves, like calm trying to stay at that sort of like perfect equilibrium. But no skin ever exposed. I mean, literally two minutes of exposed skin and you’re getting frostbite. So you know, full face mask, full gloves, full, full everything. So yes staying warm across Antarctica solo was a challenge. But it’s a weird thing, you can start sweating and that you sweat, you die and that mantra comes in because if you sweat second, you stop for a second and literally your clothes are gonna freeze to your body. And that’s a bad deal as well. There was there was one point on the first day that I actually was actually having such a hard time pulling my sled I almost gave up on the first day, sadly. I didn’t keep up but I was in a pretty bad space. I was crying. I was actually crying. I was so like so defeated just two hours into, you know, a two month long expedition that I started crying. And I quickly realized that when you cry in Antarctica, it’s even more pathetic because the tears they actually freeze to your face. So I don’t think there’s a more pathetic feeling than that.
Sonya: There’s so much in what you just said. And we can record an entire podcast on just one of your many world records and adventures. People are probably like, wait a second, he went 1000 miles across Antarctica, pulling a 375 pound sled and he’s talking about dying. Who is this guy? And before we get into who is this guy, I have a quick question, are you afraid of dying?
Colin: I’ve been asked that question quite a few times. Unfortunately, I actually write about it a little bit in my new book, The 12 hour walk chapter where I lost five friends in a bad accident on K2 in winter, last winter. So I’ve, I have faced death and lost friends in very close proximity to me recently. But even on the other side of that it’s interesting, and hopefully it doesn’t come across as callous because I don’t mean it that way. But I am afraid of dying. I don’t want to die at all. I don’t consider myself an adrenaline junkie or some, like reckless risk taker. But my biggest fear, honestly, was I’ve thought about that question is, I’m afraid I’m not living, you know, I’m afraid of not living. I think that’s what I’m more afraid of not dying. I’ve come to sort of think about life in some regard on a scale of one to 10. One being our lowest lowest moments. I’ve had some massive setbacks in my life and this burden of fire. And I’ve told I would never walk again, I’ve certainly crossed Antarctica. So I had some dark moments, as I just mentioned, losing friends in a bad mountaineering accident, those are ones right and the 10s of those peak arcs, it’s accomplishing a big goal that the day your first child is born and falling in love. I mean, these are these 10 moments in life. Now I’ve come to realize is that all the 10s that I’ve experienced in life haven’t been in spite of my ones, but actually because of the ones meaning when I finished in order, chi became the first person to complete this crossing a really proud moment for me. It wasn’t because I avoided every single hardship it was because I was willing to take on the risk, the hardship, the pain, the suffering, the solitude, all of that, but that allowed me to open up to the stability of the 10. And I think too often in life, and this gets back to this sort of afraid of, of not living question. I think too often, we get stuck in this realm, what I call the zone of comfortable complacency between four and six, just in this like, like, Fine, you know, you go to a job that you don’t love. You spend most of your time doing it. It’s like it pays the bills. It’s fine, like don’t love it, and I’ll hate it or you’ve been in a long standing relationship with somebody and it’s not like it’s abusive or terrible or toxic, but it’s just sort of like you’re coexisting. cohabitating co parenting, it’s just kind of like, like a lot of people are living almost all, if not all of their life in this four to six range zone of comfortable complacency. And I asked myself the question of why. And because I think there’s a legitimate fear, like no one wants to experience the ones they think they don’t want to experience the ones but by hedging against not experiencing the ones, you also kind of take off the table to tense and you kind of get more range bound. And so I encourage people, there’s certainly a lot about this in my book and the call to action and a 12 hour walk I’m sure we’ll talk about it but really inspiring people I know your audience are go getters, people out there crushing, you know, big challenge is getting outside moving their bodies. So I imagine there’s a lot of like minded people listening to this, that understand, you know, the desire the need to get out there. But I think yeah, sorry for the long winded answer. But am I afraid to die? Yeah, I don’t want to die. But I’m more afraid of not living. And I’m afraid of living a life only in that zone of comfortable complacency. So for me, it’s willing, I’m worth it, to take on some of those risks, to feel and embrace some of those ones knowing that that allows the sort of pendulum to swing back to the peak ark of the tent.
Sonya: I think that for everybody their risk tolerance, or their willingness to try things at a certain level, is different. But living that life and living life in high definition, it’s easier said than done. So how do people get comfortable whenever they reach those ones? Certainly, we’re not reaching for – I can’t wait to just have the worst experiences in life. But how do I get myself to a situation where I can embrace those when they do happen so that I can experience those peak moments?
Colin: Yeah, you know, simply put, I do write this, you know, mantra in my book, it’s just embrace the ones embrace the ones, not try to avoid them, embrace them. And that’s, again, as you said, that’s easier said and done. But a mantra that has actually been resonant for me for a long time. Certainly, my mind has been long used in meditation and mindfulness. But this too shall pass. Right? This reminder that no matter what you’re feeling in any given moment, it’s ephemeral. It’s temporary. And when I have those low moments, I always remind myself, I go back and catalog in my mind, I go, man, when was the last time I felt this horrible, this awful. And I’m like, you know, you go there, right? But then I go, well, then what happened after that? And usually, almost always, there’s something that moves me past it in a positive way. There’s some sort of positive outcome. You do these badass mountain bike, hardcore mountain bike races, there’s those times right, you’re on the red line, you’re exhausted, you’re hungry, you’re cold, you’re wet, you’re tired, you’re being tested. Then you get to that finish line, or you get up to the next ridge or your body starts feeling good, and you’re like, shit, yeah, this is why I do this. This is epic. Like, this is amazing. And so there’s a point where you can resist it. And that’s what I say to embrace. There’s a point when you get in that low moment, like you said, that hunger that fear that cold that whatever it is, you know, causing that one, where you want to want to resist it. You could use the extend the bike riding metaphor, you could like get off your bike and give up right in that moment. Be like, ah, this sucks, I’m done. But I know, I know. Since no, you are, you obviously don’t do that. But like, it’s easy to want to give up and the ones but the embrace the ones mentality isn’t like, oh, celebrate the ones. This is so fun. This is awesome. But it’s a reminder, it’s like keep going, keep pushing, keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep striving because this one, this lesson, this intensity of this moment, there’s something to be learned, something need to be cleaned here that’s going to open up this new door. And so when I do feel those things, it’s a reminder, it’s this sucks, but man, this must be and also, I am getting an opportunity for that swing back to the tent.
