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Transcript of Confidence Classic: Conquer Your Mind and Redefine What’s Possible with Colin O’Brady

Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
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Transcription of Confidence Classic: Conquer Your Mind and Redefine What’s Possible with Colin O’Brady from Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan Podcast
00:00:00

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00:00:46

I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I'm not strong enough. What if I fail? I hate being uncomfortable. Generally, one of those 10 limiting beliefs are actually what are holding you back from living your best life. But I bet if you're listening to this podcast right now and You just heard me say, Walk in silence for 12 hours. Some limiting beliefs popped up in your mind around the 12-hour walk that you're assigning to the 12-hour walk. Those same limiting beliefs that are popping up for you when thinking about the 12-hour walk are the exact same limiting beliefs that might be holding you back from having breakthroughs in other aspects of your life.

00:01:18

Come on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow.

00:01:27

I'm ready for That's close up.

00:01:30

Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus Confidence Classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one as much as I do.

00:01:47

Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet our guest today, although he has been on the show before. And if you haven't caught that episode, go back and consume it, but you're going to love this one. Colin O'Brady is a 10-time world record-breaking explorer, speaker, entrepreneur, and expert on mindset. His speech include the world's first solo, unsupported and fully human-powered Crossing of Antarctica, which is insane. Speed records for the Explorer's Grand Slam and the Seven summits, and the first human-powered Ocean Row across Drake Passage. Colin's highly publicized expeditions have been followed by millions, and his work has been featured on The New York Times. The tonight Show, Joe Rogan Experience, and The Today Show. He's the author of The New York Times best seller, The Impossible First, and now The 12-Hour Walk, Invest One Day, Conver your mind and unlock your best life. Colin, thank you so much for being here with us today.

00:02:45

So great to be here with you. Thanks for having me.

00:02:48

Oh, my gosh. So as I was mentioning to you before we started recording, I read a ton of books for the podcast, and I was so blown away by how Differently, you did this book versus your last one and how much work you put into this thing. I mean, this is massive.

00:03:05

Yeah. I mean, it's certainly a book, but I think of it even more so as a global movement. So really trying to inspire people to take that action in their life. And the book is really a blueprint to what they can do and invest one single day to make a sweeping and monumental change in their life.

00:03:19

So guys, he didn't just write the book. Every chapter has key takeaways. Every chapter has ways you can apply it back to your actual walk, which we'll get into what that means in a minute. But he also created videos for every chapter so that you can reference and go back. So often when we read a book, we forget, Oh, what was that about? And now you have videos that are really short. They're a minute, two minutes, and you can go check them out to help support you when you want to stay committed on this journey. So I want to start, Colin. I love the opening of the book when you tell the story. I'm a super visual person, so I'm thinking of it right now, of walking into that really intimidating, gorgeous New York, really incredible event that you were going to with all billionaires, and you show up in a T-shirt. And what struck me from that evening was the conversation that you had with that older gentleman at the end, because it really hit so close to my heart, and I was hoping you could share with everybody.

00:04:15

Yeah. So I do a lot of public speaking, and in this sense, I was invited to give a speech for a Wall Street group, and I was giving the speech the following day, but the day before, they invited me to a small, intimate gathering with eight or so folks. As you said, all billionaire, hedge fund manager, investor, big hotshot guys in Wall Street. Older gentleman, average age was mid '60s, maybe early '70s. It was a very interesting night. I certainly maybe was a little bit of fish out of water, as you mentioned, walking up in a T-shirt and jeans and low top Jordan sneakers, but they made me feel welcome. And we had a really interesting conversation just around hopes and dreams and aspirations and goals. But they really wanted to hear about my expeditions. Oh, what was crossing Antarctica like? What was it like being on Everest? Did you see dead bodies? And every single time I try to pivot questions back to them about their life philosophies or really their goals, aspirations or more deeper, vulnerable questions around that. It pivoted off of that. And so at the end of the night, as I was getting ready to leave, an older gentleman, I'd guess his age, around 75, pulls me aside.

00:05:18

We had this short but very memorable conversation that really stuck with me, where I love to ask people from school kids all the way up to CEOs, what's your Everest? For me, that's a metaphor for my childhood dream. I wanted to climb Everest, and I've been fortunate to summit that mountain twice. But I recognize that most people don't necessarily want to go climb mountains or walk across the continent. But we all have huge goals, I think, in our life. And I'd ask that question, and no one gave me a response. And he pulls me aside and he says, Colin, I'm sorry, myself and none of my friends answered your question. It's a super important question. And he says, I feel like I want to share this with you, which is when you ask that question to me, I keep thinking about this moment I had in summer camp when I was 14 years old, and I was sitting quiet alone on this peaceful mountain lake. And he goes, I have made more money than you can possibly imagine in my life. But there's not a day in my mind that I don't go back to that mountain lake as a 14-year-old kid and wonder what would have happened had I actually allowed myself to ask this question.

