Colin O'Brady: The Mindset That Lets You Conquer the Impossible | Mental Health | YAPClassic

Yeah, fam. I have really exciting news after almost eight years of running this podcast,

I finally was nominated for an I heart podcast award, which is like the Grammys of podcasting.

I'm heading up against the diary of the CEO acquired earn your leisure and all these amazing

shows for the best business and finance podcast. If you love young and profiting and you

love the show and you want me to win, the best way to help me is to write me a five star

review on Apple podcasts and also to subscribe to my YouTube channel and engage on our videos.

I also was nominated for an indie pack award. It's the first ever independent podcast

and creator awards that's also happening in a couple weeks and I was nominated for the

best business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm competing against ice coffee hour and

a number of awesome shows. And again, if you want to help me win these awards, please

write me a five star review on Apple podcasts and follow our YouTube channel and engage

on our videos. I appreciate any support. If you guys have been to my free webinars, if

you learn from the podcast and you guys know that I never ask you for anything. This is

the one time I'm asking you guys to support the show by writing us a review or engaging

on our YouTube channel. I hope to take home these wins and thanks again for supporting

the show. Sometimes our biggest setbacks and our biggest hardships buried in the

need of the stress and the anxiety and the fear and the pain of those moments are gold.

Hey, young and profitors. Earlier this week, behavioral expert Nieriel blew our minds talking

about how our beliefs literally determine what we achieve. The story you tell yourself,

that shapes everything. So for today's the app classic, I'm bringing it back to an episode

that shows what happens when somebody truly believes that the impossible is possible.

Our guest today is Colin O'Brady, a 10 time world record breaking explorer and the first

person in history to cross Antarctica solo, unsupported and completely human powered. Pretty insane,

right? Now, here's the wildest part. Before any of that, Colin was told he might never walk

normally again after a devastating accident, but he didn't buy it. Instead, he built what

he calls a possible mindset and rewrote his entire story. Yap gang, this episode will

challenge the limits you think you have and inspire you to conquer your own personal Everest. Let's

get into it. Hey, Colin, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me here. It's

great to be here with you. I am very excited for this conversation. So, Colin, we always like to

start from the beginning. And before you became an entrepreneur, the mindset expert that you are

and professional athlete, you spent your childhood exploring the mountains of the Pacific Northwest

and cultivated a passion for adventure in the outdoors. So tell us about your upbringing and how

your mother first instilled a growth mindset in you. Well, I came into this world in a somewhat

untraditional way. My parents were young when they had me in the early 20s, but I was actually born

at home on a hippie commune in Olympia, Washington on a futon. My mom invited like 30 of her friends

over to like hang out and celebrate the birth. I think it was much of hippies hanging out on this

organic farm, basically. And my mom played Bob Marley of Redemption Song for your listening

with that song on repeat throughout my birth. So a very untraditional way to enter the world.

But it was great. It was a great way to grow up. We moved from Olympia, Washington when I was

super young. So I grew up in Portland, Oregon, but still in the Pacific Northwest. And didn't have a

lot of money when I was a kid, but big dreams. And you know, certainly, you know, with the things I've

achieved my life now, people ask my mom, you know, like, don't you get worried? He walks across

an article by himself. He's climbers twice. He must be world worried as a mother. And she kind of

always smiles, this coy smile saying like, well, careful what you wish for when you tell their

kid away from day one, you know, they can achieve anything they set their mind to. And then in the

context of entrepreneurship, actually, it's interesting. And my childhood is, when I was about 13 years

old, my parents were involved in the health food, kind of natural foods movement. And this is

like in the late 80s, early 90s, before the words like sustainable and organic and things like

that were commonplace, like they were like part of this kind of hippie counterculture bringing

that into the more of the mainstream. And they worked at grocery stores, you know, from store

clerks, etc. And then when I was a young teenager, they decided to open their own store, which

ultimately to the, you know, to this day was very successful chain of natural foods grocery stores

in the Pacific Northwest called new season's market. They didn't have any of that success when I

was a kid. But what I did have when I was a kid was a front door seat to like entrepreneurship 101.

Like my dinner table conversation was 1342. My parents like, looking at this sales support cash,

should we do this marketing plan like a bootstrap business born out of our kitchen table. And so

that definitely throughout my life and the, you know, entrepreneurial success I've had over time

from being a founder to an ex founder, etc. is definitely a result of that observation as a kid.

I love that. What a wild and different and unique upbringing. No wonder you're so much different

than most of us, you know, we were just talking offline. And you've never really had a real job.

You had a real job for like six months. We'll get into that. But you've just led such a unique

journey. So let's talk about something that you talk about in your first book. You talk about

impossible first. We just kind of mentioned how you had this unique mindset. And you actually

completed the world's first solo unsupported completely human powered crossing of Antarctica.

It was pretty much what people thought was an impossible feat. And you said you only achieved

this impossible feat because you had a possible mindset. So I think we've all heard of gross

mindset before. That's something that's common. But a possible mindset for my listeners,

I think it's something new. And we're going to go deeper on this later on in the interview.

But for now, what is the possible mindset? I think you've coined that phrase. What does that

mean to you? Yeah. So it's literally how I my book that came out a few years ago about my solo

and art across and called the impossible first. I'll tell a little bit more about that. But this

phrase, this phrase, a possible mindset, it's actually the first page of my new book, The 12-hour

Walk. And it's something that I have a prescription to basically in one day. I think you can shift

from a mindset of limiting beliefs to a mindset of a possible mindset. The way I define that is

a possible mindset is an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities.

And to be clear, I'm a big fan of Carol Dweck. I'm a big fan of growth mindset. Growth mindset is

a core component of possible mindset. Postal mindset is a little bit further encompassing. It also

encompasses intuition, it encompasses the way you nurture and cultivate community around you,

etc. But the entire book, my new book, The 12-hour Walk is really how we all have this power

inside of us to unlock limitless possibilities. The name of my other book, The Impossible First,

as well as my actual project when I was crossing Antarctica. I named it that. I literally called my

project The Impossible First. I was attempting to do something that no one in history had ever

done before. People had tried it before me. Very tragically, people had literally died trying

this project. And the project was to be the first person to cross Antarctica solo. But as you

mentioned, unsupported, that means no resupplies of food or fuel. So I was dragging a 375-pound sled

behind me the entire time with all the food and supplies I would need, because no resupplies.

And then unaided means no kites, no dogs, no nothing else propelling me. It's just me,

mono, we mono, thousand miles, ended up taking me 54 days. I was on my last bite of food. I didn't

have nearly enough supplies with me because I couldn't carry it all, obviously to make that crossing.

And because of that, people said, hey, this project is impossible. Some of the best people in the

world have attempted this. People have died trying this. Like, this is impossible. And I named my

project The Impossible First, not as like a wink of, oh, I'm going to call it The Impossible First

to show everyone to prove this wrong, to say like, this might be impossible, but I'm willing to

try. I am willing to open up the possibilities of them being wrong, or maybe you're proving them

wrong, because I believe like when we dare to dream greatly, when we set massively audacious goals,

we either succeed, and amazing, that's wonderful, or maybe we fall a little bit short of that,

but in daring to dream greatly, we got 90% of the way there. We succeeded immensely in doing so,

the actual so I always say, you either win or you learn, there's no failure. So it's like,

that's the ethos that I've, and you know, I sit here with 10 world records, you know, I sit here

having had successful business ventures and stuff like that. But that's been built on the back

side of failures, learnings over time, et cetera. And my new book, The 12 Hour Walk, one of the

color components of that is breaking down that limiting belief, that fear of failure. So many people

don't even start. Hey, that goal's impossible. That summit's too high, Everest is too far. What's my

Everest? It's too far. I'm never going to get there. So they don't even start the process. And that,

to me, that is the ultimate failure. Trying something, putting your heart and so into it,

starting that business, iterating, pivoting, shifting, evolving, and then maybe not getting the

exact angle you want. Amazing. You learn a million things and you're going to apply that to the

next thing that you good after. Oh my gosh. I love this. And I can hear the enthusiasm and

passion from you. And we had a guest that really reminds me of yourself. Wim Hof was on recently. He's

the ice man. And he also is just like so enthusiastic. He also does these crazy challenges that

everybody thinks is impossible. And he has like a deeper purpose. His purpose is he wants people to

release their beliefs about what is possible with the brain and how we can control our bodies

and what's possible for humans. And I have to imagine that you have some deeper purpose. It wasn't

just you trying to prove that you can do something. What was like the real drive behind all of your

excursions so far? Yeah, absolutely. No, you have to have a why. I don't think that there's the

external gratification of, you know, I'm the first or I did this, you know, it is really anything.