Sonya: That sounds like there’s a lot of optimism when you are in the ones. It’s accepting instead of resisting what’s happening. Okay, this is happening, but then I know it’s gonna get better. How do you have that level of optimism? I know that some people are born with a higher level of optimism than others. But is that something that you train?
Colin: I train in some regard, but there’s definitely a key moment from my life that I think really opened up the doorway to this lesson or learning for me. I briefly mentioned it before, but you know, 15 years ago or so, I was traveling after college, and I had no money after college, but I was like, I want to see the world. So I painted some houses every summer and socked away a couple of thousand bucks. And finally, I graduated from college and kind of pushed away the “normal real job” that I should have probably taken and took a backpack and a surfboard, bummed around the world alone. I hitchhiked through New Zealand. I was sleeping on friends couches, and hitchhiking, eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches on the cheap, you know, full shoestring budget, amazing experience as a young person, just meet people be out in the world have an adventure, until I found myself on the small beach in rural Thailand, on this on this island of rural Thailand. And maybe it’s because I was 22. Maybe because I didn’t have a fully formed prefrontal cortex I’m not sure, but so there’s some guys jump in a flaming jump rope and I was like, that looks like fun. Yeah, let’s do that. And instant my life changed. You know, I tripped on the rope. The rope wrapped around my legs with my body completely on fire to my neck. I jumped into the ocean, sent me like a fireball, like extinguish the flames, but not before about 25% of my body was severely burned, particularly my legs and my feet. And I didn’t have proper medical. I mean, I was on a small island in rural Thailand. I had a mo-ped ride on a dirt path there was no ambulance ride. I went under eight surgeries in this kind of like makeshift hospital where there was a cat running around my bed and across my chest and sort of makeshift ICU. It was a bad bad set of circumstances. And I’ll never forget the doctor…I’d been a collegiate swimmer soccer player, you know, really thought of myself as an athlete growing up, big part of my identity. And the doctor walks in day four, day five, in extreme pain, obviously. But he looks at me and he goes, you know, I hate to tell you this Colin, but you’ll probably never walk again normally. And I’ll never forget just the emotional downward spiral from that moment. It’s one thing to be like in this physical pain, but you know, if you break a bone, you’re like, this sucks, but like, you know, my arms gonna heal or whatever that is. But this was him being like, you’re never going to be the same ever again. And fortunately, and when I say where I sort of learned this lesson in some regard was from my mother, she showed up about five days into this ordeal, kind of found me on the other side of the world. I can only imagine what it’s like to be a parent seeing your kid in this helpless, scared, afraid state. She told me now that she was crying with the doctors in the hallway and pleading for any semblance of good news. But she never really showed me that fear. Instead, she came into my hospital room every single day with this huge smile on her face. And it’s just a huge air of positivity, kind of daring me to dream about the future, saying what do you want to do when you get out here? You know, let’s set a goal and I was like mom a goal? Life as I know it’s over. She goes, come on, play along with me. Close your eyes, visualize something, visualize any positive outcome, like in the future, like at all. And like I said, I was nagging her. I was like, nah, what are you talking about? But she like finally gets me to play along. I close my eyes. And she sees me smile. And she’s like, what do you see? And I said, this might sound ridiculous, but I just saw myself crossing the finish line of a triathlon. And I’d never raced a triathlon before. Like I said, I’ve been a collegiate swimmer, but never, you know, swim or bike competitively. And she looks at me, she could have easily been like, yeah, I said, set a goal, but look at the legs to walk, you know, whatever. She’s like, great. Actually, let’s start training for this right now. And she calls in the doctor right then she was, hey, Doc, my son’s training for a triathlon bring him in some weight. So she the doctor literally like thinks I’m ridiculous, but brings in these 10 pound weights and these pictures of me in the Thai hospital lifting 10 pound dumbbells while my waist is bandaged from the waist down and end the long story short is for the next 18 months I focused on that goal. You know, I was I was in a wheelchair when I got back to Portland, Oregon where I was from, carried on and off the plane. My mom literally step by step taught me how to walk by putting a wooden chair one step in front of my wheelchair saying get to that chair yet. She’d move a few steps more get to that chair. But 18 months later, I moved to Chicago took a job and sign up for the Chicago triathlon. And I raced that race I finished that race my first triathlon and to my complete and utter surprise, I didn’t actually just win or didn’t actually just complete the race, but actually won the entire Chicago triathlon, placing first in 5000 people, which was a surprise to say the least. But your question was about what am I a generally an optimistic person? I think in some regard I am. But that lesson as a young person, was such an important lesson for me. And that’s why I talk about those ones in the 10s. It was like, it was an obvious one, right? And there was a sliding door moment of do I just accept what the doctor is saying? Do I go into this negative downward spiral in my mind? Do I let all these limiting beliefs, all this negativity, all this distress, kind of take over my life. But my mom opened up this pathway to what I call now and I talked about it in the book, I define it as what I call a possible mindset, an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. My mom encouraged me in this terrible moment. She didn’t say, oh, this is not a bad thing. She was like, this is horrible. But life is not over. What do you want to do next? What does a year from now look like? What does five years from now look like? What does a day from now look like? She opened my mind up to these limitless possibilities, this possible mindset. And so I think, again, that has been such a defining moment in my life. And it’s strange to say, I wouldn’t wish the pain of that burn accident on my worst enemy. I mean, it was horrible. But at the same time, it opened up the doorway to me to learn one of life’s most important lessons, which is to get through that, the perseverance, the grit, the positivity, that mindset shift, that can lead to so many other things. And so here I am, humbly with 10 World Records. All those world records were set after burning my legs, not before them; in a strange way that made me stronger and more resilient.
Sonya: Definitely sounds like post traumatic growth. And your mom sounds really amazing. She sounds like she really understood the power of visualizing something that’s better than where you’re at. And then knowing that one small daily action, the smallest thing, can help you change your trajectory in your momentum.
