Colin O’Brady – 7 Summits, 2 Poles, 1 Goal, & 2 World Records (rebroadcast) – EP071
Season 2
Episode 71

Colin O’Brady – 7 Summits, 2 Poles, 1 Goal, & 2 World Records (rebroadcast) – EP071

Hi all, In this episode, I talk with Colin O’Brady. Colin is an American pro endurance athlete, mountain climber, adventurer, and professional speaker. He's a two-time world record holder for the Explorers Grand Slam and Seven Summits speed records. This is a show from the Archive. Something I wasn't able to do last year! This week was a bit of a wash out for me so didn't get a chance to edit a new show so picked this standout show from Season One with Explorer, Adventurer and all round Inspiration Colin O'Brady. Since this show, Colin has gone on to complete another world record, climbing the 50 highest points in the 50 states of America in just 21 days. Read more about that here & lots more on Colin below with links to his socials and site at the bottom! Enjoy the podcast - details below: I heard Colin’s TedTalk a few months back and was pretty much blown away by it. Afterwards, I immediately took a chance and connected with him over email to see if he'd be interested in coming onto the podcast. I was delighted when he agreed and here it is. From listening to his TedTalk, I had a bunch of questions that I wanted to put to him. We talked for over an hour and touched on many things including: • Claiming Colin as Irish with his Irish heritage with his parents names of O’Connor and Brady • Earliest Memory running around in his back yard being full of energy and taking up Soccer and Swimming at a young age • The role mentors and coaches played in his early development • Juggling Swimming and Soccer and always loving competition • Going to Yale University and keeping his focus and dedication during these years – day in and day out training for 4/5 hours per day! • Swimming and how it has helped with focus, endurance and being in the moment • Completing 10 day silent retreats in 2011 in Vipassana Meditation and every year since reflecting on how each one is different and highly worthwhile • Describing his gap year after College to see the world • Tragedy struck in Thailand when Colin participated in a fire dancing ceremony that went wrong and resulted in severe burns covering 25% of his body and how things unfolded in the weeks after this • How his Mum helped him through this and motivated Colin set a target to complete a Triathlon in the future – this goal helped him learn how to walk again after 3 months. As he progressed, he grew stronger and eventually, 18 months later, completed the Chicago triathlon. Not only completing it, but winning it! • Reflecting on his Mum’s positivity and how it helped Colin achieve this goal. Her line is ‘Careful what you wish for when you tell your kids they can achieve anything’ • How to keep things into perspective using gratitude, positivity and contrast on days when things are not going good • Competing professionally at the Olympic distance triathlon and travelling around the world • In 2014, feeling a call to doing something greater than himself which lead to the 7 Summits and Explorers Grand slam. This became a goal with the aim of inspiriting kids to become more active and set their own goals, identifying what their own Everest is! • Core Values and a great example on how to identify these from Colin – 5 Happiest Days! • Reflecting on the 2 world records (139 Days for the Explorers Grand Slam & 131 Days for the 7 Summits) • The Major hurdles faced during this project – 18 months of blood, sweat and tears making this work. Taking an idea and making it a reality was a huge effort. Then during the actual climbs, some very close calls that happened • Mixing Purpose, Passion and Values • Focusing on fear (of both success and failure) and risk management and having a healthy relationship with it • Success and how it can be a loaded word! • Looking ahead and planning the Next Chapter – finding the next Everest! Learn more about Colin & connect with him on the following links: • Completing a TedTalk on Change your Mindset and Achieve Anything! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo_lZiytsMw • The Beyond 7/2 adventure - http://beyond72.com/ • Twitter - https://twitter.com/colinobrady • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/ • The 29zero29 Project - http://29zero29.com/ If you're liking what my show is about, I'd love to hear from you. Please take the few minutes to share out about the show too! Thanks, Rob
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