I mean, it's enough to maybe get you out the door, but it's not enough on day 35 when you're starving

in Antarctica to keep putting one foot in front of the other. You know, for me, it's been cultivating

a passion and twofold. You know, one is to push my own body and mind. But in a way, you know,

I love telling stories. I love sharing stories. That's why I love writing books and other film and

TV and media projects that I've done because and I imagine that's why you have this podcast. Like,

are other people's stories have the ability to inspire, to ignite, to have this ripple effect?

That's why I love consuming podcasts is why I love reading books, right? Because other people's

stories, other people's learnings are so much to be gained from that. And so for me, you know,

part of my mission is to do this for myself, but the bigger mission is to inspire others. I have

a nonprofit that's really focused on kids and kids' health. You know, kind of I I asked them this

question, you know, what's your efforts? I asked these, you know, eight, nine, ten-year-old kids to

raise their hand and assembly. What's your, you know, calling my Mount Everest is to make sure

that the snow leopards are off the endangered species list or calling my Mount Everest be the

first person in my family to graduate from college. You know, you're sitting there in Jersey City,

I'm guessing you don't actually want to walk across Antarctica solo or actually climb Mount Everest,

but look at what you're doing. Like, you've got this podcast, you're crushing it. So many people

are listening and inspired by your message because that's your everest to do this. And so a big part

of that is inspiring others. And ultimately my new book, the 12-hour walk at its core is just that.

My first book, and I'm proud of it, New York Times, but so are the impossible first, is my story.

It's a memoir of my life and that expedition. I'm incredibly proud of the story in there.

But in the 12-hour walk, I share these adventure stories. I share them edge of your seat,

thrilling stories, but I also turn the narration back on the reader. I say, I'm not the hero of this

story. You are the hero of this story. This book is written for you to unlock your best life.

I'm going to share some learnings, some failures, some ups and downs to my life in a way that's going

to ignite your brain, excite you, but it's about you overcoming the limiting beliefs. You know,

the limiting beliefs that many of us have. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time.

What if I fail? What if people criticize me? I break down all those limiting beliefs and show

how you can actually shift to that possible mindset and begin to unlock your best life. And so

that's definitely one of my deepest purposes and something that brings me great joy.

That is exceptional. And your book is super action while I can't wait to get into the steps that

we should take to take this 12-hour walk that's going to help us reduce and release our limiting

beliefs. But let's talk about overcoming the impossible. We are on this topic. And from my

understanding and from my research, I learned that you went through a really big setback in your

20s. You graduated from Yale, super impressive. And before you went off on your career, you decided

you take a backpack and your surfboard and explore the world. And you ended up traveling to Thailand

where you suffered a very severe injury that almost left you unable to walk again. In fact,

the doctors put a limiting belief in your head. They said, you probably are never going to walk

normal again. And you were severely burned. And so I'd love to hear that story. I'd love to

understand what mentally you were going through at the time and how you ended up moving forward.

Maybe learn more about your support system during that time. And how you ended up competing in your

first ever triathlon just eight months later. Yeah. So, you know, as you said, I just graduated from

college. Didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid growing up. Actually, painted houses every

single summer to kind of, you know, pay for books and things like that. But I said to myself, I

always wanted to have an adventure. Like I always wanted to travel a little bit, see a bit of the

world. And I didn't have the opportunity when I was young as a kid growing up. And so I said,

you know, I had this economics degree from Yale as a swimmer there. Most of my friends, you know,

I graduated from college 2006 or headed, you know, off to Wall Street, you know, this is pre-2008

credit crisis and financial meltdown. And that seemed like the way to be, you know, big salary,

you know, secure future, all this sort of stuff. But there was something intuitively inside of me

saying like, ah, like do something else first. You know, if you want to go back to that, you can,

but do something else first. And so I had again, shoestring budget, backpack surfboard, eating

catering butter, jelly sandwiches, hitchhiking through countries, sleeping on couches, meeting

random people. But it was an incredible experience to be out in the world. I've actually ultimately met my

now wife in Fiji on the beginning of that trip. And the only reason I was in Fiji was because I

bought the world's cheapest student ticket. And then I was trying to get to New Zealand. They're like,

well, there's a 10-day layover on your ticket in Fiji. Like it was just like, it was like, you have

to stop here for this period of time. I was like, all right, cool. I'll check that out. So, you

know, letting the fate kind of dictate a little bit. But as you said, I, you know, I found myself in

Thailand many months into this, this adventure. And, you know, maybe because I was 22 and didn't

have a fully four prefrontal cortex, I'm not sure. But I saw some guys jumping a flaming jump rope,

literally a kerosene soap to jump rope. And I thought, gee, that looks like fun. So, I jumped

that rope. And in an instant, my life changed. You know, my literally lit my body. They sprayed

kerosene across my body, lit my body. I'm fired in my neck. Survival mode and kicked in when I

needed it most. I jumped into the ocean to extinguish the flames. But not before, about 25% of my body

was severely burned. And I was in remote and rural Thailand. There was no ambulance ride. I had a

moat-ped ride down a dirt path to a run-room nursing station. And I was on island. So, I couldn't,

you know, get to a big city or anything like that. I had eight certain, you know, eight surgeries

over the next week. There was a cat running around my bed in the ICU. I mean, it was a bad place

to be for the circumstance. And the physical pain was immense. For sure, I wouldn't wish it on

my worst enemy. But I will never forget the emotional pain of the moment. The doctor walks

and he looks me in the eyes and he says, Hey, I hate to tell you this. But based on how badly your

ligaments are burned and your ankles, your knees, et cetera, I don't think you're ever going to

walk again, normally. You're never going to regain full mobility and range of motion. And that was

just devastating. I think that would be devastating for any person at any age. But, you know, as a

20-year-old kid who was like very in his body as an athlete and whatever it was just like my identity

was just like in an instant, I made one mistake and like, boom, like, who am I without, you know,

this physical capacity that I've, you know, kind of dependent on throughout my life. The heroin

to this story, really turning point of story is my incredible mother. You know, she shows up in

Thailand, kind of finds me. It takes her four or five days to kind of track down. I'm in such a

remote part of Thailand. It takes her wild and find me. But she gets there in the hospital. And I can

only imagine as a mother what it's like, you know, she tells me now that she was crying in the

hallways pleading with the doctors for semblance of good news, not getting in. But she actually never

showed me that fear at all. And this is this is the crazy part of this story. Like, this is the

turning point. This is a thing that changed my entire life. She instead came into my hospital room

every single day with this huge smile on her face, this huge air of positivity,

daring me to dream about the future. Say, look, you messed up. We're not going to sugarcoat this.

This is a bad situation. I'm freaked out. But life isn't over. What do you want to do on the other

side of this? And she kind of, you know, pushed me on that and pushed me on that and pushed me

on that. And finally I closed my eyes. And I said, I just visualized myself crossing the finish line

of a triathlon. And again, turning point moment, she could have easily said, yeah, I said,

said a goal and looked towards the future, but like the legs and the bandages and the blood, like

maybe something more realistic triathlon, probably not in your future, you know, but instead

she didn't do that. She was like, actually, great. You know what? Let's start training right now.

