On January 10, I attended the New Year’s Apèro of PWC in Lausanne.
This year they invited Mike Horn, www.mikehorn.com “the Modern Explorer”, to speak about his latest expedition to the Antarctic and his journey across this icy continent, as part of his Pole2Pole expedition, a two-year circumnavigation of the globe via the two poles. He was most definitely a motivational speaker, sharing from his heart and exuding his passion for living, as men and women sat in the audience in their business attire imaging life on an ice cap.
During the talk, and I call it a talk because he did not use any notes and definitely no PowerPoint, he shared some magnificent photos and videos, which touched our hearts and brought tears to my eyes.
He spoke a lot about stepping out of our comfort zones, having dreams that scare you, the point of no return, making the commitment, motivation, connecting and being true to our inner selves, and not becoming influenced by others. Finally, he spoke of how his experiences belong to him and can never be diminished or taken away (unlike physical possessions that can be lost or diminish in value.)
In his message, Mike demonstrated the importance of commitment, passion, honouring your values, pushing yourself well beyond your comfort zone, taking calculated risks and seeing beyond what everyone else sees. We cannot all leave on a life challenging expedition and we may not want to, but a life journey that is authentic, expands your comfort zone and develops you, as a person is essential in today’s world. But why?
As Mike said, if we stay static, we become stagnant. For him, the closer he got to death the more alive he felt. For me, because life is worth living, and our hearts only start beating when we are on the edge of extending ourselves and only when we are committed and determined, when we honour our values and know ourselves and when we are anchored to the earth and live from the top of Maslow’s Pyramid – self-actualisation can we experience life as it was meant to be. How many of us do that?
Let us remember necessity. The storm is on its way and life, as we know it is changing, whether we are ready or not. We are entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution and “business leaders and senior executives need to understand their changing environment, challenge the assumptions of their operating teams, and relentlessly and continuously innovate” Klaus Schwab, WEF. This is no different than what Mike did in his expedition, and he beautifully summed it up by admitting that he did not have the competencies going into the expedition. How could he? He had never done it before, and even when he finished he said he would not have the competency to redo it. My conclusion from this is that we need to trust in ourselves and in our abilities. We need to develop our resilience, our commitment, our values and our authenticity. Most of all, we need to move out of our comfort zone voluntarily now and learn how to be resilient, as soon, this will not be an option.
In October 1992 I decided to travel the world, which I managed to do, all continents except South America. We started with Africa then the Middle East. Next we went to Kathmandu to trek the Annapurna circuit, a 5,416m pass that took us 2 weeks to scale. I do not compare my endeavour to Mike’s, but it is the closest I have come to his experience. I recall the trek up and over the pass; even at 5,000m+ in the Himalaya you still have mountains stretching another 3,000+ meters above you – a very humbling feeling. And yet climbing over this pass was the culmination of a climb from 840m, with lots of ups and downs to reach 4,850m where we set off to cross the Thorung La Pass at 5,416m, and down to 3,800m in the 12 hours.
I can honestly say, that I did not have the competency for this journey. I spent a few days in Chamonix prior to the trip to break in my hiking boots. This is where my commitment, my willingness to step out of my comfort zone all day, every day, began. To be authentic – not driven by my ego, not caring what others thought of me and going at my own pace.
I was at the point of no return when we set off at 5 am, (while many others rushed off much earlier, we wanted to use most of the daylight and not have to compete for space on the track). We walked up for 7 hours and down for 5 hours. There were no emergency services to help us if we became tired or injured, no helicopter to come and rescue us. We were on our own, words that Mike also spoke about his time in the Antarctic. That 12-hour trek was hard. A few steps forward and I had to stop to catch my breath. I was carrying a stupidly heavy pack of almost 20 kg (I did not have previous experience and did not know what I should pack – so I took too much.) Even the Sherpas refused to carry such weight. As Mike had said about his 200kg+ sledge he was pulling, you dream of leaving it behind, but it holds your essentials for survival so you cannot. The trek over the pass was very satisfying despite the challenge, and of course the sense of pride was present throughout the trek. In fact the great sense of achievement when we completed the Annapurna Circuit motivated us to more, so upon completion of the Annapurna circuit we trekked up the Annapurna Mountains into the Annapurna Sanctuary (Base Camp.) The journey should have taken 12 days, but by then I was a billy goat jumping from rock to rock! We did it in a week.
This visit to Nepal was part of a 2-year world trip with opportunities to work and live with the locals in many countries. Living outside of my comfort became second nature, and marked the start of wanting more self-discovery and experiences. Just like Mike, the experiences from my world trip are mine to keep forever.
The experience of moving out of my mind and into my body was life changing. I truly realised how strong I am, and not just physically. I discovered my own perseverance, determination, commitment, and emotional fortitude (when I wanted to throw my pack off the mountain rather than carry it up and over the pass) and spirituality, as facing your limits brings you closer to your spirit. This external voyage resulted in an internal journey and that is what Mike spoke a lot about: how his expeditions take him within. This reminds me of the saying: I am going to find myself! What an odd image that we need to go somewhere else to find the person who is right here, right now. Well, on one side it works. Taking yourself to the edge will take you within yourself, but this is not the only way. We can journey within through meditation, Sophrology and Conscious Awareness exercises.
At the end of the day what we are all seeking is the internal journey, the internal growth and development, the pride in knowing that we will survive and we can do it. Even if we lose a job, if the stock market goes down, if housing prices suffer, if we need to move countries for work, if we have personal and family challenges, if we have no money, etc. As Opera said in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globe awards: what everyone she ever met, who had endured difficulties had in common is that “they all believed that tomorrow would be better”.
Since my journey in Nepal, I have continued my internal journey. I have trained in many self-development and self-awareness modalities that allow me to be more consciously aware. I have learned to be comfortable stepping outside of my comfort zone, to know and make decisions from my values, to know myself better and accept who I am and to experience the sense of peace and calm and trust in myself that has made me ready to support others in their internal journey.
Since 2007 I have been coaching people within their career transitions and continuation in Switzerland. Over the last four years I have been teaching an online Sophrology foundation course with Energy Centre, a school based in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2016 I taught a Conscious Awareness Training course for Women leaders. I have learnt that, like me, people want life to be easy. So, in a personal quest to create an easy life for myself, along with my passion to teach and share with others, I am dedicating more time and energy to bringing conscious awareness within leadership to mainstream society and organisations. This includes corporate leadership training programs, online training programs, webinars, e-learning, keynote talks and community discussion groups.
If you are intrigued and want to know more about Conscious Awareness Leadership then watch this space, as I am ready to share more. If you just cannot wait then contact me Diana Ritchie, on diana@scc-centre.com.