00:06:16

I got so caught up in the rat race and what was expected of me. And by everyone else's measure, I've been quote, unquote, successful. But there was something in the way he told me this story that he felt like he had missed out on something that life had to offer without having asked him this question. So it's an interesting moment. I chose to open the book with that. Just as I think we all have an idea of what success looks like externally, we look at somebody on television or on our social media feeds or in any context and say, Oh, he or She has it figured out. And this guy would be the most obvious archetype of a person. We're like, Well, that guy did it. He crushed his life. He made so much money. It had this impact and whatever. And even for him to share with me like, Hey, I'm not sure I actually summited my Everest. I summited a bunch of other mountains, but it wasn't my personal Everest. And so I open the book asking people, What is your Everest? You might be down pretty far down a path. You might be wondering what your purpose is, what you're driving towards.

00:07:11

And it is vulnerable to actually ask yourself that question. And then, of course, this book doesn't just ask you that question, but allows you to answer it and gives you an action towards actually how to move towards it, how to actually reach that summit. But I think it's important. I think it's super important to be vulnerable with ourselves and actually say, what is my Everest? Even if that's not what other people around you think you should do. And this book really starts to break down the limiting beliefs that pop up for us. Well, My Everest is this, but then you start going, oh, but I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. But what if people criticize me? What if I fail? These limiting beliefs in the book really goes through the lens of really exciting adventure stories, but through how we all have these limiting beliefs, myself included, but how I figured out how to overcome many of them and thrive and how you can as well.

00:07:55

So I love everything you're saying. I know everyone that is listening loves it, too. And so My Everest, I guess, I didn't even really know when I was back in corporate America. To your point, I was caught up in the rat race, caught up in the paycheck, trying to upgrade the car. I never even thought about things like this, literally up until I was 43 years old. But I remember at one point In time, I was taking a stage, speaking a huge event back years ago, and I might have been 40 years old. I remember the day I got off that stage feeling like I was flying, like I'm magic. I never felt like that before it worked ever in my life. I said to someone, Oh, I wish to God I got to do this for a living. I'm like, magic right now. And someone said, Oh, yeah, that would be so cool. And then I forgot about it. I went back to work. I got fired three years later, and then randomly I found my way into speaking business, and that's what I do now for a living. And it's so crazy. So I feel like I found my Everest, but it took a weird way to get there.

00:08:51

Your way of finding out what your Everest was to begin with was a little different, but it was harder than mine because I got fired, which pushed me out the window.

00:09:02

You quit. So maybe you can take everybody down that road a little bit.

00:09:05

Yeah. You said something that really strikes me, which is you felt it in that moment. You were on a stage and you were like, this is what I meant to do. You felt that. But then it It's hard to listen to that echo. One of the chapters of this book, we'll talk about quitting my job, but there's another chapter that's really about intuition, listening to our gut and being able to say, oh, wait, recognizing those signs. It's so easy to go, oh, one day maybe I could speak again. One day, this We're like, wait, this is what's lighting me up. How can I do more of this? You know what you said, it's a throw away comment like, God, I'd love to do this for a living. It's like, actually, it turns out, Heather, you can. And I love speaking myself. I've had that same feeling on stages. But it's interesting when we ask ourselves that question, we, Oh, if only I could do that. But we think for some reason that that life or that better life is reserved for somebody else. Oh, that somebody else is a public speaker. Somebody else is that entrepreneur that I want to check.

00:09:56

No, that can be you. Any person listening, whatever I said, there's no reason that that cannot be you. Absolutely. For me, you mentioned quitting my job. Early on, I have an economics degree from Yale. I grew up as a public school kid in Portland, Oregon. An Ivy League economics degree was not necessarily in the cards for me, but through swimming and academics, and it ended up out there. It was a great opportunity for me and exposed me to a whole new world, New York City and the big fast moving, fast, high paced life of that. But there was something in my mission that was like, I don't know if this is for me or not, but certainly the money was enticing, of course. I had never been around money like that. I ultimately took a job in commodities trading. Rewind from that, we imagine we talked about on our last podcast, but I was severely burning a fire when I was traveling in Thailand. I was told I would never walk again normally. So that's a whole other part of this. But recovering from that injury and ultimately getting my first real job out of college, I took a job trading commodities in Chicago, and I thought that that would be my path.