She yells out to the doctor. She goes, Hey, Doc, hey, Doc, can you bring in some weights in the

doctor's looking? What are you talking about? Yeah, yeah, my son's training for a triathlon now.

So I have this picture of me. I'm lifting 10 pound dumbbells. There's this Thai doctor looking at

me like, this stupid American kid never going to walk in or tell me he's training for a triathlon.

This is ridiculous. But it was fixed in my mind. And definitely no way I would have had that

without my mother's daily support, not just in that moment. It was several months I was in the

Thai hospital, flew back to Oregon where I was from. I was in a wheelchair. I hadn't taken a single

step when I got home. She taught me how to walk again and one step at a time, but still competing,

thinking about this triathlon. And then, you know, fast forward, I did want to get out of my

parents' basement and get on with my life and start my career. So as you mentioned that the one

time I had a quote-unquote real job, I took a commodities trading job in Chicago. I thought I

worked in the finance industry. And yeah, I was still banged up and banded shut when I when I

took that job, but I started my career. But I signed up the Chicago triathlon to honor this goal.

And just 18 months after being burned in this fire, I started this triathlon, started the race.

Completed the race, you know, a mile is swimming, 25 miles of biking, 6.2 miles running,

I get to the finish line, I cross this finish line, I can't believe it, I've overcome, you know,

this big setback and kind of proven to myself that I can be able to body and whole again.

But to combine my complete and utter surprise, I didn't actually just finish the race.

I actually won the entire Chicago triathlon, placing first that of nearly 5,000 other participants

on the day. But the, I don't share that story as saying like, oh, I guess that just means I'm a

superhuman athlete and I can do whatever the hell I want, like whatever, that's not the point

at all and that's not the way I feel about it. The way I feel about it is exactly what we were

talking about before. Is that I was living in a moment of fear, a moment of doubt, a moment of

understandable limiting beliefs. And as you said, the doctor put that limiting belief on me,

you are never going to walk again normally. The doctor says it diagnosis, it's very easy to just

be like, yep, okay, like that's, that's the deal. He's the expert. Right, he's the expert.

But in the end, my mother opened the door to what I now call very fondly a possible mindset.

She says, look, this is bad, but there's limitless possibilities on the other side of this.

And so that lesson, that lesson, not the win, but what I realize is all of us as humans,

not this not just a story about me, this is a story about all seven billion of us on this planet

is that we have reservoirs of untapped potential to achieve extraordinary things in our life.

But it all starts with our mindset. And then we can cultivate and flex and develop that muscle.

I love to say the most important muscle any of us have is the six inches between our ears.

And we can flex and develop that in the 12-hour walk. Book is ultimately about how we can all do that

and harness that power. The possibilities are limitless. And so it's weird to say, but sometimes our

biggest setbacks and our biggest hardships buried in beneath of the stress and the anxiety and the

fear and the pain of those moments are gold are lessons. And I wouldn't be sitting here with 10

world records. You know, I wouldn't, you know, it's crazy to say, but like all of my world records,

I use those legs, but the legs after they have been burned, not before they have been burned

after they have been burned because my mind was so much stronger on the other side.

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profiting that shopify.com slash profiting. Oh my gosh, you're like hitting on all the things that I

was like planning on hitting on like it's everything that you're saying is pure gold. So there's

a couple of lessons that I see in this. First of all, I feel like a lot of people think that when

they're going through a tough time, they need this huge support system. They want like 10 people

around them supporting them. Really, if you have one person in your corner when the time is

getting tough, then you are like really blessed. Like you just need one person to help you

if you're in a bad situation. And there's some people unfortunately who don't have one person.

And what advice would you give to somebody if they didn't have somebody in their corner the way

that you had your mom? Because I do, I was thinking about this and I was going to say, you know,

if you have one person, but there's some people who don't have anyone to help them when the time

gets tough. So what would you say to that? I'm blessed. My mother's amazing. I have an incredible

wife as well who has been so supportive and has gotten me some tough spots. I've called her from

the summit of Everest. The core of my tent and Antarctica crying and sobbing and she's

talking off a cliff quite literally. But you know, it is a good question. If you didn't have that

person here, what I would say is this is that I think cultivating community is hugely important.

I think the people we probably heard it say before, you know, the net product, the five people

you spend the most time with. And the question is about not having anyone around you. What most

people I would say very, very most people in this day and age of connectivity, they have connection

to the internet, right? They have connection to people that maybe they're sharing physical

space with, but maybe they're famous or they're not actually talking to or having a dialogue with.

You know, I imagine most people listeners have never sat down and actually talked to you, right?

But here's the thing. The internet, social media, all this stuff can be extremely toxic. We all

know this. We all know the person on your Instagram feed that triggers you that makes you feel bad

or whatever. But the opposite is also true, right? Podcast, the internet, media, etc., can be the

other thing, which is so if you are actually in a place where you are so alone right now that you

don't have a single person to support you. First of all, get rid of all those people in your social

media feed that are continuing to make you feel bad. Right now, pull out your phone, unfollow,

that will feel amazing. But then all of a sudden, fill up your brain with the access to, you know,

this podcast, younger profiting, you're listening to right now, the amazing, there are people that are

sharing wisdom, advice, etc. And so that one person in your corner can be somebody that maybe you

haven't even met. You know, I think about that as my, you know, I have mentors in my life who have

been dead a hundred years, but I've read their books that, you know, that they have profoundly

impacted my life because their words are written down and I've lasted the centuries or the

decades. So that's what I would say to that person. I love that answer. Good answer, Colin.

So the other big takeaway from this is that you used a big goal to get out of a rut. And I always

do this every time I've ever failed in life, the way that I get out of being depressed, I've never

had a bad health issue like that. But if I ever got like fired from a job or something like really

devastating happened, the first thing I do is think of a new challenging project to basically

distract myself with something positive, learning something positive and just taking some positive

action towards some new challenge. In my opinion, that is the best and fastest way to get out of a

rut is to focus on something new, which you did with a triathlon, right? And so I feel like those

are all such great takeaways to your story and, you know, you're just such an inspiring person. So

let's get back into how you actually started making money doing this because like we just talked

about, you only had a job for like, you know, a handful of months, a real corporate job. And then

you started taking on these challenges, you know, you, you, you did one after the other, you started

climbing mountains and Mount Everest and going through Drake's passage and sailing. And

how did you actually make money? Like, what's the business model behind that?

No, it's a great question. So, you know, with the 12 hour walk and again, I'm chomping at the

bit to share the fuller message with you. I know we'll get to that. But it's good content. No,

it's good context here, which is I saw before writing this book and we'll get to what it's all about.

I said, I want to help people unlock their best life and people to find that differently,

like people to find what that looks like, right? That can be making a million dollars,

that can be saving a million lives, that can be spending more quality time in my family,

that can be, you know, traveling the way you're right. There's no right answer to that question.

Again, it gets back to that. What's your efforts? It's your efforts. It's not my efforts. It's

your efforts. But the number one question, when I pulled my audience, when I talked to people,

what is standing in the way of you living your best life? The number one response was, I don't have

enough money. I don't have enough money. What should you know, if you reverse engineer that,

it's basically people saying, if I had more money, I would be living my best life. Now, I could

probably poke holes in that as well, but I have gone from a life of being a kid who didn't have

very much money to now at this base of my life to having cultivated quite a bit of abundance,

financial success. I didn't eight figure exit with a business that I started a couple years ago.

You know, I've gotten, you know, I've had that success in my life. Now, I've worked hard for it.

A couple of things. One is how did it actually start? Like, in that moment,

I actually, from my corporate job, when the Chicago Trap on it ended up at a barbecue at this

guys house, there's other commodities trader. He hears the story, wait, you weren't walking a

year ago and now you won this trial. Like, this is crazy. Do you want to continue to focus on this?