Colin: No doubt about it. I mean, my mother’s incredible I also blessed with an amazing wife, been together for 15 years, and I have five older sisters. So there’s been a very long strong lineage of strong female influence. It says in my life that I’m deeply indebted to. I certainly wouldn’t be who I am or what I’ve done without all of those people. But I love what you say about those 1% differences. I actually summited Everest twice. My first time I climbed on 2016. My summer that was like my late childhood dream I summited in 2016. And I took a tiny little rock, a little pebble with me from the summit that I have for years carried around in my pocket. And the reason I’ve carried it is this reminder for myself that even Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, this huge dream, this huge goal of mine is just really just a bunch of tiny little pebbles, small rocks stacked on top of each other. It’s just for me a daily reminder of exactly what you said big goals, big aspirations, big dreams, racing a triathlon after being told you never walk again, like the process between that finish line and that wheelchair is actually just a bunch of these tiny little steps, but it’s a daily commitment. Can I go one step further today? Can I try one more thing? And those things have such a larger compounding effect than making some sweeping change overnight? I mean, we’ve all been around the friend or maybe done it ourselves, we’re like, no, I’m gonna lose 10 pounds, all of a sudden, I’m just gonna stop eating every single thing that I’ve ever eaten before and only vegetables. It’s like most people can only sustain that for like, a couple days, right, versus making an incremental sustainable shift 1% every single day. And James Clear does an incredible job of talking about this in Atomic Habits, one of my favorite books. But yeah, I mean, I couldn’t agree more of the importance of that.
Sonya: I like the idea of consistency over heroic efforts, because that’s what’s gonna pay off over time. And it is really humble of you to say, yeah,I climbed Mount Everest twice, but I just carried this little rock around or this pebble that I collected from there, just to remind myself that it is one small thing, no matter how big the feat is.
Colin: Totally, totally. One of my favorite questions. And what I’ve posed to people in the 12 hour walk and the opening chapter, I talk about not wanting to live a life of regrets and kind of going to live life fully and inspiring people to unlock their best life. And I posed that question at the top of the book intentionally, which is what’s your Everest? You know, I’d say like, I’ll tell you stories about my own life, because I wanted to climb Everest, but I don’t think that everyone wants to stand on top of that mountain. It’s just it’s arbitrary a goal as any other goal. But what is your Everest? What’s your hope? What are your dreams? You know? Because once you can focus on that, you know, and it can be anything, right? It can be making a million dollars, we save a million lives, it can be about family, entrepreneurship, business, sport; it can be any and all of those things, right. But I think sometimes we actually fail to ask ourselves that question. It seems so obvious, but like, what am I driving towards? What lights me up? Not like what external success or want to have, but what fills my cup and those quiet moments. But then often what happens is, and this is the difference between this limiting belief mindset, and the possible mindset is sometimes an Everest size goal or aspiration in our own life doesn’t have to be about achievement, right? It can be about anything just feels so daunting, right? It’s like, oh, this massive thing and like, but I mean, I could tell you a million reasons why I’m never gonna get there. Like I’m in a wheelchair, what are we talking about truck racing and travel on race, I can’t even walk to the bathroom, right. But it is exactly what you said. It’s about that consistency over time, those incremental steps. And there’s certainly big moments too where you can have significant exponential growth in moments like a race day where you learn a ton all at once. So it’s not to say there’s aren’t those big moments, but usually, there’s an underlying consistency in that.
Sonya: I love how in the book you have it broken down into all of these different limiting beliefs that many of us have for ourselves that we have to overcome. And before I get into some of those, the doctor in the hospital in Thailand had his own limiting belief about what you are capable of. And there’s so many times in our lives where people tell us that we can’t do something, even a doctor that’s their job is to look at somebody medically and tell them whether they can or can’t. And there’s so many stories of doctors telling people that they can’t do something and then the person goes and does extraordinary things. So the listener or the person listening is like, well, how do I look at other people’s limiting beliefs on myself and not accept those?
Colin: Yeah, I love that you brought that up. I don’t write about that specifically in relation to the doctor. But it’s the exact same point that I make in the book. So the book, the 12 hour walk, and I’m excited to talk about what the core call to action because it’s more of a book than it’s more of a global movement than a book. It’s an invitation for everyone to take this 12 hour walk and something that’s accessible to everyone, so I’m super excited to share that. But the breakdown the book is there’s 10 chapters, 10 main chapters, edgy receipts, rich storytelling. So I got a really kind review from Booklist. This week actually, when the first reviews and book isn’t quite out yet so early reviews are coming in. It says from from the adventurer, athlete to the armchair traveler to the person wanting personal growth, there’s something in this book for everyone. So it’s not a dense textbook, you’re going to be on the K2 in winter with me, you’re going to be in an article and you’re gonna be rowing a boat across Drake Passage with maybe also through these different passages, my life where I’m sharing stories, but really in a way that I’m not the hero of the story implicitly. You are In the hero of the story, you the reader, you the listener, or the hero of the story, because it’s empowering you to make those shifts. Each chapter is about limiting beliefs. And it’s the 10 most common limiting beliefs that I see we all face. