[00:00:00] What's up, YAPAM? So many life coaches and self help experts these days love to talk about the importance of mindset. And honestly, after a while, it can get a bit stale or repetitive. Mindset is such a buzzword in our space. And I think that sometimes we just tune it out. Or we just nod and say, yeah, I know it's all about your mindset and we kind of just move on.

Well, my guest on this Yap Classic episode embodies a positive mindset like nobody else I've ever had on the show. And that's because he's walked the walk. Quite literally. And you'll want to hear him talk the talk, believe me. Colin O'Brady was once so severely burned that his doctor said he would never walk the same way again.

Now he's a world record breaking explorer and endurance [00:01:00] athlete. His feats include the world's first solo, unsupported, and fully human powered crossing of Antarctica, and his efforts are a living testament to the power of Mindset.

In this conversation from episode 184 recorded in 2022, Colin and I talk about how to cultivate a possibility mindset, and to avoid what he calls the zone of comfortable complacency. He also shares how taking one day off to unplug, leave your house, and go for a 12 hour walk can be truly life transforming.

Hala Taha: So put on your metaphorical hiking boots, grab a bottle of water, and get ready to conquer your personal Everest with Colin O'Brady. Hey, Colin, welcome to young and profiting podcast. 

Colin O'Brady: Thanks for having me here. It's great to be here with you. 

Hala Taha: I am very excited for this conversation. For those of you who don't know, Colin is one of the world's best endurance athletes, and In fact, he is a 10 time world record breaking [00:02:00] explorer, and he became the first person in history to cross Antarctica in 2018 solo, unsupported, and unassisted.

Hala Taha: And in 2019, Colin, along with his team, successfully rowed a boat across the infamous Drake Passage, the most dangerous stretch of water. It's claimed 20, 000 sailors and at least 800 shipwrecks. And he's a highly sought after public speaker. He's a New York times bestselling author. He is about to release his new book at the time of this recording, the 12 hour walk, invest one day and unlock your best life, which we're going to get into pretty deeply in this interview.

Hala Taha: 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.

Colin O'Brady: Yeah, untraditional way. My parents were young when they had me in the early [00:03:00] twenties. But I was actually born at home on a hippie commune in Olympia, Washington, on a futon. And my mom invited like 30 of her friends over to like, hang out and celebrate the birth. I think it was a bunch of hippies, you know, hanging out on this, this organic farm, basically.

Colin O'Brady: And my mom played Bob Marley Redemption song for those familiar with that song on repeat throughout my birth. So a very untraditional way to, uh, enter the world, but it was a 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. Uh, So in the Pacific Northwest and didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid, but big dreams and you know, Certainly with the things I've achieved my life now people ask my mom, you know, like don't you get worried?

Colin O'Brady: He walks across Antarctica by himself. He's climbed Everest twice You 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 would from day one, you know they can achieve anything they set their mind to in the context of entrepreneurship actually is interesting in my day childhood [00:04:00] is when I was about 13 years old, my parents were involved in the health food, kind of natural foods movement.

Colin O'Brady: And this is like in the late eighties, early nineties, 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, et cetera.

Colin O'Brady: And then when I was a young teenager, they decided to open their own, their own store, which ultimately to the, you know, it was. Very successful chain of natural foods, grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest called new seasons 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 one on one like my dinner table conversation.

Colin O'Brady: I was 13 fortunes. My parents like looking at this sales forecast, 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 entrepreneurial success I've had over time from being a founder to an exit founder, et cetera, is a definite result of that observation as a kid.

Hala Taha: I [00:05:00] love that. What a wild and different and unique upbringing. No wonder you're so much different than most of us. 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.

Hala Taha: 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.

Hala Taha: So I think we've all heard of growth mindset before. That's something that's common, but a possible mindset for my listeners, I think is something new. And we're going to go deeper on this later on in the interview. But for now, what is a possible mindset? I think you've coined that phrase. What does that mean to you?

Colin O'Brady: Yeah. So it's [00:06:00] literally how I, uh, I just, in my book that came out a few years ago about my soul and art of crossing called the impossible first, and 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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. Possible Mindset is just a little bit further encompassing.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: When I was crossing Antarctica, I named it that I literally called my project, the impossible first. I [00:07:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: But as you mentioned, unsupported, that means no resupplies of food or fuel. So I was dragging a 375 pounds sled behind me the entire time with all the food and supplies I would need. Cause no resupplies then unaided means no, no kites, no dogs, no nothing else propelling me. It's just me. Mano a mano thousand miles ended up taking me 54 days.

Colin O'Brady: I was on my last bite of food. I didn't have nearly enough supplies with me cause 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.

Colin O'Brady: And I named my project, The Impossible First, not as like a wink of, Oh, I'm gonna 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 [00:08:00] possibilities of them being wrong. Or maybe of proving them wrong.