And he said, I would be your first sponsor if you want to meet it, if you wanted to pursue this.

Now, what was clear, and he even said this to me goes, but you're on a bright path. Like,

you have this financial career, you have this education, et cetera. If you keep doing this

for the next 30 years, like you're going to make money, you're going to do quote unquote well for

yourself, et cetera. And what I'm offering you is, you know, basically a few plain tickets. You

can sleep on your friends' couches around the world and, you know, eat some peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches back to basically what I was traveling around bombing around the world. But here's the

difference. If you want to follow your heart to it, I went and quit my job on Monday. I literally

walked into my office and quit my job that day, not exactly knowing how the business plan

would work in the long run, but trusting that instinct, trusting that God. And I do get deeper

into that in the book. Now, what that has turned into is I have figured out a way. And to me,

this is what my best life looked like. This is not for everyone, right? Is how can I do the things

that I love with a full heart, full of passion and still create monetary success around that?

Because I'm a big believer in economic solutions of things. I think we can have, I can have the

most impact. And my nonprofit is thriving at its highest level when I am also taking care of

myself financially, because then I have more energy, more freedom, more flexibility, et cetera,

right? When I'm stuck in this mindset of scarcity, I can't have that impact, you know, on the world.

So look, it's been iterative, but I'll tell you, I'll tell you one story from the beginning,

and I think this kind of sums it up in sort of the mindset essence of this, which I think people

can apply, which is 2014. So I raised triathlon for about five or six years professionally.

25 countries, six continents, I don't save any money, but it's just enough to get by, but I,

you know, I cultivate this passion for pushing my body, this curiosity. Then in fall of 2014,

I'm on a mountain top, and I've got a diamond ring in my pocket, and I asked my long-time

girlfriend, now wife, to marry me. And 2014, we're in our, you know, mid to late 20s at this point,

and, you know, again, I love this idea of a possible mindset. I love the idea to dream big. And so

in this moment of this like turning point moment in our life, we kind of have this brainstorm on

this mountain top that says like, what do you want to do? Like, what do you want to do next? We're

going to be together forever. Like, what do you want our life to be like family? You know, what,

like, let's just talk about it. So we have this super amazing brainstorm, pulled like all these

high vibes. And I say, look, one of my childhood dreams has always been to climb Mount Everest.

So I want to do that somehow. And I was like, in triathlon, I was like, I feel like I'm,

I still want to push my body as an athlete, but maybe in a way that has larger impact or so.

And we get on this idea of, there's this thing called the Explorers Grand Slam. So that's the

climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, go to the North and South Pole,

and that includes Mount Everest. And I say, what if I do that? But I set the world record for that.

So instead, you know, people use it over 10 years, but I was like, what if I do it nonstop over four

months, you know, one mountain, next mountain, et cetera. And with the media exposure of that,

it will allow us to have a platform around goals around health and wellness. And we can start this

nonprofit and hopefully inspire tons of kids and how else impact this amazing conversation.

Then we get back, we come literally down from that mountain and go back to our one bedroom apartment

in Portland, Oregon, and a time in our life where we have a lot of very no abundance.

Mostly scarcity in this moment are like, and this is the moment where most good ideas die.

I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs listening to this like this is the moment. This is the moment

when you're like having some beers with your buddy and you come up with this like amazing business

idea and you hash it out in the back of a napkin and all this sort of stuff. But you wake up a little

hungover on Sunday morning, you're like, yeah, man, like that business only works if we can raise

$5 million and have like funding from like this massive like PE firm or whatever that is, right?

Or, you know, in less of a business context, you're like, you know, out with your buddy like,

oh, we're going to run that marathon. We're going to train all year for it. We're going to do this

whatever and you wake up and you're like, yeah, man, like I don't even want to go on a run today.

Let alone like for the next like six months, right? Jenna and I wake up in that moment quite literally

and like this project, it turns out we map it out on a little spreadsheet like it costs a half

a million dollars straight up. If that's not like making anything, that's to go to Everest,

that's to like the North Pole, the South Pole, the logistics, the just sort of infrastructure

around this process is going to cost about a half million dollars. We've got 10 grand to our name

between the two of us at this point in our life and like, that's it. So here is the lesson in this.

There are two mindsets. One is a mindset of scarcity and one is a mindset of abundance, right?

The scarcity mindset, similar to a fixed mindset in a different context, says, well, I have 10 grand

and the thing I want to do costs 500 grand, I'm never going to be able to do this thing and so

therefore I'm just not going to do it. We could have easily gone that way. But again, that possible

mindset, which for me is a catch-all for all these different mindsets, but that says that mindset

of abundance starts to go, wait a second. Okay, I've got 10 grand right now. What else do I have?

What else do I have in my favor? Okay. I've got the internet. I've got Google. I've got like a

handful of friends that I can ask a few questions too. And it's a long story like for the next 18

months, Jenna and I knocked on every single door. Told people, I'm climbing these mountains. Like,

you haven't even climbed these mountains. I don't get doesn't matter. I need a half million dollars

trying to find sponsor, trying to find funding, trying to find this. And here's what happened.

1,000 people said no to us, 1,000 people, quite literally. Now, it's getting to be two months

before we're leaving for this thing. And we are still head up and we're doing this. We've raised

like 30, 40 grand. We still got like several hundred thousand dollars to go. And I'm getting nervous.

I'll be honest. We've been working this for a year and a half. We finally picked a date. We got

to leave on this departure date, whatever. I can invite it. Friend of mine says, hey man, I know you're

still trying to raise all that money and you're like, well, short, just as a piece of inspiration,

there's this woman that I want you to meet. And I say, great, at this point, I was the one to talk

to any literally, to talk to anyone. I tried my pitch on 1,000 people and it kept failing. I was like,

maybe I'm doing it wrong. So he invites me to this spin class. He's like, I'm like a spin class

at an LA fitness. Like, I'm a professional athlete. I'm not going to go to like a group, I'm like,

my ego's getting better. I don't know group group fitness class. It's like a, you know, LA fit.

What are you talking about? He's like, no, not just comment. And I'm like, fine, whatever.

So I come to the spin class. I walk in. There's this woman. She's probably in her mid 50s.

She's already hitting the spin by car. She's sweating like the class hasn't even started it.

Like, she's hitting it hard. And he goes, oh, my friend, Angela, he goes, hey, meet my friend,

Kathy, Kathy Colin. And he goes, she was a world record holder. And she just laughs. She goes, oh my

God, to bring in that up like a million years ago. And she's like, when I was 19, I set the

world record in the 5K. You know, this is literally 34 30 plus years ago for her in her life.

And I was like, oh, that's cool. And she goes, you know, Colin's trying to break a world record

himself. Tell her about it. So it comes out of me. I said, look, trying to just explore a

grand slam. I got this nonprofit. I want to inspire kids. And she's like, oh, cool, cool.

That's awesome. Like, good luck with that spin class starts. I'm sitting there on this spin

bike. What the hell am I doing here, man? Like, this is like, what the heck am I doing here?

And I get done with a spin class. I'm about to leave, you know, wiping myself down with the

towel, whatever, wiping the bike down. And she goes, hey, Colin, I've been thinking about

you thing. You come back over here. My husband loves this kind of stuff. You know, you should tell

him about it. And she waves over to this guy across the room, guy's salt and pepper hair walks

over. Hi, how are you? I shake his hand. She was telling. And again, not pitching this guy

enough. And I'm just like, giving like the 30 seconds before I walk out of spin class. Give him

the story. And he goes, wow, are you happen to be looking for sponsors for this? And I'm

obviously my ears perk up. Well, indeed, I am. What a, he goes, yeah, I think the company that I

work for might actually be interested in something like this. And so I go, what company do you work

for? And he goes, I work, I work for Nike. And I'm in Portland, Oregon. Like, I mean, that's like

the dream of all dreams. I think it's for most people. And I'm like, in Portland, that's what the

Nike World Headquarters are. Like that's like the dream of all dream sponsorship. I think for any,

like, athlete or whatever, right? And I'm like, oh, my God, great.