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough time. What if I fail? What if people criticize me? I’m not strong enough, right? I don’t care who you are, we’ve all had that go through our mind at some point in time, probably many, many, many times. But one of the chapters is on criticism. What if people criticize me, that’s such a common fear. And that actually goes all the way back to prehistoric times. We’re living in tribes.If the tribe criticize you or sort of outcast, you, you’re not going to survive. And so it’s like, hard coded into our DNA to be liked and accepted, and do what other people kind of want us to do. And I write about this moment, after winning the Chicago triathlon won’t give too much of the book away, because I want you to check it out. But let’s share a little story from there, which is, I went to Chicago triathlon, and I get offered this sponsorship, as a young person, I got a normal good job, but this guy finds out about the story, and he’s like, this is incredible, you won this your first race effort, would you want to pursue this more full time. And I’d always dream to make in the Olympics, and I was like, well, that would be my dream, but like, I need a job. Like, you know, actually, I just took this job in finance, trying to use my education, put that to good use. And he’s like, well, it’s not gonna be like the NBA or the NFL, but I could give you enough money to basically give you some plane tickets to races and you know, help you be able to train full time and whatever. And I was like, wow, yeah, you know, my intuition immediately was like, heck yeah. Even though it was like a huge step down from the sort of more secure financial career future that I thought that I had laid out in front of me. And so I call my grandmother, who had been at the race with me that day, I was living in Chicago, my mom’s from Chicago and my grandmother’s still there. She’s passed away at this point, but she’s a hugely important part of my life. And I called her up and I said, grandma Sue, I just got this, I was so lit up, I was like, I got this sponsorship opportunity. Like, I’m gonna quit my job tomorrow. And they’re gonna help me move to Australia. And I could train for the next six months for this big race and like, whatever. And my grandma’s amazing, loving woman, but also very pragmatic. She was like, what are you talking about? That is a terrible idea. Super cool, you won this race, and you’re walking again, and running and able bodied, because you were so injured not too long ago. But now it’s time for you to grow up, like grow up. I’m 23-24 years old at point like take What do you mean, like last time, you didn’t get a job right out of college, you wouldn’t burn yourself in a fire now you’re gonna go like brace your bike on the other side of the world, this is a terrible idea. And I tell that story now, and I share that story in the book. Long story short, I went back and forth my mind for a little while. But ultimately, I did quit my job and pursue this professional athletic career. And this certainly paved the way for where I am 15 years later now. But criticism comes in all sorts of forms, right? There’s the random person criticizing you on Instagram that you’ve never met before. That’s the easiest person to dissuade, even though honestly, for any and all of us sometimes that just feels terrible also, but you’re like, that’s a random person criticizing me. But now we’re talking about you talking about the doctor, the doctor, oh, my grandmother. These are people who like care, who are actually trying to give you good advice through the own lens of their life. And so the lesson here is not disagree with every person who’s trying to give you well intentioned advice, but it’s also important distinction to say like, they are also projecting some of their own limiting beliefs on you. My grandmother was giving me her best advice through the wisdom of what she thought a perfect or best or good life looked like for me. And it required me to do some soul searching and say grandma Sue, I love you, and I know you’re trying to give me your best advice here, but actually, I have this deeper knowing that’s telling me to chase my dreams, push my body, sleep on friends couches, need peanut butter and jelly sandwiches rather than have a proper job. But cultivate this curiosity for human potential, and that’s what I did. And so criticism is an interesting thing. But you don’t want to get stuck living somebody else’s life, what they think your best life is. You want to live your own best life. And only you know what the answer to that is.
Sonya: I love that. I can relate with that so much because I got my master’s degree in electrical engineering, and I wanted to be a pro mountain biker. And everyone in my family was telling me that, well, you have this great job. You have all these opportunities in front of you. What do you mean, you’re gonna walk away from that and go try to be a professional mountain biker? And I just, I couldn’t listen to them. I had to do it. There was something inside of me where I knew that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t go see what was possible. And it took many years to get even a little bit of approval from my parents for doing it and I learned quickly that I don’t need their approval to live my best life. But they were trying to help me. Like what you said, they had their own lens of what they think a good life or a comfortable life. We can talk a lot about that what what that looks like, but everybody sees the world through their own lens. So whenever somebody tells you that you can’t do something, you can listen to that. But then you have to take it for grain of salt.
Colin: Totally, because obviously, it’s not like my grandma steered me wrong throughout my whole life, she gave me all sorts of great advice that I took throughout my life. Same with my mother, same with other important people in my life. But it’s figuring out how to be discerning. And I open up the 12 hour walk with a story about a very, very, very wealthy man, who I encountered in a speaking engagement in Manhattan, who was in his late mid 70s, late 80s. And I’d asked that, what’s your Everest question? And he pulled me aside very vulnerably and he says, in this guy I don’t know if he’s a billionaire, but definitely hundreds of million this guy was, you know, so much money. He said to me, you know, I’ve made more money in my life then you could ever imagine, he’s like, but when you talked about following your heart, when you talked about asking that question, what’s your Everest, it made me realize from being honest, I never stopped and asked myself this question. And so I have all the external things, the external praise, the money in the bank account, the house, the this, the that. But he just he shared with me, but my life is full of regrets, actually. And he said, I think I’ve lived what other people’s expectations are of me, rather than what it was. And it was a big moment in my life. I opened the book with that story for reason, which is it stuck with me, that a good life or your best life, if you’re listening, it’s like, it can be anything, but it’s yours. And that’s why the 12 hour walk, and I’m gonna talk about, it’s a call to action for yourself to go into your own body, your own mind, and spend a day in silence and solitude moving your body because nobody else can answer this question. Nobody else can live your truth. And that’s not to say, don’t exist in a society. And also, there’s a whole chapter in a book around community and friendship and love and camaraderie and the beauty of all of that. But to be the best friend, to be the best spouse to be the best participant in society and culture in the way that you want to be means that you’re showing up as your fullest self in your own best life. And only you know what that is. And that requires you to take some time to take a journey inward.
Sonya: Why a 12 hour walk?