Colin O'Brady: 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 percent of the way there. We succeeded immensely in doing so. The actual, so I always say, you know, I'm not the only one that ever says this, but you know, you either win or you learn.

Colin O'Brady: There's no failure. You either win or you learn. So it's like, That's the ethos that I've, and you know, I sit here with 10 world records. I sit here having had successful business ventures and stuff like that. But that's been built on the backside of learnings over time, et cetera. And my new book, the 12 hour walk, one of the core components of that is breaking down that limiting belief, that fear of failure.

Colin O'Brady: So many people don't even start, Hey, that goal is 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. [00:09:00] To me, that is the ultimate failure. Trying something, putting your heart and soul into it, starting that business, iterating, pivoting, shifting, evolving, and then maybe not getting the exact end goal you want.

Colin O'Brady: Amazing. You learned a million things and you're going to apply that to the next thing that you go after. 

Hala Taha: 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 Iceman. And he also is just like so enthusiastic.

Hala Taha: 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.

Hala Taha: 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? 

Colin O'Brady: Yeah, absolutely. You have to have a why. I don't think [00:10:00] the, there's the external gratification of, you know, I'm the first or I did this 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.

Colin O'Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. For me, it's been a cultivating a passion in twofold. One is to push my own body and mind, but in a way 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 it's why you have this podcast like our other people's stories have the ability to inspire to ignite to have this ripple effect.

Colin O'Brady: That's why I love consuming pockets is why I love reading books, because other people's stories other people's learning is there's so much to be gained from that and so. For me, 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.

Colin O'Brady: Kind of, I, I asked them this question, you know, what's your Everest? I asked these eight, nine, 10 year old kids to raise their hand in assembly. What's your, you know, calling my Mount Everest is to make [00:11:00] sure. Uh, the snow leopards are off the endangered species list or calling my Mount Everest to be the first person in my family to graduate from college.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 bestseller of 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 through my life in a way that's going to ignite your brain, excite you.

Colin O'Brady: But it's [00:12:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: And so that's definitely one of my deepest purposes and something that brings me great joy. 

Hala Taha: That is exceptional. And your book is super actionable. 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. Well, let's talk about overcoming the impossible.

Hala Taha: 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 twenties. 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.

Hala Taha: In fact, the doctors put a limiting belief in [00:13:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 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.

Colin O'Brady: And I didn't have the opportunity when I was young, um, as a kid growing up. And so I said, I had this economics degree from Yale as a swimmer there. Most of my friends, I graduated from college 2006 or headed off to wall street. This is pre 2008 credit crisis. And the 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 [00:14:00] saying like, no, like do something else first.

Colin O'Brady: 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 peter and butter and jelly sandwiches, hitchhiking through countries, sleeping on couches, meeting random people. But it was an incredible experience to be out in the world.

Colin O'Brady: I 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 that I was trying to get to New Zealand and they were 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.

Colin O'Brady: I was like, all right, cool. I'll check that out. So letting the fate kind of dictate a little bit. But as you said, I, you know, I found myself in Thailand, you know, many months into this, this adventure and maybe because I was 22 and didn't have a fully formed prefrontal cortex, I'm not sure, but I saw some guys jumping a flaming jump rope, literally a kerosene soaked jump rope.

Colin O'Brady: And I thought, gee, that looks like fun. So I jumped that rope and in an instant, my life changed. It literally lit my body, they sprayed kerosene across my body, lit my [00:15:00] body on fire to my neck. Survival mode kicked in when I needed it most. I jumped into the ocean to extinguish the flames, but not before about 25 percent of my body was severely burned.

Colin O'Brady: And I was in remote and rural Thailand. There was no ambulance ride. I had a moped ride down a dirt path to a run room nursing station and I was on an island, so I couldn't, you know, get to a big city or anything like that. I had eight s, you know, eight surgeries over the next week. There was a cat running around my bed in in the ICU.

Colin O'Brady: I mean, it was a bad place to be for this circumstance, and the physical pain was immense, for sure. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But I will never forget the emotional pain of a moment that doctor walks in, he looks me in the eyes and he says, Hey, I hate to tell you this, but based on how badly your ligaments are burning your ankle with your knees, et cetera, I don't think you're ever gonna walk again.

Colin O'Brady: 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 22 year old kid, who was like very in his body as an [00:16:00] 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 this physical capacity that I've kind of depended on throughout my life.

Colin O'Brady: The heroine to this story, really the turning point of the story, is my incredible mother. 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 a while to even find me, but she gets there in the hospital, and I can only imagine as a mother what it's like.

Colin O'Brady: She tells me now that she was crying in the hallways, pleading with the doctors for semblance of good news, not getting it, 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 the thing that changed my entire life.