Eight months before this, Jen and I had actually spent the $10,000 all the money we had to build a

website. That was our plan. We said, we at least have to have a good enough website. Let's

spend all of our money on it because we're going to try to raise this money. Someone at some point

is going to ask to see our website. And it's going to have to look good. He literally says,

word for word to me. He goes, do you have a website or something? You should email it to me on

Monday. And I'm like, yes, I do have a website. Can I get your contact? And everybody goes, yeah,

no problem. He grabs Russell Swiss Jamaican. Let me get a card for you. Pulls out a business card,

hands it to me. I look down. Mark Parker CEO Nike. Oh my God. Oh my. I was just like, oh my God.

Now, what is the moral of this story? Is the moral of this story? Yeah, you just got super lucky.

Like, good job. You met the freaking CEO of Nike in a spin class. I would argue that that is not

the truth. My mom said to me, and I love this line. She goes, luck comes to those who are prepared.

Love comes to those who are prepared. The scarcity mindset 18 months earlier said, don't even

try this for a day. The abundance mindset says, keep pushing. Keep finding a way. Keep knocking on

the door, right? And we talked before, you know, you either, you either, you either succeed or you

learn, well, you could have said the thousand people that said no to me before that. I failed. I

failed a thousand times. But guess what? Every single one of those times, maybe my pitch got a little

bit better. Maybe my confidence got a little bit more sharp. Maybe my, the way I articulated my

idea was just a little more polished so that when the person who could quite literally change the

fortune of my life was standing in front of me, it came out with authentic authenticity and passion

and right place, right time. But the essence of that is that abundance mindset and the book actually

breaks down even more specific steps is to your point. You set that big goal to get out of the

rut. But then to actually get out of the rut, you have to keep chipping away at that goal every

single day. The scarcity mindset says, yo, you've got 10 grand. You're never going to make 500

grand of do this thing. The abundance mindset says, build a website with your 10 grand and then go

knocking a bunch of people's doors quite literally and figuratively. And you know what? The

universe might just conspire to make your dreams come true. So it's a lot's longer answer to you

probably expected. And there's even longer answer to how I've built all the pieces of business over time.

But it's from that mindset. And that's what any single person walking this planet can apply. That's

for sure. Oh my gosh, I'm so thankful that you shared that story. I feel like that's a story that

everybody needed to hear. And I love that, you know, you showed up. That's also part of the battle

when you're trying to accomplish a goal. You need to show up. You can't expect things to fall

on your lap. You went to that spin class, even though, you know, it wasn't the most exciting

thing to you. But your friend said, hey, there might be a little opportunity for you here. And you

went out and you took it and you did your best. And it led you on to this extraordinary life that

you guys have. So what a great story. So let's, let's move on fast forward to 2019. In between all

that, you've had lots of crazy excursions. You've written all about it. People can look up,

look it up. But let's fast forward to 2019. And at that point, you attempted the world's first

completely human-powered ocean row across of Drake's passage. And a year later, COVID hit. And

that really made all of your adventures come to a halt. And during the pandemic, you decided

that you were going to do something. You were going to take a 12-hour walk. So let's talk about

that. Why did you think about taking a 12-hour walk? What inspired you to write your new book? And,

you know, why did you take such a long, long ass walk? Why am I inviting every person listening to

this to take their own 12-hour walk? Well, look, I got to go back in time a tiny bit, which is just

to set a context, which is when I was walking across Antarctica for 54 days, 12 hours was my daily

cadence. And there's a reason to that. Mostly because if I walked any less, I was quite literally

going to run out of food. So I was burning 10,000 calories a day. And I was eating anywhere between

five to seven thousand a day, which means I was on a three plus thousand calorie deficit from day one.

By the end, I was a bag of bones, ribs sticking out, hips protruding, frostbite on my face. You look

at my Instagram, you see pictures, there's like black tape on my face. It is so beautiful. My,

minus 40 degrees, minus 80 windshield regularly. But if I took even one day off, I had no hope of

making it to the other side. So no matter how bad the weather, no how bad rough the condition,

I walked for 12 hours. Now, in that time, at some point, this felt like a terrible idea. But I also,

before I left, I decided to delete all my music, all my podcasts, all my content, whatever,

to actually spend the time alone in Antarctica and deep silence. Because I thought,

if I try to distract my brain, it might work for a while. But the ultimate depth of this experience

was going to come from tapping into basically a flow state. There's this walking meditation of sorts.

Now, there was many times when I thought, now that was the worst idea ever. I would love a podcast

right now. Somebody to talk to me because being alone for 54 days in Antarctica, this place that's

trying to kill you every minute is a, is a, is a deep place to go on your mind. But ultimately,

my thesis proved to be true, which was on the second half of that journey, as my body declined,

as my physical ability started to decline, my mental acuity actually started to strengthen.

I felt so tapped in, not just so the competitive nature of becoming the first, and I was actually

racing another guy out there with just a whole other different story that was a crazy battle

tapping out there. But I was pulling this sled and I tapped into day after day of flow.

And what that actually led me to was way more than, you know, not, oh, hey, Colin, you're talking

about purpose. I did it. I did it. I'm amazing. Put my name on the front page of New York Times.

I'm humbled by that exposure and all that sort of stuff. But that's not what I was about.

What I got tapped into was fulfillment, purpose, gratitude, love, love of family, love of career,

love of passion, love of building things, love of impact. Like that felt just like squarely

in my body, mind, fulfill. And I think most people, unfortunately, are walking through life

pretty unfulfilled, pretty unhappy, wishing they had more, wishing they had something different,

you know, kind of stuck in a rut. So to speak in life, it's sometimes. But I thought, wow,

I got the other side of an article and I figured it out. Like I've hacked it. Like I've got this.

I can carry this with me. This inner strength now forever. And that was true for a few years.

I'll be honest, you know, I had some big wins and some successes and really generally woke up

feeling pretty great. And then as I think we all remember the spring of 2020, the world just comes

to a crashing halt. And, you know, fortunately, I wasn't sick with COVID, but reading the news every

day, the fear, the uncertainty, the borders are closing. Stay in your house. This person might get sick,

worrying about my grandparents, worrying about my parents, you know, it's all the different factors

in that moment. It just really disrupted my mental health in a really significant way. And I found

myself, I was my wife and I went and basically locked ourselves for the lockdown in a small house

on the Oregon coast. And my family has just me, me and my dog and my wife in this little cabin,

this tiny little town. And my wife looks over me one day and she's like, she's like, hey,

you know, you don't seem like you're doing it. I'm like, I'm not. She goes, I mean, just throwing

it out there like you haven't changed out her pajamas in like three or four days. You've just

been sitting on the couch like doom scrolling the news on your phone and like reading these like

intense headlines like, you know, she's just like, hey, like just check it in like. And I was like,

no, you're right. I thought that back once the last time that I felt, you know, somehow a little

bit more connected in my mind, body and spirit. I said, it's weird, but it was when I was walking

across an article alone, even though it was so hard, even though my body was so beat up, even

though it was the depth of of challenge and despair sometimes. I actually felt really lit up in

that moment. So I said, I'm grasping its stress here. But I said to my wife, Jenna said, tomorrow

morning, I'm going to wake up. I'm going to go for a walk 12 hours all day, just like I used to

do in Antarctica. And she just kind of laughs. She's like, sure, I'm like, whatever. And it's

like one of the few things you can do during a lockdowns walk around by yourself. And so I walk

outside 20 minutes into this walk, my phone buzzes in my pocket. And I instinctively reached down

for it and my buddy's text message texting me, you know, I'm going to text him back, whatever. And

I look at him like, man, I just been like doom scrolling the news staring at social media like,

maybe I don't need my phone for this. Like what? Like I just instinctively put my phone in

an airplane mode and keep walking. So I walk, I walk down the organ coach, I take breaks,

when I'm out there all day long, 12 hours alone, no music, no podcast, nothing alone in my head.