Colin: Yeah, I’ll tell the origin story, but the call to action is simple. This book, like I said, brings you through adventure stories brings you through some prescriptive advice brings you through me dealing with my own limiting beliefs and getting over it and kind of how we can all break free of these limiting beliefs, and conjure again, what I call this possible mindset. But I love sharing advice. I love sharing wisdom, but I even invite people in the book to say, just like I said before, I’m trying to give you my best advice, but you get to choose if you want to take it or not, you know, take it or leave it. I think there’s some good gems in there obviously, poured my heart and soul into writing the book. But at its core, what I was more excited about is saying, but I think the best lessons are learned experientially by actually doing, by actually somatic experience and feeling them. And so at its core, this entire the call to action we summed up in a sentence or two, which is the call to action is this: Take a day, put it on your calendar, walk out your front door in the morning, put your phone on airplane mode, no reading, no music, no podcast, no social media, and walk for 12 hours. Now, I know there’s a lot of badass athletes listening to this. So you might be able to walk for 12 hours nonstop. And that’s awesome. But the 12 hour walk is meant to meet any single person, wherever they’re at. I don’t care if you walk for one mile, you walk for 50 miles. But this is not a race like that doesn’t matter. If you go further and faster than the next person. This is you taking a day to be alone your thoughts moving your body outside. And it’s simple, but there’s magic in the simplicity. So when I was walking across Antarctica, 12 hours became my actual normal day. I was going to run out of food and fuel and 12 hours was about the max that I thought that I could pull my sled every single day. And so that became my just regular day. Didn’t take a single day off 54 days in a row 12 hours. And I deleted almost all my music and podcasts and things because I thought if I tried to distract myself, it’d be more helpful in the beginning but actually this curiosity about diving into this kind of flow states, this depth of mind, body, soul. And don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of really rough moments. All my angels and demons are there are plenty of demons negative self talk tough days and moments but I ultimately found as I’m sure you have in your mountain bike race, or things you’ve done, these deep moments of flow and bliss and peace and fulfillment and depth and clarity. And my previous book I wrote a couple years ago called The Impossible First, I end that book with a chapter called infinite love, because despite this external accolades becoming the first you know my name being on the front page of The New York Times blah, blah, blah, all this, what I was actually left with was wasn’t this external, like I did it. I was left with this deep inner peace, this feeling of resonant love of my family, my wife, my friendships, my community, the nonprofit where I’m trying to inspire kids to reach their own Everest. Like that’s what I was like, that was the feeling that that feeling of just clarity fulfillment purpose. So I thought that I could just kind of take that feeling with me forever. And and for a long time I did. And then I think we probably all remember the spring of 2020, COVID lockdown. And I had a bunch of things going on just like we all do, you know, busy lives excited about the future, and then boom, just everything canceled before you know it like disrupted. I’m sitting, locked in my house on the Oregon coast with my wife and my dog, like haven’t seen a single person however long just, what the heck. I’ll be honest, I found myself in a pretty depressed, anxious, fearful headspace, you know, just feeling terrible. There was a couple of days that would go by and I’d be like, in my pajamas at like, 9pm my wife’s like, even like, got up, you know, barely got a bed today. And just kind of like, what’s the point? I think a lot of people felt that way during that time. There’s Doom scrolling the news and like, it’s bad, and people are dying. And it’s just like, we all remember that. And in that moment, I started to think back, when was the last time I actually felt this inner peace, this inner calm, kind of the strength of mind, body spirit. And I thought, it’s ironic, but I felt that way, pulling my sled in Antarctica as hungry and as starved as I was, my ribs are sticking out. I mean, I was frostbitten and I was beat up at the end. But I found this inner peace. And I said, well, what was I doing then? Well, I was like, walking around in silence, basically. And so I was like, I was grasping at straws. I’ll be honest, I was grasping at straws. And I was like, well, you know what I’m going to do? I said Jenna, and my wife’s name is Jenna, tomorrow, I’m going to go for a walk. Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna go for all day. 12 hours, you know, I’ll see see it back home at sunset. And she was like, yeah, all right. You know, she’s seen me doing all sorts of crazy, weird things every time. She’s like, yeah, cool, have fun. And so I left and I walked out my front door, about 20 minutes, I remember 20 minutes into the walk, my phone buzzed in my pocket, you know, someone’s texted me. And I instinctively Of course, reach down about to like Texas person back, whatever. And I’m like, wait a second, what the hell am I doing? Like, I just staring at my phone, I’m checking social media doom scrolling the news like I don’t I need a break. So this is about having a break. And so I just put my phone on airplane mode, and I walk the rest of the day for 12 hours. I come back to my front door. Before I even say anything to my wife, she can just see my posture in my face, just in my being my essence, she was like, wow. She’s like, she just goes your back your back. And she was right. Like, there had been a shift in me and just taking that time to reflect in my own body and my mind, kind of like, what’s going on the world is changing, things are shifting, and kind of just in a moment to just… I’m guilty as everyone of being on my phone constantly of you know, being wrapped up in the noisiness of life and I’m not this certainly not advocating to become a monk after this. I’m saying take a day. And so I thought, okay, I was the guy who walked across Antarctica, done these other endurance, crazy sports and records and things like that over time. Maybe this just makes sense to me, like maybe this doesn’t make sense to anybody else. But obviously, during COVID, like I knew a lot of people that were going through some really hard times, right. And so I started just suggesting. I was like, hey, I did this thing. I did this thing, I went on this walk, maybe you should try it. It’s 12 hours, you put your phone in airplane mode, you walk out your front door, that’s the whole thing. And I suggest it to all sorts of different types of people, athletes, non athletes, young, old. My 77 year old mother in law did the 12 hour walk and the way she did it was by walking one lap around her block in her neighborhood, and then sitting on her front porch in silence. And then when she felt strong enough, she walked another lap, you know, she may have covered a mile total in 12 hours, but that was her 12 hour walk that is success. Like I said, it’s not about going further, faster. It’s about taking the day alone your thoughts. And what I’ve found now by this large swath and why I’m excited to share this book with the world, my goal, my next step is to inspire 10 million people to take this 12 hour walk. Because what I’ve found is as much as we talked about incremental shifts, and I’ve definitely believe in that, that consistency over time is pays so many dividends, this 12 hours, just this one day, this single day investment in yourself, has paid some significant dividends in the short run and the long run. I’ve seen people really find, people that are struggling find inner peace, people that are just looking for an edge professionally, or in sports or whatever, like find this way to tap into their own psyche that they’ve never found before. They’ve carried through with them for months and months and years into the future. And so really, like I said, the book is all about how to switch from this mindset of limiting beliefs to this mindset, this possible mindset, this empowered mindset of limitless possibilities. And the prescription is you can do it, you can read this book, you can read all about mindset and this, but this one day, in one day that has basically no barriers to entry it costs you nothing other than the time. It requires a pair of shoes and walking out your front door. It doesn’t matter how far you go, you don’t have to train for it, you can do this tomorrow. On the other side is 12 hour walk I have just seen so much positive impact. And so I’m really excited to share this book, share this idea, share this global movement with the world I’ve built a soar digital ecosystem around to help support just keep the inspiration going on 12hourwalk.com You can sign up; it’s completely free. I’ve created an app funny enough for a non phone activity. I’ve actually created an app, what the app does is it basically encourage you to put your phone in airplane mode, but then it tracks you. And it allows you to be in Google Maps. It’s my own map version, but basically, so you don’t get lost because like, well, what’s the one thing people have to look at my phone for Google Maps and like, nope, this Maps works with your phone in airplane mode. So you don’t have that excuse anymore to look at your phone either. So you’ve got the maps, you don’t get lost. It can track your walk. So you know where you went, you know how far you went during during your walk, kind of like a phone Strava or something like that. But yeah, and so that’s the walk. And I’m inspired to share with the world hope everyone listening is excited to take on this walk. I know how powerful it can be no matter what mental edge you’re trying to find.