Colin O'Brady: 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, saying, look, you messed up. We're not gonna 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?[00:17:00] 

Colin O'Brady: And she kind of 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, set a goal and look towards the future. But like the legs and the bandages and the blood, like maybe something more realistic triathlon, probably not in your future.

Colin O'Brady: But instead she didn't do that. She was like, actually great. You know what? Let's start training right now. And she yells out to the doctor. She goes, Hey doc, Hey doc, can you bring in some weights? And the doctor's looking, what are you talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My son's training for a triathlon now. So I have this picture of me.

Colin O'Brady: I'm lifting 10 pound dumbbells. There's this Thai doctor looking at me like this stupid American kid, never had a walk normally 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.

Colin O'Brady: It was several months I was in the Thai hospital, flew back to Oregon where I was from, was in a wheelchair, hadn't taken a single step when I got home. She taught me how [00:18:00] to walk again, and one step at a time. But still competing, thinking about this triathlon. And then, fast forward, I did want to get out of my, uh, parent's basement and get on with my life and start my career.

Colin O'Brady: So as you mentioned that the one time I had a quote unquote real job, I took a commodities trading job in Chicago, thought I'd work in the finance industry. And yeah, I was still banged up and bandaged up when I, when I took that job, but I started my career, but I signed up for the Chicago triathlon to honor this goal.

Colin O'Brady: And just 18 months after being burned in this fire, I started this triathlon, started the race. Completed the race, mile of swimming, 25 miles of biking, 6. 2 miles of running, I get to the finish line, I cross this finish line, I can't believe it, I've overcome this big setback, and kind of proven to myself that I can be able bodied and whole again.

Colin O'Brady: But to my complete and utter surprise, I didn't actually just finish the race, I actually won the entire Chicago Draft Ball, placing first out of nearly 5, 000 other participants on the day. I don't share that story as saying [00:19:00] like, Oh, I guess that just means I'm a superhuman athlete and I can do whatever the hell I want, like, whatever.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: You are never gonna walk again normally. A doctor says a diagnosis, it's very easy to just be like, Yep, okay, like, That's the deal. 

Hala Taha: He's the expert. 

Colin O'Brady: Right. He's the expert. But in the end, my mother. Open 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.

Colin O'Brady: And so what I realized is all of us as humans, not, this is not just a story about me, this is a story about all 7 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.

Colin O'Brady: I love to say the most important muscle any of us [00:20:00] have is the six inches between our ears. And we can flex and develop that. The possibilities are limitless. And so, it's weird to say, but sometimes our biggest setbacks and our biggest hardships, buried underneath of the stress and the anxiety and the fear and the pain of those moments, are gold.

Colin O'Brady: Are lessons. And I wouldn't be sitting here with ten world records. It's crazy to say, but like all of my world records, I used those legs, but the legs after they had been burned, not before they had been burned, after they had been burned, because my mind was so much stronger on the other side. 

Hala Taha: Oh my gosh, 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. It's true. They want like 10 people around them, supporting them.

Hala Taha: Really? If you have one person in your corner, when the time is getting tough, then you were like really blessed. Like you just need one person to [00:21:00] help you if you're in a bad situation. And there's some people, unfortunately, who don't have one person. What advice would you give to somebody if they didn't have somebody in their corner the way that you had your mom?

Hala Taha: 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? 

Colin O'Brady: It's definitely, I'm blessed. My mother's amazing. I have an incredible wife as well, who has been so supportive and has gotten me out of some tough spots.

Colin O'Brady: I've called her from the summit of Everest, the corner of my tent in Antarctica, crying and sobbing. And she's talked me off a cliff quite literally. But 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 you've probably heard it said before, you know, the net product, the five people you spend the most time with.

Colin O'Brady: 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. They have connection to [00:22:00] people that maybe are not, 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 of your listeners have never sat down and actually talked to you.

Hala Taha: Exactly. 

Colin O'Brady: 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. Podcasts, the internet, media, et cetera, can be the other thing, which is, so if you're, 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 This podcast, Young and Profiting, you're listening to right now.

Colin O'Brady: There are people that are sharing wisdom, advice, et cetera. And so that one person in your corner can be somebody that maybe you haven't even met. I have mentors in my life who have been [00:23:00] dead a hundred years, but I've read their books that they have profoundly impacted my life because their words are written down and I've lasted the centuries or the decades.

Colin O'Brady: So. That's what I would say to that person. 

Hala Taha: 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.

Hala Taha: 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 the triathlon, right?

Hala Taha: And so I feel like those are all such great takeaways to your story. And You're just such an inspiring person. So let's get back into how you actually [00:24:00] started making money doing this. Because like we just talked about, you only had a job for like a handful of months, a real corporate job. And then you started taking on these challenges.