And I walk back in the front door of a house. My dog jumps up on me and my wife says to me, she goes,

you're back. And I'm like, yeah, I told you I'd come back after 12 hours. And she's like, no,

you're back. She knows me so well. She could just see like in my eyes that like the reset in my body,

mind, spirit was instantaneously profound. I didn't even have to say anything. She's like,

you're back. Oh, it's so good to see you that in that way in a more greater context than actually

just being physically there, right? And so I was like, yeah, I feel better than I have felt in

so long. It's for stronger in my mind, reset, et cetera. I'm so glad I did that. Now I thought,

look, I'm the guy who walked across Antarctica solo. I'm the guy who've done all these ridiculous

things, physically, you know, tap deep into my mind, all this kind of stuff. This is just me,

like hacking back into my own ability to do this. But it's COVID. And so all my friends and family

members are calling me. They're having tough times where Zoom call on or FaceTime and everyone's

like not doing well, different people from different backgrounds. And I start telling people about

this. I said, Hey, look, I just did this thing. And a lot of people took me up on it. Young, old,

fit. Not so fit. Doesn't matter. And I said, look, it doesn't matter if you go one mile or 50 miles,

take as many breaks as you want, but take the day, the 12 hours in silence to be outside.

Before I knew it dozens and dozens of people were trying this. And every single person that I

knew to come back from that walk came back with that same, your back lit up way, this same,

I, you know, and again, it looked different for different people, but stuck in this job that I

was frustrated with. And now I have a way out of that. Or I've been thinking about this goal.

I'm actually going to apply myself towards it. Oh, wow, this business idea that I've kind of

had in the back of my mind had 12 hours of think about it. And now I'm jamming on my computer,

my partner, and we were like going for it. Like every single person I knew to take that walk,

have this shift. And I take this as far as my 77 year old mother-in-law, she did the 12-hour walk.

For her that looked like walking one time around the block of her, you know, her neighborhood,

and then sitting on her front porch for an hour, there's no right way to do it other than to take the

day. What I have become extremely passionate about why I wrote the book to 12-hour walk in the book,

there's rich storytelling. In the book, you will be lit up with advice, adventure, how to overcome

all of those commenting, limiting beliefs. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time.

What if I fail? What if people criticize me? The common things that are holding us back that we've

all dealt with in our own minds, myself included. The stories that I share in there are me showing you

how I have been in all of those moments myself, but I figured out how to overcome them.

But at its core, is this call to action of the book? The book is an essential companion to the

call to action. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy. I'm very proud of it. I think you're

going to love it. It's going to change your life. But at its core is this simple call to action.

The book is called the 12-hour walk, invest one day, one day, conquer your mind, and unlock your best

life. Because I have found by literally putting a date on your calendar, stepping out front

on your door, taking this 12-hour walk. Again, as many breaks as you want, if you're in a big city

that doesn't matter, ambient city noise doesn't negate your sound. This is your sound. This is your

commitment to not listen to music and podcast and listen to your own thoughts during this time.

I have seen people shift radically from a mindset of limiting beliefs, a mindset of things that are

holding back on the other side of this walk by taking this moment to check in with yourself in this

deep way. It is incredibly profound and I'm just passionate about sharing it. I say my next

ever is to inspire 10 million people to take this walk. It's not because I don't get a dollar

for every person that takes the walk. This is free out your front door, wherever you live. But

this is a powerful prescription and I'm so excited to share it with the world.

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I love this advice because I feel like it's sort of the same outcome of meditation,

but meditation is really scary for people. And to me, meditation like is boring, right? Like I'm

an active entrepreneur. I have ADHD probably taking a 12 hour walk seems doable. You know what I mean?

It seems like it's a little scary. I know you have to be completely alone. You got to really unplug,

but you can, like you said, you could take as many breaks as you want. You don't have to necessarily

go that far and you just have to set a day and you can potentially like really think through

some limiting beliefs and and overcome your Everest and figure out how you can accomplish

your biggest goals and having that alone time is so key. And I feel like giving people that

road map is so helpful. So I'd love to go over the six steps with you. You know, you talk about

six steps to take a 12 hour walk. And you need to prepare the first three steps is all about

preparing. The first step is to commit the second is to record. And the third is to unplug.

So I'd love for you to kind of just walk us through the first three steps. And then I want to talk

take a moment to talk about some common limiting beliefs and then we can get to the next three steps.

Yeah, for sure. So the first three steps is commit really. I mean, that's the big one, which is

you're listening to this podcast right now and you're thinking you're still I always say the 12 hour

walk journey actually starts right in this moment. The 12 hours of the walk is it's obviously very

the profound element of it. But this is actually the moment, the decision moment. You're being

suggested this for the first idea. And your mind might be going, uh, well, maybe, maybe not.

You know, I have these limiting beliefs where what I found is actually this moment is actually

where it starts because I am holding up a mirror to you just by suggesting this to you.

People's brains do different things. They go, oh my god, amazing. I'm going to do it. I'm signing

up now or oh my god, this is terrible to you. Most people are in between. Well, I would do that if

I didn't have such a busy life and the kids and the this. Oh, I don't have enough time. Turns out

that the limiting beliefs that people apply to the 12 hour walk when they're considering it

are more often than not the same limiting beliefs that they're applying to on loop to many,

many, many, many, many different things that are holding them back in their own life.

But by taking step one, by committing, you rewrite that. I call them limiting beliefs on

purpose because they're not their beliefs. They're not limiting truths. They're not limiting facts.

They're beliefs. Beliefs can be rewritten by committing and taking step one. You're proven to

yourself, yep, I had that limiting belief. I didn't have enough time, but you know what?

Three Saturdays from now, I'm making the time. And so when that limiting belief comes up on the

other side of your walk after the fulfillment of the walk, you start to go, oh, I recognize these

limiting beliefs. And sometimes when I push back against them, the outcome is positive. I can make

that limiting belief voice quieter and quieter. So step one is huge. Commit. Commit. You can pick a

day on my website, 12 hour walk, come sign up, that commitment, even just writing that down and

you're committing to it. And I'm holding you accountable to it. That makes a difference. If

you're looking for actually more participation, September 10th, I'm inviting mass participation

to walk. I'm walking that day. You're still walking from your front door. You're still walking

by yourself. But there is a knowledge that there are lots of other people out there doing that

in the same moment as you are. Step two, record. So this is meant for us to be able to have a little

bit of something to look back on. And so I want you to set intentions. The book walks you through

limiting belief. The book is essential companion because it opens up some ideas and some thoughts

sort of around what you're working towards. But when you sit to your front door, you know, we all

have these phones in our pocket myself included. It's like, fine, let's use that for a second.

Put your video camera on and this is a video for yourself. Hey, I'm doing this 12 hour walk.

I'm a little bit nervous. I've never done this before. God, I can't remember the time I was alone

this long. But on the other side of this, I want to act similar to meet my mother in that hospital

room saying, Hey, what do you want to do when you get out of there? Set that intention. Set that

goal because more than anything, that ripple effect of a cleaner subconscious is extremely powerful.

So you record that for yourself to look back on later. And then number three, very important.

Unplug. Unplug. You put your phone on airplane mode. Now, I have actually funny enough

created an app for the 12 hour walk. So you think that's hilarious. This whole thing is about

unplugging and not having your phone. Why would somebody create a app app for this? Well, here's why.