Sonya: Yeah, it sounds like being alone with your thoughts without distraction and moving your body outside is the prescription. And a lot of us never spend that time. Some people don’t even spend one minute alone with their thoughts. And we live in a distraction economy where even sitting at a stoplight, people cannot stand to just sit at a stoplight for however long the light is without a distraction. So this 12 hours is a great opportunity to just spend time alone with yourself, get to know yourself, those angels, those demons, the limiting beliefs and applying the things that people have learned when they’re reading your book, and putting those things that they’ve learned into action by just going and doing the thing.
Sonya: Totally. And yeah, it’s funny, the 12 hours obviously derivative of my my time with that duration. But it’s interesting, because you said yeah, the stoplight, I love that. I can look over sometimes a stoplight a guy’s got his phone is checking his social media or whatever, because it’s like 30 seconds sitting there is too long to not have some stimulus. So in one sense, 12 hours is ridiculously long. It’s meant to push people outside their comfort zone. I’ve asked hundreds of people this question or researching this book, what’s the longest time you spend alone, meaning sleep doesn’t count? Set every time you look at your phone, the clock resets, every time you play music, podcast, TV’s on, you’re talking to someone, someone’s in the room, the clock resets and that the average answer is like, I don’t know, man, 30 minutes-ish, you know, an hour, maybe you know, it’s rare, right? So the 12 hours, in that sense is far, far, far outside of what most people have ever done. Even people who ride bikes a ton or whatever, and people usually out jam on on a podcast forever. And trust me like I do that as well. It’s not like I’m saying every single second your day be in silence. This is one day. But on the flip of that, 12 hours is not so long. And what I mean by that is it’s a single day, it’s not even a whole day, it’s 12 hours. Meaning, you look back on the past year, the past five years, like how many days can you even remember. You can’t even…there’s so many days that go passes by that you can’t even remember. I don’t know what I did that day or that day or week ago, or five days ago, or like you whatever that is. Whereas this in that sense, like these 12 hours, they’re going to go by, it’s going to be tomorrow before you know it. And in this 12 hours, there’s such an important ability and amazing profound ability to imprint such an incredible kind of growth through this. And what I found is interesting too is that this 12 hour walk the journey of it. Of course, it exists mostly in the 12 hours whenever you put on your calendar and do it. But it actually starts right now. And what I mean by that is you’re listening to this podcast right now. And this is probably the first time you heard about this seemingly ridiculous idea of walking by yourself for 12 hours. And your brain instantly does something right. Your brain either goes like maybe there’s some subset of people that go oh my god, best idea ever. I’m doing this tomorrow. Great, awesome. Welcome to the tribe, glad to have you. And then there’s some percentage of people that are like, this is the stupidest frickin’ idea I’ve ever heard ever. I’m never going to do that. You know, that’s some so but I think most people probably end up somewhere in between that spectrum kind of like, okay, I’ve kind of curious about this, should I do this? Shouldn’t I do this, whatever. And what happens is you start bargaining with yourself, right? And what I found is in this moment, that’s what I say it starts right now, the bargaining with yourself in your mind starts happening, you start having maybe a few limiting beliefs like, well, I’ve got kids and childcare and a busy job or whatever, like, I might not have enough time for this. That this is not gonna fit in my schedule or like, yeah, this is good, but I had that injury last year in my ankles, and then maybe my body is not strong enough, even though Colin said I could take as many breaks I want. I’m not listening to him. And it’s not this isn’t right. For me, the point being is some level, if you’re having any resistance to this idea, unless you’re in that first camp, it’s just like, heck yeah, I’m doing this 100% tomorrow, there’s some level of resistance. Even when I have done repeated this walk over and over again, is it sort of like a meditative practice for me that I find so much benefit from obviously, even I, the inventor of this idea, so to speak, I have, oh, should set the Saturday work or shall wait until next Monday because of this, whatever, you have these limiting beliefs. But what you find is that the limiting beliefs that you’re likely assigning to this prescription right now are actually more often than not the exact same limiting beliefs that may be holding you back in all elements of your life. Meaning, just this conversation, just listening to this podcast, I’m holding up a mirror to you right now for you to actually analyze like, oh man, he caught me out I was having these three resistances. And actually, those are the same three things that come up over and over and over again in my mind that are holding me back from all sorts of things. But the beauty of it is, if you had any resistance in this moment of hearing about this limiting belief, you can be aware of that, but you can still choose to do the walk. And when you do the walk, and the next time this limiting belief comes up, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough this, whatever that limiting belief is for you, you go, I remember the last time that came up, I quieted that voice. I completed the walk with that, that that limiting voice kind of mindset voice kind of gets quieter and quieter. And that possible mindset gets louder and louder. So that it’s not that you’ll never ever again have a limiting belief or a thought of negativity. But it’s realizing it’s empowering yourself to say I can take these steps, I can actually take action move past them. So what other ways in my life can I do that? And that’s the ripple effect on the other side of the 12 hour walk that plays dividends for you unlocking your best life.
Sonya: Yeah, I love watching you light up while you’re explaining that. And how important resistance is. People think resistance means I should stop or that I shouldn’t do it. But resistance is a way to gain insight into well, how am I holding myself back? And I love how you said make that possible mindset louder and louder. That was such a great tactile way to feel you’re saying or to hear what you’re saying.