Hala Taha: 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? 

Colin O'Brady: It's a great question. So with the 12 hour walk and again, I'm chomping at the bit to share the fuller message with you.

Colin O'Brady: I know we'll get to that. But 

Hala Taha: I promise, 

Colin O'Brady: no, it's good context here, which is 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 define that differently. Like people define what that looks like. That can be making a million dollars that can be saving a million lives that can be spending more quality time with my family that can be traveling the way I read.

Colin O'Brady: There's no right answer to that question. Again, it gets back to that. What's your Everest? It's your Everest. It's not my Everest. It's your Everest. But the number one question when I polled my audience, when I talked [00:25:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: And 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 phase of my life to having cultivated quite a bit of abundance, financial success.

Colin O'Brady: I had an eight figure exit with a business that I started a couple of years ago. I've had that success in my life now, and 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 traff on it, end up at a barbecue at this guy's house.

Colin O'Brady: There's other commodities trader. He hears the story. Wait, you weren't walking a year ago, and now you've 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 wanted me to, if you wanted to pursue this. Now, what was clear, and he even says to me, he goes, but you're on a bright path.

Colin O'Brady: Like you have this financial [00:26:00] 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, Basically, a few plane tickets, you can sleep on your friend's couches around the world and eat some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Colin O'Brady: Back to basically what I was traveling around bumming around the world. But here's the difference. If you want to follow your heart, do it. And 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.

Colin O'Brady: Trusting. that got. 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.

Colin O'Brady: I think we can have, I can have the most impact and my nonprofit is thriving at its highest level [00:27:00] when I am also taking care of myself financially, because then I have more energy, more freedom, more flexibility, et cetera. When I'm stuck in this mindset of scarcity, I can't have that impact. on the world.

Colin O'Brady: So look, it's been iterative. 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 raced 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.

Colin O'Brady: But I, you know, I cultivate this passion for pushing my body, this curiosity, whatever. In the fall of 2014, I'm on a mountaintop, and I've got a diamond ring in my pocket, and I asked my longtime girlfriend, now wife, to marry me. And it's 2014, we're in our, you know, mid to late 20s at this point. And again, I love this idea of a possible mindset.

Colin O'Brady: 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 mountaintop that says like, what do you want to do? Like, what do you want to do next? We're going to be together [00:28:00] forever. Like, what do you want our life to be like family?

Colin O'Brady: You know what, like, let's just talk about it. So the super amazing brainstorm pull of 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 on ourself.

Colin O'Brady: 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 of people usually do that over 10 years, but I was like, what if I do it nonstop over four months?

Colin O'Brady: One mountain, next mountain, et cetera. And with the media exposure of that, it'll allow us to have a platform around goals, around health and wellness. And we can start this nonprofit to hopefully inspire tons of kids and have all this 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 at a time in our life where we have a lot of very, no abundance, mostly scarcity [00:29:00] in this moment in our life.

Colin O'Brady: 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 have 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 and 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.

Colin O'Brady: Right. Or. And in less of a business context, you're like, you're out with your buddy. You're 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'm not, I don't even want to go on a run today, let alone like for the next, like six months.

Colin O'Brady: 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 kind of infrastructure around this product says it's going to cost about a half a million dollars.

Colin O'Brady: We've got 10 grand to our name between [00:30:00] 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. 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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, but what else do I have?

Colin O'Brady: 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 to 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 it 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 You A [00:31:00] thousand people said no to us.

Colin O'Brady: A thousand people, quite literally. Now, it's getting to be two months before we're leaving for this thing, and we are still head up, being like, we're doing this. We've raised, like, 30, 40 grand. We've still got, like, several hundred thousand dollars to go. I'm getting nervous, I'll be honest. We've been working on this for a year and a half.

Colin O'Brady: We finally picked a date. Well, you gotta leave on this departure date, whatever. I get invited. A friend of mine says, Hey man, I know you're still trying to raise all that money and you're like, well, sure. Just as a piece of inspiration, there's this woman that I want you to meet. And I said, great. At this point I was willing to talk to any, literally talk to him.

Colin O'Brady: I tried my pitch on a thousand people and it kept failing. I was like, I'm, maybe I'm doing it wrong. So he invites me to the spin class, but 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 fit. I'm like, my ego is getting a better group fitness class.

Colin O'Brady: It's like a. What are you talking about? He's like, no, no, 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 fifties, she's already hitting the spin by card, she's sweating, like the class hasn't [00:32:00] even started, but like she's hitting it hard.

Colin O'Brady: 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 laughed. She goes, Oh my God, to bringing that up like a million years ago, when she was like, when I was 19, I set the world record in the 5k. This is literally 34, 30 plus years ago for her in her life.