00:11:00

But because I had just been burning this fire, I had set myself this goal to recover from it by racing a triathlon, by saying, Hey, doctors say I might never walk again normally, but I'm going to figure out a way somehow to get back on my feet, literally start moving my body. I said, Maybe I should race a triathlon. That was my goal. And certainly there was.

00:11:18

I need to interrupt, but your mom played a big part in that. I love that.

00:11:21

It's huge. I was just going to say that, which is there were many around me that said, Oh, that's a crazy. That's a ridiculous goal. But my mother, and ultimately this entire book is really about mindset. And my mother said to me, You know what? That's your goal. Let's start training for it right now. Let's start working on it right now. Why not? And she instilled in me what I call a possible mindset, which is a core component of this book, what I define as an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. Even when the doctor is saying, You would never walk again, normally, and I said, Well, I'd like to raise a triathlon, my mom was like, Great. With a possible mindset, you know what? Anything's possible. I started training for this triathlon, take this job in commodities, trading. And it took me a year and a half. I mean, I was in a wheelchair, had to learn how to walk again. I had to wear more slippers on my feet to my first job interview for this job. I mean, I couldn't wear shoes. But eventually, 18 months after being burned in the fire, I did race the Chicago Triathlon.

00:12:15

And it's my complete another surprise. I didn't just finish the race that day, but I actually won the entire Chicago Triathlon, placing first out of nearly 5,000 other participants on the day. Now, you might be thinking, oh, that's where I might be thinking, Well, I'm just some superhuman athlete. But it's the opposite for me. It's the moment I went back to that moment in the hospital where I could easily have given up, where I was going in the depths of despair, emotionally, physically. People were telling me, hey, your life is going to be this way because you screwed up and burn yourself in this fire because of a mistake of my own. And instead, my mom forcing me to set that goal, forcing me to believe that I could do more beyond this tragedy, forced me to open up to these limitless possibilities and ultimately win this triathlon. And so with that same mentality, I said, well, what more am I capable of?

00:13:04

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00:17:19

I recount this in the book. Each chapter is a short story. Like I said, it brings you right into adventure story or story for my life, and then zooms out and talks directly to the reader, because ultimately, I'm not the hero of this book. I'm not the hero of this story. I'm using my life as some examples. But you, the listener, the reader, you are the hero of this story. This book is geared around getting you to unlock your best life. And I'm just teaching through some stories from my own. And after that Triathlon victory, I got offered a sponsorship. Now, being sponsored in Triathlon is not like the NBA or the NFL or a secure Wall Street future or anything like that. And so I call up my grandmother who lived in Chicago where I was living, and she was a huge influence on my life. And I said, Hey, grandma, I think I'm going to quit my job tomorrow. And she's like, What? No, you're not. What are you talking about? I'm like, Yeah, I think I might try to race triathlon professionally. She's like, What? That's not even a professional. What are you talking about?

00:18:13

Just trying to knock some sense into me. She's like, Look, you work so hard to get this education. You have a bright future in front of you. And she gives me all the reasons, which honestly are pretty reasonably good logical reasons as to why what I'm thinking is not the best idea for this secure, a lot of financial future. But I won't give away the whole story. But the long story short is, I think people are giving good advice, particularly people that love you. There's certainly people that are giving you bad advice. But at the end of the day, it's your life. It's your life. And so if you're trying to do things to please every other person, whether that's your grandmother, your colleague, your sister, your best friend, whatever, but it's not in alignment with your truth, then you start living other people's lives. And so this chapter in the book breaks down this limiting belief, like what if people criticize me? And I break down the different types of criticism, one's like random people on the Internet or on social media criticizing you. That's easy. Throw that aside. That doesn't matter. But it's harder to be discerning about my mother, your grandmother, giving you advice.

00:19:11

But in this case, I said, I love you, Grandma, but I'm going to follow this path. And I ended up quitting my job racing triathlon professionally. And it's a long road from that that I explore in the book of ups and downs and success and failure, but ultimately sitting here with 10 world records. And I should say for the entrepreneurs on the phone, I don't think of myself as just an athlete, but also an entrepreneur. I've started and co-founded a business. I've had an eight-figure exit with a business I bought and sold. I speak, I write books. I've turned this into a very lucrative career, but by virtue of following my heart and by following that Everest. It's not a trade-off, so to speak. A say of like, Oh, I could either do what I love or make money. It's like, Can I do what I love and make money? Can I have those things work in symbiosis? And don't get me wrong, it's not like that happened overnight. That happened because I kept doubling down on my intuition and my passions. But I honestly believe that, just like I said, I don't think I'm a superhuman athlete, and that's why I won the Chicago Trophy.