Colin: Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, this can be done any single day, the book comes out on August 2. So the book will be live in the world. It’s a sort of essential companion for doing the walk, but the walk can be done any single day. There’s a whole bunch of FAQs and things that people have lots of questions. So when can I go to the bathroom, what shoes should I wear? You know, all sorts of questions like that, that I do my best to answer. But the one question that comes up a lot…I’ll answer a couple FAQs that are common for people. One is, well, I live in a big city. So if I need to be in solitude, I must need to wait to be on vacation on this trail system, whatever. No. Your solitude is your commitment to solitude. If you live in Manhattan, you walk out your front door, and there’s a bunch of people walking past you on the street, or there’s noise from the car traffic, that’s fine, that’s fine. It’s just you are not intentionally putting the podcast in, the music and talking to your friend, whatever. So you can literally do this anywhere, right at your front door. And then you can do it anywhere. And it’s not that I’m not discouraging you if there’s some beautiful trail that you want to go explore, go explore that trail, heck yea. I’ve actually found for people, and the reason I say front door over and over again, is that I’ve actually found that that often is the most powerful place to do the walk, and why? It’s because sometimes we have these experiences that are the classic vacation, like there’s my life, 50 weeks of the year, and then I go on vacation to forget about my life, right? This possible mindset where it’s the most powerful is when it can imprint into your daily life, or it’s actually part of your daily life, your day to day life. And so I found when people walk out their front door, they have this imprinting, oh, this is my route that I can use. This is my kids soccer practices, this is where whatever you call a bit of a walk down memory lane. But the converse is true, which is the next time after the walk, you’re on your on your commute to work. And you go past this intersection, you go, oh, I was here on our three. I walked past this intersection, I was thinking about this. It’s a way for the reverberations of the energy of the experience of the 12 hour walk to actually imprint on your day to day life. So it’s not separate, but it’s actually integrated. So like I said, you can do it anywhere, any day, anytime. If people are looking for a specific day to do it, like you just need that extra encouragement that boosts I have two things to offer: one is on September 10 this year, I’m organizing sort of mass participation in the walk. So lots of people again, we’re going to be walking alone, together. So you’re gonna walk out your front door, I’m gonna walk out my front door, people all around the world gonna walk out their front door with you know, the accountability of this community kind of doing it on the same time, I’ll probably organize some live zoom chats or things like that we can integrate and do some fun stuff afterwards. So that’s one thing if you’re looking for a date But the other is accountability is powerful. As I said before, it’s not about being a solo monk for the rest of your life. This is how do you how do you show up as a better spouse, a better partner, a better colleague, a better coworker, a better everything in your life just by taking this moment of self care. So accountability, if you have a bunch of athletes, you have training partners, I my whole career training partners, amazing people have helped me push through these long rides and runs and all the things I’ve done throughout my career is also invite people to say, even if September 10 doesn’t work, you know, call up your friend, call up your neighbor, call up your sister, call up your brother, call up your mom and say, hey, let’s put the 12 hour walk on our calendar on the same day. So you’re committed to it together. And again, you’re walking alone, but you’re like, hey, you text each other at 6am, you’re like, are you at your front door? Yeah, I’m at my front door. You put your phone on airplane mode. Yeah, you got to start the app. Yeah. Okay, cool. I’m gonna call you tonight at 6pm when I get back to my front door. That accountability to know that somebody else out there doing it at the same time and you have that integration together. So there’s all sorts of ways to build that accountability in that community around this.
Sonya: So we talked about resistance and limiting beliefs that pop up whenever we encounter the resistance. What’s your repeating limiting belief that comes up?
Colin: Oh, god, that’s a great question. There were the story is in this book, start, all of them all the main sort of 10 chapters of this book that are all around us political belief, is me experiencing the limiting belief. It’s very easy, I would say, with my career, to write all the heroic moments, all that, you know, the highlight reel, like, and then I summited Everest and that I’m crossing Antarctica, and everyone thought it was great. And then it’d be easy because I have enough sort of “accomplishments” to do that. But the truth is, I’ve had so many failures, like so many, so many, so many, so many setbacks and failures. I love to say, winners lose the most meaning like, yeah, the only way you got on that podium when you got this was by getting your butt kicked over and over and over and over again. So I’m not trying to pump the question, but the short answer is, I felt I have experience every single one of these multiple, multiple, multiple times. Gosh, I think I’m just gonna try to answer candidly, in the moment here, when you put it, I love this idea. I poured a year and a half of my life into writing this book and sharing it to the world is about to come out. You know, obviously, there’s been some early folks like media, people who never have read the book, most people haven’t read the book yet, it has, it’s not out, it’s about to come out. And there always is this moment, and I’ve always had this feeling before sharing, other business ventures that I’ve launched, or announcing my expeditions, because I usually train for them. I’m playing for them a year before I tell anybody that I’m doing them, and then you like, post it on social media for the first time. And you’re like, cool, right? I don’t really feel like I need to thrive off external validation. But I think that, if I’m being honest, at this moment, this limiting belief is like if you’re like, wait a second is, did I sit in my room by myself for a year and a half and be like, walk for 12 hours alone, people like that is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. So it’s that fear of criticism, right? That fear of rejection. But you know, what’s funny? What’s interesting about the book, and what’s interesting about you’re asking me that question today, right? That’s not my overriding limiting beliefs throughout my whole life, necessarily, I’ve mostly cut against the grain and been like, I’m going to do it my way. But without fear of criticism. But why I think the book is fun and powerful and reaches a lot of different people. There’s 10 great stories in the book, there’s 10 limiting beliefs that break down, we might not all be experiencing all 10 at any given moment, but we’ve most likely experienced all of them at some point. But there might be three, or four or five, when you read the book, really, man, whatever is going on my life in this moment, right? My life is different, different chapters and different phases, whatever. And you’re like maybe when you’re younger, you’re like, man, I don’t have enough money. And there’s a whole chapter about having that feeling of me being dead broke and having big dreams and ideas and how to get through that scarcity mindset and conjure abundance. But maybe you’re later in your life, like the old man I shared before, who has all the money in the world, that’s not his limiting belief. But there’s five other things that are and so it really, it really hits me, we’re all different in any given moment. And as humans, it’s like Whack a Mole. Right? You might solve one limiting belief and then another one pops pops right up in its place.