Colin O'Brady: And I was like, Oh, that's cool. And she goes, Collins trying to break a world record himself. Tell her about it. So it comes out at me I said look trying to this Explorers Grand Slam. I got this nonprofit. I want to inspire kids that I did a dub And she's like, oh cool. Cool. That's awesome. Like good luck with that spin class starts I'm sitting there on the spin bike on what the hell am I doing here, man?

Colin O'Brady: Like this is like what am I doing and I get done with a spin class? I'm about to leave wiping myself down with the towel whatever wiping the bike down And she goes, hey Collin, I've been thinking about your thing. Come back over here. My husband loves this kind of stuff. You know, you should tell him about it.

Colin O'Brady: And she waves over to this guy across the room. Guy, salt and pepper hair, walks over. Hi, hi, how are you? I shake his hand. She goes, tell him. And again, I'm not pitching this guy nothing. I'm just like giving like the 30 seconds before I [00:33:00] walk out of spin class. Give him the story. And he goes, wow, are you happen to be looking for sponsors for this?

Colin O'Brady: And I'm obviously my ears perk up. I'm like, well, indeed I am. What, uh, 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 for Nike. And I'm in Portland, Oregon. Like, I mean, that's like the dream of all dreams.

Colin O'Brady: I think it's the most people on earth, but I'm like in Portland, that's where the Nike world headquarters are. Like, that's like the dream of all dreams. Sponsorship, I think for any like athlete or whatever. Right. And I'm like, Oh my God, uh, great. Eight months before this, Jenna and I had actually spent the 10, 000, all the money we had to build a website.

Colin O'Brady: 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 if 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?

Colin O'Brady: You should email it to me on Monday. And I'm like, yes, I do have a website. Can I get Your contact information. He goes, yeah, no problem. He grabs Russell's Jamaican. Let me get a card for you. [00:34:00] Pulls out a business card, hands it to me. I look down. Mark Parker. CEO. Nike. 

Hala Taha: Oh my god. I have chills. 

Colin O'Brady: I was just like, oh my god.

Colin O'Brady: Now, again, 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. The scarcity mindset 18 months earlier said, Don't even try this for a day.

Colin O'Brady: The abundance mindset says keep pushing, keep finding a way, keep knocking on the door. And we talked before, you either succeed or you learn. Well, you could have said to a 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 [00:35:00] person who could quite literally change the fortune of my life was standing in front of me, it came out with authenticity and passion and right place, right time. But the essence of that is that abundance mindset.

Colin O'Brady: 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 to do this thing.

Colin O'Brady: 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 much 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.

Colin O'Brady: And that's what any single person walking this planet can apply. That's for sure. 

Hala Taha: 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 [00:36:00] love that you showed up. That's also part of the battle when you're trying to accomplish a goal. You need to show up.

Hala Taha: 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.

Hala Taha: So what a great story. 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. Fast forward to 2019. 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.

Hala Taha: 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 why did you take such a long, long ass walk there, Colin? Why did I take a long 

Colin O'Brady: walk?

Colin O'Brady: Why am I [00:37:00] inviting every person listening to this to take their own 12 hour walk? Well, look, let me get into it. So 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 5, a day, which means I was on a 3, 000 plus calorie deficit from day one. By the end, I was a bag of bones, ribs sticking out, hips protruding, frostbite on my face.

Colin O'Brady: You look at my Instagram, you see pictures, there's like black tape on my face. It was so brutal, minus 40 degrees, minus 80, wind chill 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 walk for 12 hours.

Colin O'Brady: In that time, this was, this, at some points, this felt like a terrible idea, but I also, before I left, I decided to delete all my music, all my [00:38:00] podcasts, all my content, whatever, to actually spend the time alone in Antarctica in 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 you.

Colin O'Brady: Basically, a flow state is 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 with somebody to talk to me because being alone for 54 days in Antarctica, this place that's trying to kill you every minute is, is a, is a deep place to go in your mind.

Colin O'Brady: 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 to the competitive nature of becoming the first, and I was actually racing another guy out there, which is a whole other different story.

Colin O'Brady: That was a crazy battle happening out there. But I was pulling the sled and I tapped into day after day of flow. And what that actually led me to was way more than not, [00:39:00] Oh, Hey, Colin, the, you know, you're talking about purpose. You know, I did it. I did it. I'm amazing. Put my name on the front page of the New York times.

Colin O'Brady: I'm humbled by that, you know, exposure and all that sort of stuff, but that's not what it's 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 I felt just like squarely in my body, mind fulfilled.

Colin O'Brady: And I think most people, unfortunately are walking through life pretty unfulfilled. Pretty unhappy, wishing they had more, wishing they had something different, kind of stuck in a rut, so to speak, in life at some times. But I thought, wow, I got to the other side of Antarctica and I figured it out. Like, I've hacked it.