00:20:07

I don't think I possess skills any different than anybody else. I think we all have this capacity inside of us to unlock this possible mindset, to conquer our minds, and really live our best lives when you take the time to think about that, when you take the time to commit to those goals. So I think we should talk about what the Large Call to Action is at the center of this book, which is called the 12-Hour Walk. So the book is called The 12-Hour Walk. I crossed Antarctica. I was the first person in history to cross Antarctica solo, unsupported and unassisted. So nearly 1,000-mile journey, pulling a 375-pound sled with all my food and fuel across the frozen continent. No one had ever done that before, and people had attempted it, and people had said, This isn't possible. You'll never make it across. And so that I didn't run out of food, and I was racing another guy, I started pulling my sled every day for 12 hours. So it was 12 hours every single day in Antarctica, pulling my sled.

00:20:58

Well, just so people know, it was So only 10 was the max, correct?

00:21:01

Yeah. So going in, I had this plan, which was I'm going to pull it 10 hours per day. And there was another guy out there who ultimately I was trying to raise history, but it turned out, and this is what I wrote my other book, The Impossible First, about this other guy, this British military, special versus military to our Special Versus Military guy named Lewis Rudd, Captain Lewis Rudd, who we got dropped off on the same day, same moment to start this race across Antarctica. And the first day, he kicks my butt. I mean, he just takes off. I'm nowhere to be found behind him. And I think, man, I'm never We're going to catch up to him. And I eventually do catch him on the sixth day, and we have this standoff between each other, and we're walking side by side, ignoring each other. But it's this intense battle. And I say to myself, I'm not going to stop until he stops. And 10 hours, I thought was my absolute maximum. Keep in mind, it's minus 30, minus 40 degrees outside. It's brutal weather, winds blowing in your face. We're in Antarctica alone with no external inputs.

00:21:57

And I get to 10 hours, and he's still walking. I think, Man, I didn't think I could ever go further than this, but I'm going to keep walking. 11 hours goes by, 11 and a half hours go. Eventually, I see him sit down and pull out his tent, and I'm exhausted at this point, but I think I'm going to take a little bit further and I complete a 12-hour day. But then I start doing some math and running some background back home. My wife, Jenna, who's incredible. I always say it should have her name on the cover of the books and all the things we do because she has been not just the love of my life, but my business partner, my co-creator of everything we've done in our life. We've been together for 15 years. So blessed to have in my life.

00:22:31

She was trying to talk you into going 12 hours and you were not buying it.

00:22:36

A hundred %. So I was on the phone with her. We had a satellite phone connection. It's crackly sad. I was literally, she's like, You got to go more hours per day. And I was like, I can't possibly. I wasn't yelling at her. I was angry with her, but I was frustrated with myself. I was like, You don't understand. I'm in Antarctica pulling a 375 pounds. This is my limiting belief. I'm like, It is impossible for me to go one step further. So anyways, this day proved to me that I could go 12 hours, but she's spreadsheeting miles and calories and all the things back home. And she realizes she's like, look, if this doesn't become your new norm, you don't figure out in your mind how to say, I didn't just go 12 hours one day, but 12 hours have to be the exact every single day to make it. So I switched over to going 12 hours every single day. I decided I'm not going to take a single day off because I'm going to run out of food otherwise. And sure enough, on the 54th day, basically with my last bite of food in my sled, I complete this crossing.

00:23:30

And had I gone 10 hours per day, multiply that by 50 some days, that's 100 hours less. I would have come nowhere near the finish. I would have run out of food and had to be evacuated from the continent, et cetera, unsuccessful. So it was the difference for me. But believe it or not, this is not about my 12 hour walk. This is about you. And you might think, wow, now this kid's talking about walking across Antarctica by himself, 12 hours, pulling a 375 pounds. How could this possibly apply to me? But something I think we can all relate to is the darkness of the COVID deep lockdown. Those first couple of months where it was like, I mean, obviously, the last couple of years have been really tough. But those first couple of months was like, what's going on? We're locked in our houses. You can't travel your life. Just as we all know, it has turned upside down. No matter where you were in the world, I think it pretty much touched everyone. I was in Oregon, where my family's from. And it was just Jenna and I, my wife and I and our dog, and we're living on the Oregon Coast on a small cabin that my family has up there, just isolated from everyone, hadn't seen anyone in a couple of months.