Because most people are thinking himself, but I need Google Maps because I don't want to get lost.

I need a timer of some kind that counts down the 12 hours. So I can check. I'm saying, great,

great. I've created an app for that. The app tracks you on your walk in airplane mode. The GPS

works in airplane mode. You can see a line of where you walk. You can zoom in and out on Google Maps

inside of the app. Great. So you no longer have that excuse. And it also has a clock. So I have created

an app you download. You want plug. You put an airplane mode. You hit start. It starts tracking you.

You shouldn't need to look at anything else. You don't have to check it on your social media that day.

You don't need to take your phone out of airplane mode. But the unplugging nature is really phone

an airplane mode. Put this tracking on just so you know where you're walking. And then then you begin.

I love that. So part of this whole 12 hour walk is to think of your Everest first, right? So

I'd love to take a moment that we've we've mentioned it a few times. What is an Everest exactly?

Like how do you define that? To me, I had to find that as as a big goal, you know? And again,

I use that terminology. I want to an adventure explorer and I've climbed Everest twice. But

it's because my childhood dream was literally to climb on Everest. And so I'm like that,

that was mine. But I don't expect that to be most other people as I expect you to want to go

freeze your butt off Melvin article by yourself. That's probably not your hope dream or goal of

any time. But what is your Everest? What is that goal? And I think as you said to have that goal

is a hugely important sort of determining factor. You know, I've come. There's a little bit of departure

from the question, but I think it's important here because I've come to think about life a little

bit on this of a scale of one to 10. Now 10 being our summit moments 10 you summit your out of it.

You you make that achievement. It's the high high where maybe it's, you know, not an achievement

externally, but you have your first child or you fall in love. These are the peak moments of

life. 10s, right? And ones are a lowest moment, a lowest moment. I mean, just me being burned in

that fire being told I would never walk again, normally a massive setback. You know, your company

starts goes bankrupt, whatever that is. That those are low moments. Like those are terrible.

No one really wants to experience those. But when I think back to all the 10s that I've experienced

in my life, I have realized that they're connected to the ones in that I didn't experience my 10s

in spite of my ones. I actually experienced my 10s because of my ones. Now most people in modern

society unfortunately get caught in what I call the zone of comfortable complacency, the zone

between four and six. Like you have a job. It's fine. You don't love it. You don't hate it.

You go every day, but it's like five, five, five. This is genius. Or even dating somebody for a while,

right? And like you'd be dating for a few years. You live together. It's not toxic. It's not

abusive. It's not like a bad situation. Like you know, a horrible thing. But you're just kind of

coexisting. Your cohabitation is like five, five, five, five. I have found that people live in

the zone of comfortable complacency from four to six because they are so worried about experiencing

a one. They're hedging so hard against not experiencing any of the low moments of life that they

actually ends up happening is you take off the table, the 10s. You take off the table, the 10s.

You have to be able willing to experience some of the ones to actually experience the 10s. People

ask me all the time, Coney, don't all this dangerous, high risk stuff. Aren't you afraid of dying?

I'm like, look, the last thing I want to do in the world is die. I visualize myself as an old man

with my wife, a grandkids around me. That I know that that's going to be the end of my life. But

I'll tell you what I'm more afraid of than dying. I'm afraid of not fully living. I'm afraid of not

fully living. And a life lived only in that zone of comfortable complacency. That is the biggest

fear of all. So when people think about, again, to your initial question about what's your Everest,

it's what's your Everest? What scares you a little bit? What like might be hard some of the time,

right? You have to be willing to embrace that. This 12 hour walk even for people is a step outside

of the comfort zone. Will your feet get tired at some point if you're on your feet for a better part

of 12 hours? Absolutely. Are you going to get stuck in some loop in your brain because you're not

used to be able to distract yourself by your social media? Yep. You are. Meaning you're going to

experience maybe not a one, but maybe a two or a three or some moments of discomfort. But I have

never known anybody to get back to their front door, not experiencing an eight, a nine, a ten,

this peak moment. How many days in our life do we not even remember? What'd you do last Tuesday?

What'd you do a month ago? What'd you do this? This 12 hour walk imprints on you. But in a way that

allows you to go, oh, if I just for one day can prove to myself that actually a little bit of

discomfort, a little bit of a shake up outside the norm, not another bleh five day can exist for me.

How can I go chase other things in my life? And that Everest allows you to anchor that and go, oh,

now I see the journey is not necessary linear, but the negative, the quote unquote negative or the

harsher, most of that are actually a pathway. The ones are opening up the door to the tent.

I have to say that was like maybe one of my favorite five minutes of this podcast ever.

Like that was so good. That was so freaking good. So Colin, I want to go through a couple of

these limiting beliefs in sort of a quickfire way. You went through the first one that I wanted to

go through, which is being uncomfortable. And you said that beautifully. So another common

limiting belief that people have is that they don't know what to do, right? They don't know where to

go next. They don't know what actions to take. What is your guidance for people who don't know what to

do next? So one of the things and again, I said before, I'm a passionate Carol DeVote, the woman

who originated the concept of growth mindset. But where the possible mindset to me encompasses

both growth mindset and some other elements and something that she doesn't talk about is intuition,

is intuition, this inner voice, this inner knowing. Now, I'll leave it to you because I know we're

limited time here to actually buy the book, read the book this entire chapter, but it's a chapter

about me being on a mountain in K2 and experiencing some significant tragedy where intuition

actually quite literally in this instance saved my life. And I know this is rapid fire, so I'll be

concise here. The fact of the matter is what I've realized in many, many big decisions in life

is you actually do know. You do know. You do know the answer. And look, I'm a very analytical guy

myself. I've found myself, you know, making the pros and cons list a million miles longer that

will lodge a king through something and whatever. It can be useful at times. But here's the thing.

I give a couple examples. Say you just got offered a job on the other side of the country.

Big job, you know, you know, you know, you know, more pay all this kind of stuff, but you got

kids. You got a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. And they're like ingrained in sports and community

and whatever. And moving across country at this base of their life is going to be disruptive.

I do not have the answer for you what that is. And you can make a million pros and cons,

but I bet if you actually listen to your intuition, you know the answer to that question.

Or not, here's another one. You're lying in bed late at night. You've been dating the same person

for however many years. Do you think, well, I'm 30 years old. We've been together for four years.

Like should I go buy a diamond ring and like make this official, you know, put a ring on it,

whatever. Like the answer might be a resounding yes, this is my person, whatever. Or it might not be

that. But here's the thing. You actually know the answer. You literally already know the answer.

You don't have to make the pros and cons list. So the 12-hour walk, one of the beauties of the

12-hour walk and specifically around this slimming belief is you can distract yourself. You can make

a million to do this list and, you know, pros and cons and kick a decision down the curb. Go

spend 12 hours by yourself. When you have a big decision that you think you're going to weigh,

I'll tell you the voice that gets loud. You're intuitive voice. You're gut. And when you can

entune into that, what I say, when you know, you know, you already know. And that, the stillness

that we don't allow ourselves too often this modern society, that stillness allows that intuitive

voice, a voice that quite literally saved my life in the mountains and has guided me in all

sorts of other decisions I made. When you know, you know, and that's it, you know, act on it.

So true. Okay, one more last limiting belief. And this one is my favorite excuse. I hear this

is excuse all the time. And that's, I don't have the time. This is one that I feel like people

really just limit everything because they just act like they have no time. Talk to us about that.

You know, it's the most common one. It's definitely the most common one that applies to the 12-hour

walk. And my publisher hates it when I say this because it's like a bad grammar or whatever.

And I'm like, you don't have the time. You don't not have the time. Meaning like,

like for the important things in your life, you, you make the time. And here's the thing. I'll

tell people if you like, I don't have the time for the 12-hour walk. And I'm like, okay, cool, cool,

yeah, I got it, got it. So like, just ran a mother question. We're not talking about 12-hour walk

anymore. Have you seen Game of Thrones? Oh, man, love Game of Thrones. So good. Like, hum,

that last episode though, it's about, I'm like, okay, so you have watched 71 hours of Game of Thrones.

