To get, first you have to give.Even in extreme physical or survival situations, maybe you and your hiking buddy are so thirsty you can hardly walk straight. Go on - let them sip first. Give them the g...
There’s a poignant poem by Christopher Logue that I’m often reminded of when people tell me their ‘reasons’ for not embarking on a great adventure.I have a sneaking suspicion that if you can just take...
There are few greater feelings than finding out you can achieve more, and endure more, than you had previously imagined, and it’s only when we are tested that we realize just how brightly we can shine...
The next morning I would be returned to camp with the others who hadn’t made the grade. I was totally dejected.That night in those woods, warm and dry under my shelter, blisters attended to, dry socks...
The day before our final exercise had begun, the DS had made the briefing crystal clear.Don’t give them anything or they will exploit it. Be smart. Stay focused despite the pain and fatigue. Slip up f...
The best advice came from the legendary actor the late Sir John Mills, who I sat next to backstage at a lecture we were doing together. He told me he considered the key to public speaking to be this:...
That night, the tent that I had been alone in for so long was suddenly heaving with bodies, and piles of rope and kit--with Neil, Geoffrey, and Graham squeezed in beside me.I tried to drink as much bo...
That afternoon, I went to Henry with a suggestion.Michael and Graham were still ill. But I was feeling almost fit again.Why not let Geoffrey and me head up to camp two, so we can be in position just i...
Tentative holds no power.
Sometimes you have just got to tackle these mountains head-on.
Sometimes it takes a knock in life to make us sit up and grab life. And I had just undergone the mother of all knocks.But out of that despair, fear, and struggle came a silver lining--and I didn’t eve...
Since we were on Everest, many other climbers have succeeded on the big one as well. She has now been scaled by a blind man, a guy with prosthetic legs, and even by a young Nepalese teenager.Don’t be...
Rozhlížel se kolem po nějakém kameni, kterým by se zabil. Žádný však nenašel. Musel to utrpení vydržet.
Psalm 121 says:Good person to have on side, I always figure.
On our next return to base camp, and after the best night’s sleep I had had since arriving in Nepal, I decided that I would call home on the satellite phone.At $3 a minute, I had not yet used the phon...
My grandfather always had a little framed picture by his bed that simply said:So every once in a while, take out your backpack and head off for a night under canvas. Even if it’s only for one night, a...
Listening carefully to this voice is how we distinguish ourselves from the rest of the crowd who so often barge through life, too busy or too proud even to acknowledge their intuition’s existence.
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.The dude who said this was dead right.Life is all about getting up again, dusting yourself down again, learning from the les...
I woke in bed, sweating and breathing heavily. It was the third time I’d had this nightmare: reliving that horrible feeling of falling, out of control, toward the ground.I was now on month two of just...
Think of your favorite sports star. Let me tell you, they spent every waking moment of their teenage years in the gym, pounding pavements or knocking a ball against a wall. You just don’t get good at...