00:24:27

I was really dark. I mean, it was dark for me. I was Everything I had going on was canceled. I was just used to being outside, moving my body, and it was just in a really dark head space. And so I thought back, when was the last time I felt super content, super at peace, super calm? And it turned out that when I really went back in my mind, it was when I was pulling my sled in Antarctica. It sounds ridiculous because it was so intense and so life-threatening and all the things. But I also found a lot of peace out there. And I thought, Why did I find so much peace out there? Well, I was disconnected from my phone, obviously, and the Internet Internet, and I deleted all my music and podcasts. I had all these long days basically walking in this stillness and silence of my own mind. And so I said to my wife, I said, this might sound ridiculous, but tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and I'm going to walk for 12 hours like I did in Antarctica, but just here on the Oregon Coast. I'm going to walk out our front door and just go for a long walk, basically.

00:25:19

And I'm going to put my phone on airplane mode. So if you don't hear from me, don't worry. But I'm going to just try to be disconnected from my phone. And so I went out there and I ended up for the first time in a couple of months after this COVID lockdown, feeling, again, this inner peace, this inner strength, this creativity, this curiosity about life, this vitality bubbling up inside of me. I came back home and Jenna saw it in my eyes the second I came home. She's like, Wow, you're You seem like you're different. You've changed. What happened? I was like, I just went for a walk. Simple as that. I thought, Wow, there's something to this, but maybe this is just the thing that works for me, but my over-eager, endurance athlete mindset like, Oh, walk around for 12 hours. So I drafted some test subjects. I said to some folks of friends of mine, different ages, different fitness levels or different walks of life to test this idea. And I said, Hey, I've got this idea. It's super simple. Take a day, put it on your calendar, walk at your front door, put your phone on airplane mode, and walk for 12 hours.

00:26:19

Some people are like, Well, I couldn't possibly walk for 12 hours. I'm not in that good of shape. And I said, Look, I don't care how many breaks you take. This is about training your mind. You don't have to train for this physically. This is meant to meet you exactly where you're at. I don't care if you walk for one mile or 50 miles. As long as you stay in silence and solitude throughout this 12 hours, no music, no podcast, no social media, etc. Then you are completing the 12 hour walk. And so I now have had a bunch of people test case this idea. And every single person that has done this, like I said, from I think the oldest at this point is a 77 year old. My mother-in-law, 77 years old, has completed this all the way down to people just out of college to, again, different points in their life. People have big decisions to weigh with family or career, et cetera. So everyone's in a different point in their life. But every single person that does this walk comes back with their life improved, feeling more connected to their self.

00:27:14

Because look, I'll ask you this question, Heather. In the last, let's say, 10 years, what's the longest that you have spent in silence and solitude? I'll define that. So sleeping doesn't count, but every single time you're awake, if you talk to somebody else, every single time you look at your phone, the clock resets. Every single time you're the TV's on or you're listening to music or a podcast or there's some external stimuli, the clock resets. What do you think is the longest that you've spent in the last 10 years of that nature?

00:27:43

Probably an hour.

00:27:44

Right. Look, and again, I've done some pretty extreme things to deep, silent meditations and things like that, but that's the normal answer, right? And that's the normal answer in my life, by the way, in a day to day, my day to day life is no different than that, right? Because we have all of these stimulus. We our phones. We have all this way to connect. And I am not... The 12 hour walk as a concept is not a vilification of technology, a vilification of community or family or friendship or podcast or music. It's just to say we can all benefit from a one day, not even a full day, a 12-hour essentially detox to listen to these thoughts in our mind. Because you might be listening to this right now and you think, 12 hours. I think Heather, before we hit record, you've been said, I don't know why it's 12 hours. I think. But here's the thing. Here's what I've noticed about the twelve hour walk. The book just breaks down these 10 most common limiting beliefs like I mentioned before. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I'm not strong enough.

00:28:42

What if I fail? I hate being uncomfortable. Generally, one of those 10 limiting beliefs are actually what are holding you back from living your best life, and you're applying them in some way in your life. Oh, I always wanted to start that business, but I have this secure job, and I'm worried about quitting. What would happen? Maybe my friends would criticize me, but what What if I fail? What if it doesn't work? I have all these same doubts go through my mind as we talk about in the book. But I bet if you're listening to this podcast right now and you just heard me say, Walk in Silence for 12 Hours, some women in beliefs popped up in your mind around the 12-hour walk that you're assigning to the 12-hour walk. I see Heather's nodding her head. Yeah, of course. You're saying, Oh, man, I'm not in shape for that. That would be uncomfortable. What if my feet would hurt? Or, I don't have the time for that. I got a busy life. I got kids. What am I going to find? 12 hours, right?