And you're telling me you don't have the time or like, you know, our phones do this now, right? They

track our, you know, you can see how long I've been on social media. Look, I'm not, like, I'm on

social media. I love social media. It's a great tool. Like, I waste my time sometimes, whatever.

But I never find myself excused. I don't have the time that what it is is I'm not prioritizing my

time. I'm not prior to setting my time effectively. And I'll go one step further when it comes to

self-care. Ultimately, the 12-hour walk is an investment in yourself. One of the most common ones,

particularly with people with kids or kids and a busy job, et cetera, I don't have enough time

because I've got this busy job that's important for me to support my family. And then on the weekends,

I got to be at my kid's soccer games, the ballet recital, the diss, that that, whatever. And what

they're saying is they're actually saying something with high integrity. I don't have this time

for myself because my priority is showing up for my family, my community, being there for others,

which is highly admirable. But here's the catch 22 and that is that you get tired, you get worn

down, you snap on your kid, you show up tired of the office, you're not as creative with whatever

project you're working on because you didn't take any time for yourself. We have this myth in our

culture that self-care is somehow selfish. But I rewrite that in the book and I say self-care

is selfless, meaning the 12-hour walk is one day. It is one day. If that makes you a better parent

and a more present parent for the next 10 years, that was a worthwhile investment. The one soccer

game you missed this weekend, kind of a bummer in the short run, with the fact that you show up for

your kids even more connected, present way for the next decade because of taking that time, because

of taking that self-care, that is 100% worth it. So, look, time is finite. We get to choose how to

use it. Do a time audit. Look at what you are wasting your time on, what's not in priority.

You do have the time and investing that time, some of that time in yourself to better yourself

has a ripple and exponentially positive effect on all of the other things that you're doing.

I am going to echo your sentiments there. I totally agree. We all have the same

160 hours a week. I always say this and I honestly built a million-dollar business, built this

podcast because I stopped watching TV for like four or five years. That's it. It's like that

unlocked all the time I need it, right? And so, you can do it too. All right, so let's get to the

last three steps. This is where we actually take action. It's the walk and rest and reflect. You

hit on these a little bit, but let's get a little bit more detail and then we're going to close

out the interview. And for the walk part, Colin, I want to understand like, what do we actually

need to think about during this walk? So, you can probably not in the time we have. That's why

there is a book. That's why this isn't a tweet. That's why it's not a tweet. That's why it's

not blog posts. I will say this. The book reads quick. It's meant to be exciting and page-turning.

A lot of people have read it in a day or two, so it's not like some insane. It's not a thousand

page Atlas shrugged or something like this. You know, you slog through. But it does lay out that.

It gives you a framework to be thinking about these things. So, you know, part of that answer is

in read the book. But also during that walk, we're all dealing with different limiting beliefs.

I write about the 10 most common ones. Three of them might be like, oh my god, I'm dealing with

the other five or something like, oh, that's not me. But those other three might be something

for a different person. So, I can't tell anyone specifically what it is. Again, the book really

lays out a framework for what to think about and how to engage your mind at that intention of

that. Couple of things about the walk and just in practical matters. The website 12OurWalk.com.

You sign up there. There's lots of FAQs. I'll email you more inspirational content along the way

to keep you accountable to your commitment. But more than anything, it's wherever you want it.

I actually encourage people to do it out the front door. And I say that for a reason, which is

it's so easy to go, oh, one day I'm going to do this. I'm going to wait until I'm on that vacation

a year from now and Hawaii on the beautiful trail of the dada dada, like the whatever.

Well, two does two things. One that just kicks the kicks down the curb, you know, and you might

never get to it. But more than anything, what it does is it puts the walk this moment as other,

as a separate from the rest of your life. When you walk out your front door, this experience

imprints on your day-to-day life, meaning when you're driving to work the following day or the

following week, you get to an intersection, you go, oh, I was here on hour three and I was thinking

about this. And it brings you right back into that headspace, into that possible mindset. And so

what imprints on your day-to-day life. So I encourage people to do it from their front door. A

common question is, and I answered it before, city noise, street noise, people walking past you,

totally fine. Can you stop off and go pee at a gas station or a deli or something like that? Yes,

use common sense. Don't talk to people for 20 minutes inside the store. You can go in and out

without really having deep interaction. And that's the 12 hour walk. The rest also important.

The rest is, look, this is meant to meet you where you're at. You're not hearing this from

and out. You're like, well, great. Collins, a 10 time world record holding your sport, walked

to Crescenertica. 375 pounds left. Must be nice. Like, this isn't for me. No, that is not the

point. This is not a race. This is for you to meet you where you're at today. You don't need

to train for this. You take as many breaks as you want. The rest is fine because the rest,

you are still out there. You are ultimately out there training your mind. You are training your

mind. That stillness, that quiet, that solitude still is maintained during those rest. The clock

is still ticking. It's the 12 hours spent alone. Walk when you can. Move your body when you can.

Be outside the whole time. That is the exercise. And then the reflect. The app prompts you to do this.

I say this in the book. I prompt you to do this. But it's the same thing as the front end that

that video on the front end. Take that video on the back end. And if the next day you want to share

it on social media, whatever, like that's your own prerogative. But that's not why I'm asking you

to record the video. I'm asking you to record the video because I want you in your purest,

most vulnerable, a little bit tired, sweaty, maybe a little dehydrated from the long day,

moment to reflect on how you're feeling. So a day from now, a week from now, a month from now,

you can go back to that and remind yourself, right? I had this breakthrough. This happened for me.

This, I actually did this. I accomplished this. It's a touchstone for you to mark that in time.

And again, if people want to journal or write or any of that stuff, that's great as well. But I find

you know, we're just like, just talk. And I, you know, some people shared their videos with me,

which I love seeing. And it's just amazing. I mean, people are emotionally cracked open. People are

that presence, that flow state that I described in Antarctica. People are there on the front

steps of their porch and their family witnesses. And it's a beautiful thing. So to be able to have

that moment to reflect on as maybe as life catches up with you and you want to go back to that and go,

oh, right, there I am. That's me at my truest, purest version of myself. I want to remember what

that feels like and so that I can continue to apply that moving forward. Yeah. And I personally think

the concept of the 12 hour walk is brilliant. I feel like it's actionable. It's something that

almost anybody can do, right? And we're going to stick all the links in the show notes for your

app, for your book. And I can highly recommend the book. It was a great read, super fast read, like

he said, and very entertaining. So I hope everybody goes and gets the book and Colin, we're going

to close out the interview. I ask a couple questions at the end of the show and we do something fun

at the end of the year. So the first question is, what is one actionable thing that our young

and profitors can do today to be more profiting tomorrow? I mean, is this shameful to say do the 12 hour

walk? Do the 12 hour walk? Do the 12 hour walk? That is actionable and that will make you more profiting.

I love that. And what is your secret to profiting in life? Staying connected to purpose.

And for me, that has been remembering the most important thing, which is the love of my life,

my wife, my community, it all starts there. And I've been able to build abundance and profit

financially in other ways because of that. But every time I forget that, all the rest of it

doesn't matter. And where can our listeners learn more about you and everything that you do?

Hang out with me on Instagram at Colin O'Brady. Follow me there at 12wirewalk.com.

Got everything about the walk. Sign up for the walk. We'll stay in touch with you that way.

Download the 12 hour walk app and then my website at Colin O'Brady. He's got all the things

about my speaking and other things about my career. So come hang out, come say hi.

Awesome. Well, Colin, thank you so much. I've been smiling ear to ear in this interview. It's

been so inspiring and motivational. And I think my listeners are going to love it.