DON’T GO IT ALONE

02 Nov DON’T GO IT ALONE

Sometimes heroes are just ordinary people with outsized intentions. They inspire us and fuel our ambitions. Killian Jornet is 5’7” and weighs 128 pounds. He is trim but otherwise unexceptional. Jornet recently climbed seventy-two 14,000+ ft peaks in 31 days and cycled his route between Colorado and Washington– an incomprehensible feat. He covered 629 miles on foot and bicycled another 2,658. Jornet is a luminary among mountain endurance athletes.

Jornet keeps it simple and lives in the moment with pure focus. He never considers that he can’t accomplish something. He also invites a friend or colleague to accompany him on each leg of his journeys. If he runs out of food, he keeps going. If there isn’t time for sleep, he doesn’t. And if he needs gear he doesn’t have, he does without.

Like Jornet, when speaking to audiences, tackle your project with as little gear as possible. Develop single-mindedness, pure focus and never entertain doubt. If something goes awry, solve the problem in the moment, or move on. Enlist a trusted colleague to co-present or watch and critique you. Jornet has just shown the world how the human body and mind, once focused, can accomplish unbelievable feats. Start training; your mountains await.