Sonya: Michael Gervais, the sports psychologist, he said he calls it FOPO fear of other people’s opinions.
Colin: Mike’s a good friend of mine actually just ran into him a few weeks ago at the F one in Miami. I love that guy. He’s amazing. His podcast Finding Mastery. I’ve been on it a couple of times. What it what a good guy, but I’ve never heard him say that fear of other people’s opinions. Yeah.
Sonya: Next time you see him be like, hey, FOPO. I don’t know him. He’s been a guest. But I don’t know him personally.
Colin: Yeah, he’s a great guy.
Sonya: I have another question for you because we have a couple minutes left. I’ve heard you on another podcast talk about openly saying, I cried in this hard moment. I have experienced that myself. I did this race in Nepal and I was the first woman to complete this race. And in the race, I was trying to document my experience and I started crying and I took a video of it and posted it online. This is in 2012. And sharing that vulnerability was really scary for me and sharing crying was scary for me. How do you get comfortable? Or how have you gotten comfortable talking openly about that?
Colin: Yeah, and I don’t say this at all to criticize other people that are motivating people in other ways and whatnot. We all know the archetype of like the drill sergeant, kind of like masculine go harder, go harder, whatever that is, and like that that fires a lot of people up so it’s like, I mean, it’s not my place to knock anyone else’s way of doing it, or whatever. But I think it’s twofold. One I didn’t mention before that I was raised by a big collection of strong females so maybe there’s the feminine energy is just too strong in my psyche, or maybe I don’t know if it’s a male female thing, but it’s a little bit of social norms pushes some people in one direction or the other, unfortunately, in my opinion, because I think there’s important balance both. But I mean, sure, I have no problem points at Brene Brown’s amazing TED talk on vulnerability or other research on that, which is when I have thought to myself, when have I felt the most connected to others, like just other people, people like my close friends, my family, people, and people I meet on the street, whatever, I don’t like be at a cocktail party where someone’s just telling me their resume and just like talking like surface level, the weather, this the weather that like, whatever, like, I’m just not that interested in that. And I actually think even though a lot of us spend time putting on these masks, I don’t think that many people are interested in that, even though a lot of us do that a lot of the time and look, I’m guilty of that in moments too, sure. I want to know the real stuff that’s going on. And that’s twofold. I mean, I you know, the extent I’ve shared that vulnerability of the crying and maybe the guy who walks solo across Antarctica, the ultimate badass, you could imagine him just being this hardcore dude who never cries. It’s like, nah, man, like, I was afraid I was scared, I cried, I broke down. Like, that’s the truth. And that’s, to me what this book, the 12 hour walk, in its essence is, contextually it shares some of my achievements, but it’s actually mostly about pulling back the curtain and being like, yo, this was hard. I was afraid I had this doubt I have this fear, because that’s real. Like, that’s the real talk. You did this incredible thing in Nepal on your mountain bike, but it wasn’t because it was just so easy and so chill for you and you never had any doubts. It was like, no, you were in it. And I’m just more interested in full authentic connection. Now, the flip side of that, I don’t think you’re asking the question from this point of view, but it’s interesting to think about is, I also think, sharing your excited emotion is a part of vulnerability, because I think, again, when you think about those ones in the 10s, I think society in particularly, men don’t show weakness don’t cry, we have plenty of that going on, right? But there’s also the flip side of that, which is like, don’t tell everyone how awesome you are. You did this thing in Nepal, you were crying before, you should be able to cross the finish line and be like I was the first woman to do this. I feel freaking amazing right now, like that feels good too. And so to me, that’s also vulnerable. People love to cut down success. Oh, I used to like Sonya, she was so cool and humble. But now that she won this thing and she told me that she won it, so annoying, right? Like, that is super common as well. And so what I get off on, what I get excited about when I meet people, is people that can share both the depths of the struggle, as well as the successes as well as the mundane as well as that will be that the authenticity, the vulnerability of the full tapestry of that experience. To me, that’s what we’re all actually feeling like inside. And the whole book, the limiting beliefs, right? It’s about this internal dialogue. That’s an internal dialogue, that’s us in our own minds. And when I meet somebody, or I talk to somebody, or I get close to somebody, I don’t want to hear the fake, glossed over story, like, what’s up, what’s really going on the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between?
Sonya: That brings us back to ones and 10s, which is what we started talking about at the very beginning of this podcast. And I think it’s a great place to wrap the podcast up and tell people where they can get your book and where they can find more, because there’s so much more about you. There’s so many things I wanted to ask you with all of the amazing things that you’ve shared and done in your life. And if somebody is just coming across Colin O’Brady for the first time, they gotta find more. So where can they find all this?
Colin: Yeah, so 12 hour walk, join the movement, 12hourwalk.com. You can sign up there, it’s completely free, download the app, etc. You can buy the book, 12 Hour Walk, where everywhere books are sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore, etcetera. And please sign up, please take the walk, I want to hear from you. Signing up literally just means, give me your email address, so I can send you a few more bits of inspiration and make sure you hold you accountable to getting out the door. But this is a free movement accessible to everyone. And I think that you’ll have amazing benefits. I’ll close by asking you, so Sonya, are you going to do the 12 hour walk?
Sonya: I got my resistance that I’m working with.
Colin: Well, I hope that you move past that resistance and join us I think that you will get a lot out of it as a fellow racer, high performer and it’s a powerful exercise. Funny enough, I’ll close on this, from the athletic standpoint, there’s a lot of really athletic people that aren’t intimidated by the physicality of it. There’s certainly ton of people that are like I’ve never walked that far whatever that’s gonna be like on my feet are gonna get tired. But people have done badass stuff like you are like kind of like, yeah, but like the whole day by myself? I don’t know if that’s resistance. But it’s funny. It’s interesting to see the spectrum of the people that are more afraid by the physical. We’re more afraid by the emotional or the time or whatever people come at it different ways. So I hope you join us but with nothing else, so amazing to meet you and be on this podcast with you. It’s such an honor to talk with you. I could talk with you more for hours and hours, because you could have so many interesting insights. I want to hear your story. So we’ll leave it here, but really a pleasure to be here with you.