00:29:32

Immediately, I said, Oh, my son. I can't do it. I have my son.

00:29:35

Right. Yeah. And here's what I would say to that is those same limiting beliefs that are popping up for you when thinking about the 12-hour walk. The 12-hour walk is an exercise of twelve hours. But it's also in this moment, the discussion around it, it's a mirror. It's a mirror to you because those same momentum beliefs, I bet, that are popping up in your mind that you're applying to the twelve hour walk are the exact same limiting beliefs that might be holding you back from having breakthroughs in other aspects of your life. In how many other instances where you might be like, Oh, I could do that, but I have this other responsibility. I don't have enough time, or I have this deep seat of fear of failure, or I'm not really listening to my intuition. I don't know how to make big decisions. It's like those same limiting beliefs around the 12-hour walk are likely holding you back because that same feedback loop you're assigning to many other things. And so what I think the magic is, the idea itself is simple. But when you say, You know what? I'm listening to this podcast right now, Or I bought Colin's book, The 12-Hour Walk, and I read it.

00:30:32

At the very end, I've got a QR code that says, commit. It just says, Yo, put this on your calendar and commit to this right now. And by committing, you take that momentum and you say, you start fighting back against those limiting beliefs. And as the date comes closer and then you actually complete the 12-Hour Walk, you're not only dispelling those limiting beliefs all along the way, but as you get to the end of the 12-hour walk, you go, Oh, I had all of these negative thoughts in my mind. I have these limiting beliefs, but I thought through them. I battled through them. And then I said, like I said before, it unlocks what I call a possible mindset, that empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. And so the exercise in itself, it takes one day. Like the subtitle says, you invest one day, conquer your mind, unlock your best life. And as I said, the test case of people that have done this and with the book coming out, my next ever is to actually inspire 10 million people to take this 12-hour walk. But really, it is about you.

00:31:26

It is about a lot of these personal development books give you all sorts of advice and different platitudes and things like that. I'm like, look, I think the advice in this book, obviously, is very sound. There's a lot to be gained. But what I think the biggest gain is for you to take this twelve hour walk and actually assimilate those lessons into your own mind right out your front door. There's no cost to this. There's no training necessary. It just requires you committing one day. And on the other side of this twelve hour walk, you'll be so amazed by how in just one day, how many things can shift in your mindset, which then empower you to get past these limiting beliefs, not just with the walk itself, but in all other elements of your life. And the ripple effect of growth and positivity and strength on the other side of this is very profound.

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00:35:20

I just had a little epiphany. It didn't jump out to me until now. But when you said whatever the thoughts are or limiting beliefs you're having right now about walking out the door for the 12-hour walk are probably the same ones that hold you back. Two things came to my mind when you said that to me. My son, number one, is like, I'm supposed to be a mom first. I've got to be available first. And then number two is I wouldn't know where to walk to. I wouldn't know where to go. And it's funny because when I first got fired, those were the two things I was like, Oh, my God, I have to take care of my son. And now what do I do? Where do I go? That's so interesting. It's really good perspective, and it's a completely new way to look at this. One of the limiting beliefs that you talk about that I really liked is being a beginner, and you use that story of Drake's passage.

00:36:06

And to me, it's hard AF to be super successful at anything and be at the top of your game and get fired and have to start over as beginner.

00:36:15

I had to walk that walk, but I wanted to make that leap years before, but I was too scared about the idea of being a beginner. I needed this book years ago. Will you take us a little bit through how to overcome being a beginner?

00:36:27

Yeah, absolutely. I want to just double click real quick. It's really clear on what you said before about your son. That's an important factor, that responsibility. But I do talk about self-care in this book, this idea that we have built up that self-care is somehow selfish. But in fact, I think it's selfless. To show up as the best parent, to show up as the best colleague, to show up as the best partner to your spouse, whatever, it actually requires saying, Hey, sometimes I got to take some time alone to myself. And that's why the 12-hour walk prescription is so beautiful. It's one day. One day that will have a cataclysmically positive benefit to you as a mother, you as all the other things that you want to optimize in your own life. And so it's funny because we all have those same hang-ups, but this allows you to be like, Oh, right. If I do this, I actually might show up as even better mother, as an even better, not like, Oh, I'm taking away from this, but it's showing up better on the other side of it. I just wanted to say that. And like you said, with your job, I wouldn't know where to go.