Colin O'Brady: 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. 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.[00:40:00] 

Colin O'Brady: And, you know, fortunately I, 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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. My wife looks over me one day and she's like, Hey. You don't seem like you're doing it.

Colin O'Brady: I'm like, I'm not. She goes, I mean, just throwing it out there. Like you haven't changed out of your pajamas in like three or four days. You just been sitting on the couch, like doom scrolling the news on your phone and like reading these like intense headlines, like, it's just like, Hey, like, just check it in.

Colin O'Brady: Like. And I was like, no, you're right. I thought, thought back when's the last time that I felt 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 Antarctica alone, even though it was so hard, even though my [00:41:00] body was so beat up, even though it was the depth of challenge and despair sometimes.

Colin O'Brady: I actually felt really lit up in that moment. So I said, I'm grasping at straws here. I said to my wife, Jenna, I 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. You know, it's like one of the few things you can do during a lockdown is walk around by yourself.

Colin O'Brady: And so, I walk outside, 20 minutes into this walk, my phone buzzes in my pocket. And I instinctively reach down for it, like my buddy's text messaging, texting me, you know, I'm gonna text him back, whatever. And I look and I'm 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?

Colin O'Brady: Like, and I just instinctively put my phone in airplane mode and keep walking. So I walk, I walk down the Oregon coast. I take breaks and everything. I'm out there all day long, 12 hours alone, no music, no podcast, nothing alone in my head. And I walked back in the front door of our house. My dog jumps up on me and my wife says to me, she goes, you're back.

Colin O'Brady: And I'm like, yeah, I told you I come back after 12 hours. She's like, no. [00:42:00] 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. Ah, it's so good to see you. That, in that way, in a, in a more greater context than actually just being physically there, right?

Colin O'Brady: And so I was like, yeah, I feel better than I felt in so long. 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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, we're Zoom calling, we're FaceTiming, everyone's like not doing well, different people from different backgrounds. And I start telling people about this.

Colin O'Brady: 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, [00:43:00] but take the day, the 12 hours, in silence to be outside. Before I knew it, dozens and dozens of people were trying this.

Colin O'Brady: And every single person that I knew to come back from that walk came back with that same, you're back, lit up way. And again, it looked different for different people, but, Oh, I was stuck in this job that I was frustrated with, and now I have a way out of that. Or, Oh, I've been thinking about this goal, I'm actually going to apply myself towards it.

Colin O'Brady: Oh, wow, this business idea that I've kind of had in the back of my mind, had 12 hours to think about it, and now I'm jamming on my computer with my partner, and we're like going for it. Like every single person I knew to take that walk had the shift. And I take this as far as my 77 year old mother in law.

Colin O'Brady: She did the 12 hour walk for her. That looked like walking one time around the block of her, you know, her neighborhood for an hour, there's no right way to do it other than to take the day. And. What I have become extremely passionate about, why I wrote the book, The 12 Hour Walk. In the book, there's rich storytelling.

Colin O'Brady: In the book, you will be lit up with [00:44:00] advice, adventure, how to overcome all of those common and 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.

Colin O'Brady: The story is not, 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 your door, taking this 12 hour walk, again, as many breaks as you want, if you're in a big city, it doesn't matter.

Colin O'Brady: Ambient city noise doesn't negate your silence. This is your silence. This is your commitment to not listen to music and podcasts and listen to your own thoughts during this time. I have seen people [00:45:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: My, I say my next Everest, my next Everest has inspired 10 million people to take this walk. And it's not cause 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.

Hala Taha: 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.

Hala Taha: I know you have to be [00:46:00] completely alone. You, you got to really unplug, but you can, like you said, you can 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.

Hala Taha: And having that alone time is so key. And I feel like giving people that roadmap is so helpful. So I'd love to go over the six steps with you. 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.

Hala Taha: 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. 

Colin O'Brady: Yeah, for sure. So the first three steps is commit. That's the big one, which is.

Colin O'Brady: You're listening to this podcast right now and you're thinking to yourself, I always say the 12 hour walk journey actually starts right [00:47:00] in this moment. The 12 hours of the walk is 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.

Colin O'Brady: Uh, well, uh, maybe, maybe not. You know, I have these limiting beliefs, but what I've 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 gonna do it. I'm signing up now.

Colin O'Brady: Or, oh my god, this is a terrible idea. 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.

Colin O'Brady: But by taking step one, by committing, you rewrite that. I call them limiting beliefs on purpose because they're not, they're beliefs. They're not limiting truths. They're not limiting facts. They're beliefs. Beliefs can be rewritten. By committing [00:48:00] and taking step one, you're proving to yourself, yep, I had that limiting belief, I didn't have enough time, but you know what?

Colin O'Brady: 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'll 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.

