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Sometimes when people hear about these expeditions, they, or certainly before they've met me,
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they think I must be some kind of fearless, special forces kind of superhero. And then they meet me
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and they say, I'm just a really ordinary guy. I'm not very strong. I get frightened of things pretty
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easily. I'm not particularly clever. I'm just very ordinary middle of the road kind of guy.
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And you know, standing up, giving speeches and stuff. I still get terrified doing that sort of thing.
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But I think what I figured out sort of intuitively along the way on these expeditions is that it wasn't,
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I wasn't going to get through all these obstacles and things through being super tough.
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It was more about having the right mindset, what I call the attitude of adventure,
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which is just approaching the challenges with the right mindset, the right principles.
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And that was really what was key to getting me through things. And that would include things like
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when I did have an obstacle in front of me, not to just sort of sit down and just
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ruminate on what a big problem it was. But to think of it as a challenge, if I applied myself,
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I could figure it out away through it. Things like being very clear about my long-term goal
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of trying to get to where I was going, but then breaking that down into shorter goals,
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that really helped me to keep going. A practicing self-care, which was, although on an
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expedition, you're pushing yourself hard the day after day after day. When I had the chance,
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I would try and take a day off because it's so important. When you're pushing yourself hard,
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you also look after yourself or eventually you lose your good judgement, you just get too
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exhausted to perform well. It's easy to think a lot of these expeditions I've been on my own,
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but I always say, although I was alone, I couldn't make it on my own. And I was constantly having to
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meet new people, ask them for advice, ask them for help. And that was actually, I think that was
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probably the real, the best and most beautiful thing I experienced on these trips was just meeting
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the local people in these far-flung places, who so often, whether it was a gold miner in Russia
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or a bike mechanic in Iran or wherever I was, total strangers would invite me in that insist
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on having me to stay, they'd feed me, they'd look after me. And there was so much kindness out there.
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I just, I couldn't, you know, I had to remember, I don't have to make it on my own. It was a wonderful
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experience. And I think it does apply, you know, I reflect a lot on this, how it applies to normal life.
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I think all those things I'm mentioning, which you need to get through an expedition, that those
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attitudes make such a difference in life, including self-discipline because that's key on an
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expedition, you know, you've got to be disciplined to do that, or you're, you're kind of
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slip behind schedule and all sorts of other problems.