00:37:30

I created an app, actually, the 12-hour Walk 4. Like I said, really not vilifying technology. The app itself, it does put your phone in airplane mode. But what it does give you is your phone's in airplane mode, but it gives you a map. So you have basically Google Maps inside of the 12-hour Walk app that allows you to not get lost. I actually say to people, I encourage people to walk out their front door. People often think, Oh, I should go on vacation. I should go on this beautiful hike or this trail or something like that. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. But I actually think the most profound and what I've seen from other people doing it is when people walk out their very front door. I said, Just like life, you choose the destination. You don't even have to choose before you walk out your door. Just take those first few steps and see where those feet take you. The app will allow you to not get lost, but also stay in airplane mode because GPS still works in airplane mode. I've done a number of things to help aid this process because I wanted to be as frictionless as possible to just have people get out the door and take those first steps.

00:38:24

Now, talking about being a beginner, I came back from the solo Antarctica Crossing, which I mentioned before. And there was a lot of press, a lot of acclaim, a lot of people very curious to hear about it, lots of media and all this stuff. I'm very humbled by all of that. And of course, the question I get most often then is, Okay, great. But what's next? What's the next big adventure What's the next big feat? And sometimes I laugh like, Yo, I just walked across an article by myself. It's been a week. Give me a break. But of course, I am the type of person that is curious about continuing to push my body in unique and interesting ways. And so I started to tell people, Hey, actually, I'm going to go back to Antarctica, but this time I'm going to do it completely differently. I'm going to go in a rowboat. I said, Yeah, nobody in history has ever crossed Drake Passage in a rowboat. That's from the Southern tip of South America all the way to Antarctica, 750 miles of open ocean. They say it's the most dangerous ocean crossing in the world because it's got icebergs.

00:39:21

And there's three oceans, the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and Pacific, all converging and creating 40-foot swells and really unpredictable currents. A cruise ship just 10 or 12 years in a modern times had sunk in the Drake passage. This is a rough ocean. And me and a group of others, we're going to attempt to make this crossing with no motor, no sail, just us in a tiny little 28-foot row boat that's sitting about two feet off the ground. And so people started to hear about this that I was planning for this project. And of course, the next immediate question is, cool. So you've been rowing your whole life and you've been sailing and you know everything about the ocean. And as you know from the book, Chapter 4 of the book is the limiting belief, I'm not a fill in the blank, which is to say, oh, well, I can never run a marathon. I'm not a runner. Or I had this idea for a business, but I'm a lawyer. I'm not an entrepreneur, so I'm not going to start this business. Or all the things we say, I'm not a boom. That's the limiting belief.

00:40:13

And I'll tell you what, in this moment, I committed to this row. I actually pitched it to Discovery channel, got them to put a few million bucks behind a huge production around this row. And I looked in the mirror and said to myself and my wife, well, you do know I've never rowed a boat before, right? Not at summer camp, not in college. I have no experience rowing a boat. But that didn't stop me in this moment. I was like, I am not a rower yet. Yet. That's the important word there. I am not a rower yet. And I went and found as the stories you know In the book,, and I found this incredible guy to help coach me and teach me, et cetera. But the lesson from this is so important. I think it's so important for all of us, and I relate to it, we all relate to it, is looking at another group of people or look at somebody's success and say, Well, I couldn't be them. They're so skilled at this. And in the book, it's some simple advice, but I go, Look, there was a time when Kobe Bryant had never shot a basketball, and then he went and dribbled a basketball.

00:41:13

There was a time when Meryl Streep had never read a single line, and then she tried out for her school play. Or Janis Joplin had never strumbed a guitar, but then said, I'm a musician, or Stephen King. There was a time when Stephen King had never written a book. Now he's Stephen King. He's written 64 books and all all are all New York Times bestsellers, et cetera. But there was a time where he was not an author, but at some point he had to claim that as part of his identity. I am a rower. I am a writer. I am a basketball player. I am an actress. And it's really powerful to be able to Claim that identity. And it doesn't require being a master of your craft to do that. You've never run before, but you want to be a runner. Go jog around your block one time. You're a runner. You are a runner. Yeah, you're not an Olympic gold medalist marathon runner, but you're a runner. You're getting into it. You're trying. And so the ability really is about growth mindset. Carol Dweck, the woman who really originated that concept, this idea that we can be and become anything that we set our minds to through diligence and hard work.