Colin O'Brady: So step one is huge. 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 a, of something to look back on.

Colin O'Brady: And so I want you to set intentions. The book walks you through limiting beliefs. The book is [00:49:00] 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, we all have these phones in our pocket, myself included. It's like, fine, let's use that for a second.

Colin O'Brady: 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 been alone this long. But on the other side of this, I want to X. Similar to meet my mother in that hospital room saying, Hey, what do you want to do when you get out of here? Set that intention, set that goal, because more than anything, that ripple effect in your subconscious is extremely powerful.

Colin O'Brady: So you record that for yourself to look back on later. And then number three, very important. Unplug. You put your phone on airplane mode. Now, I'm 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.

Colin O'Brady: Why would somebody create a app for this? Well, here's why. Because most people are thinking to themselves, but I need Google Maps because I don't want to get lost. I need a timer of some kind that counts down [00:50:00] the 12 hours so I can check on it. I'm like, great! I've created an app for that. The app tracks you on your walk in airplane mode.

Colin O'Brady: 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 unplug, you put an airplane mode, you hit start. It starts tracking you.

Colin O'Brady: 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 following airplane mode, put this tracking on just so you know where you're walking, and then, then you begin.

Hala Taha: So part of this whole 12 hour walk is to think of your Everest first, right? So I'd love to take a moment to, we've, we've mentioned it a few times. What is an Everest exactly? Like, how do you define that? 

Colin O'Brady: To me, I define that as, as a big goal. And again, I use that terminology, one, I'm an adventure explorer and I've climbed Everest twice.

Colin O'Brady: But. It's because my childhood dream was literally to climb Mount Everest. And so [00:51:00] I'm like, that was mine, but I don't expect that to be most other people's, I expect you to want to go freeze your butt off in the middle of Antarctica by yourself. That's probably not your hope, dream, or goal of any kind, but what is your Everest?

Colin O'Brady: 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 ever, you make that achievement, it's the high, high, or maybe it's, you know, not an achievement externally, but you have your first child or you fall in love.

Colin O'Brady: These are the peak moments of life. Tens. And ones are our lowest moment, our lowest moment. I mean, just me being burned in that fire, being told I would never walk again normally. A massive setback. Your company starts, goes bankrupt. Whatever that is. Those are low moments. Like, those are terrible. No one really wants to experience those.

Colin O'Brady: When I think back to all the tens that I've experienced in my life, I have realized that they're [00:52:00] connected to the ones. In that, I didn't experience my tens in spite of my ones, I actually experienced my tens because of my ones. Now, most people in modern society unfortunately get caught in what I call the zone of comfortable complacency.

Colin O'Brady: 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. 

Hala Taha: This is genius. 

Colin O'Brady: Or you've been dating somebody for a while, right? And like you've been dating for a few years, you live together. It's not toxic. It's not abusive.

Colin O'Brady: It's not like a bad situation. Like, you know, horrible thing. It's like. But you're just kind of coexisting, you're cohabitating. It's like five, five, five, five. I have found that people live in this zone of comfortable complacency from four to six because they are so worried about experiencing a one.

Colin O'Brady: They're hedging so hard against not experiencing any of the low moments of life that they actually, what ends up happening is you take off the table, the tens. [00:53:00] You take off the table the tens. You have to be willing to experience some of the ones to actually experience the tens. People ask me all the time, Colin, you've done all this dangerous, high risk stuff.

Colin O'Brady: 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, with grandkids, surrounding 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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? You have to be willing to embrace that.

Colin O'Brady: 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 the better part of 12 hours? Absolutely. Are you going to get stuck in some loop in your brain because you're not used to being able to distract yourself by your social media?

Colin O'Brady: Yep, you are. Meaning you're [00:54:00] 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 8, a 9, a 10, this peak moment. How many days in our life do we not even remember? What'd you do last Tuesday?

Colin O'Brady: 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, blah, five day can exist for me, how can I go chase other things in my life?

Colin O'Brady: And that Everest allows you to anchor that and go, oh, now I see The journey is not necessarily linear, but the negative, the quote unquote negative, or the harsher emotions of that are actually a pathway. The ones are opening up the door to the tent. 

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

Hala Taha: Like that was so good, Colin. That was so freaking [00:55:00] good. So Colin, I want to go through a couple of these limiting beliefs in sort of a quick fire 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.

Hala Taha: 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? 

Colin O'Brady: So one of the things, and again I said before, I'm a passionate Carol Dweck devotee, 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.

Colin O'Brady: Is intuition. This inner voice. This inner knowing. Now, I'll leave it to you, because I know we're out of 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.

Colin O'Brady: And, I know this is [00:56:00] 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 long or logicking through something or whatever.