00:42:13

I'm saying, I might not be this right now, but a fixed mindset says, I might not be this right now, and I will never be this ever. But a growth mindset, the same mindset that I applied to this rowing project in the most dangerous ocean in the world, is like, I am not a rower yet, but I can reach into my resources, people I know, my network, et cetera, and learn some skills. And the story in the book starts out with me, quite literally, falling flat on my face, the first stroke I tried to take in this tiny little, really unstable row boat, and falling into a Lamet River in Portland, Oregon, near where I was living, where I grew up. But it didn't stop me. I got back in the row boat, got back in again, and ultimately completed that crossing of Drake Passage, becoming the first person in history to row the most dangerous ocean crossing in the world. But had I stopped with that limiting belief, or have you listening? Stop with the limiting belief. I'm not this. I'm not that. Well, you never will become that. But being able to claim that in your identity, I am this.

00:43:09

A possible mindset says the possibilities are limitless. I am a rower or whatever I want to become. And the twelve hour walk is a great example for that. You're sitting there going, well, I'm not the type of person who does this physical stuff. I'm not a twelve hour walker. I'm not that a person, whatever. You know what? You are. Every single person Every single person, because I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how far you walk. You have the capacity to put on your shoes, walk at your front door. I don't care if you walk one mile or 50, but you have the capacity to do this. And when you do this, on the other side of the twelve hour walk, just like the 12-hour walk breaks down all the limiting beliefs, the 12-hour walk itself will prove to you, Oh, you thought you weren't that a person that does this stuff. But then you do it, you're like, Oh, wait, maybe I am a 12-hour walker. Well, if I can finish this, what else can I finish? What else can I become? And it's a really beautiful thing to have that, like you said, beginner's mindset of stepping into a new reality and realizing you can grow and develop into whatever it is you want to be.

00:44:06

Like you said, from that first speech to now who you are in your life, you're speaking on stages all around the world, and it's incredible. But at one point, you had to walk out there as Heather and be like, I'm Heather. I'm giving my first big corporate keynote speech. A little imposter syndrome or a little like, Do I belong? But now you've done it, you keep doing it, and it's a huge part of your identity that you can own.

00:44:26

Because I wasn't a speaker yet until I was. And so that is such a powerful message. Even if you don't think you're going to do the 12-hour walk, go get the book, the 12-hour walk, because the lessons that you teach in this book and all the reference is unbelievable to keep people on that track. But I know you're inspiring 10 million people to go for the walk. So guys, please go for the walk. Kong, where can everybody get the book? How can they follow you?

00:44:51

The book is available wherever you can get books. Pre-order is open now. The book comes out on August second. So depending on when you're listening to this, either pre-order the book or buy the book. And then the twelvehour walk. Com has all the resources. It has a background on the book, but also, as you mentioned, those videos, the supplementary help, FAQs about the walk itself. You can sign up for the walk on September 10th. The book comes out on August second. The twelve hour walk is meant to be taken any single day. But on September 10th, to really kick this idea off, I'm inviting global participation in the twelve hour walk. So I'm going to be walking that day. I've got lots of other big podcast host, Heather. I don't know what you're doing on September 10th, but I love for you to join us. As many people as possible to participate any day. But September 10th is going to be a big day where I'm going to be walking. Of course, it's all alone. You're doing this from your front door or wherever you are, but walking alone together, having that accountability to a larger global community of people that are saying, Hey, that's the date I'm putting on my calendar.

00:45:45

I'm going to take that on. So buy the book, check out the website, sign up, and take the 12-hour walk. I promise you it will unlock your best life on the other side of it.

00:45:54

Oh, my gosh. If you've been struggling with any limiting belief, go get this book now. You will have the inspiration and the tools that you need. Colin, thank you so much for inspiring us all and for all the amazing work you're doing.

00:46:05

Thank you so much. Great to be here.

00:46:06

We'll see you next week.

00:46:08

I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're going to hear, start learning and growing.

00:46:19

Inevitably, something will happen.

00:46:21

No one succeeds alone. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.

00:46:27

I'm on this journey with me.

AI Transcription provided by HappyScribe
Episode description

The same thoughts that surface when you avoid silence are often the ones quietly controlling your confidence, decisions, and direction. In this episode, I sit down with mindset expert Colin O’Brady to talk about how the thoughts you avoid in silence are often the same ones quietly shaping your decisions, confidence, and direction in life. We dive into why most people fear stillness, how responsibility and fear can disguise themselves as “logic,” and why being uncomfortable is often a sign you’re right on the edge of a breakthrough. Get ready to confront your limiting beliefs, reconnect with your intuition, and reset the way you approach big decisions.

In This Episode You Will Learn


How to identify the LIMITING BELIEFS quietly running your decisions.


Why discomfort is often the fastest path to CLARITY and GROWTH.


Why being a BEGINNER is not a weakness.


How to shift from a fixed mindset to a POSSIBLE mindset.


How to STOP living other people’s expectations.

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Resources + Links


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