Colin O'Brady: It can be useful at times. But here's the thing. I'll give a couple examples. Say you just got offered a job on the other side of the country. Big job, 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, their life is going to be disruptive.

Colin O'Brady: 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. And you're thinking, well, I don't know.

Colin O'Brady: I'm 30 years old, we've been together for 4 years, like, should I go buy a diamond ring and like, [00:57:00] make this official, 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 limiting belief, is you can distract yourself, you can make a million to dos lists and 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.

Colin O'Brady: I'll tell you the voice that gets loud. Your intuitive voice. Your gut. And when you can entune into that, what I say, it's the best. When you know you know, you already know. And that, the stillness, that we don't allow ourselves too often in 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.

Colin O'Brady: When you know, [00:58:00] you know, and that's it, you know, act on it. 

Hala Taha: So true. Okay. One more last limiting belief. And this one is my favorite excuse. I hear this 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.

Hala Taha: Talk to us about that. 

Colin O'Brady: It's the most common one. It's definitely the most common one that applies to the 12 hour walk. And, uh, my publisher hates it when I say this, cause it's like 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 make the time.

Colin O'Brady: And here's the thing, I tell people this, be like, I don't have enough time for the 12 hour walk. And I'm like, okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, I got it. Got it. So like, just random other question. We're not talking about 12 hour walk anymore. Have you seen Game of Thrones? Oh man, I love Game of Thrones. So good.

Colin O'Brady: Like, hum, that last episode though, it's about, I was 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, [00:59:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: I love social media. It's a great tool. Like, I waste my time sometimes, whatever, but I never find myself to excuse I don't have the time. That what it is, is I'm not prioritizing my time. I'm not prioritizing 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 on the weekends, I gotta be at my kids soccer games, the ballet recital, the this, the that, whatever.

Colin O'Brady: 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 in that is that you get tired, you get worn down, you snap on your kid, you show up tired to the office, you're not as creative [01:00:00] with whatever project you're working on.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: The one soccer game you missed this weekend, kind of a bummer in the short run, but 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 percent worth it. So look, time is finite. We get to choose how to use it.

Colin O'Brady: 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. 

Hala Taha: I am like going to echo your sentiments [01:01:00] there.

Hala Taha: I totally agree. We all have the same 168 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 needed. Right. And so you can do it too. All right. So let's get to the last three steps.

Hala Taha: 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 Mike. What do we actually need to think about during this walk?

Colin O'Brady: Yeah. Totally. So again, probably not in the time we have. That's why there is a book. That's why it's not a tweet. That's why it's not a blog post. 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, you know, it's not a thousand page Atlas shrugged or something like this that you slog through, but it does lay out that it gives you a framework to be thinking about these things.

Colin O'Brady: So part of that [01:02:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 things about the walk and just in practical matters, the website, 12hourwalk. 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 till I'm on that vacation a year from now in Hawaii on the beautiful trail of the dutty dove, like the, whatever.

Colin O'Brady: Well, two does two things. One that just kicks the kicks down the curb 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 [01:03:00] life. When you walk out your front door, this experience imprints on your day to day life.

Colin O'Brady: 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 it imprints on your day to day life. I encourage people to do it from the front door.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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 an out. You're like, well, great. Colin's a 10 time world record, holding a sport. I walked across Antarctica, pointed 375 pounds sled must be nice. Like this isn't for me.

Colin O'Brady: 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 [01:04:00] 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.

Colin O'Brady: That stillness, that quiet, that solitude still is maintained during those rests. 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.

Colin O'Brady: I prompt you to do this. But it's the same thing as the front end. That video on the front end Take that video on the back end. 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 a long day moment to reflect on how you're feeling.

Colin O'Brady: 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 [01:05:00] that in time. And again, if people want to journal or write or any of that stuff, that's great as well.

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: And it's a beautiful thing. So to be able to have that moment to reflect on as maybe as, as life catches up with you and you want to go back there 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.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 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 you said, and very entertaining.

Hala Taha: So I hope everybody goes and gets the book. And Colin, [01:06:00] 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 profiteers can do today to be more profiting tomorrow?

Colin O'Brady: I mean, is it shameful to say do the 12 hour walk? Do the 12 hour walk! 

Hala Taha: No. 

Colin O'Brady: Do the 12 hour walk. That is actionable and that will make you more profiting. 

Hala Taha: I love that. And what is your secret to profiting in life? 

Colin O'Brady: 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.

Colin O'Brady: 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. 

Hala Taha: And where can our listeners learn more about you and everything that you do? 

Colin O'Brady: Hang out with me on Instagram at Colin O'Brady.

Colin O'Brady: Follow me there. 12 hour walk. com's 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. Um, he's [01:07:00] got all the things about my speaking and other things about my career. So, uh, come hang out, come say hi.

Hala Taha: 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 gonna love it.