If you could ask a master athlete and adventurer about their inner game –
Their mindset, their attitude, their inner approach, what would you ask?
I’ve got the opportunity to sit down and talk with Damian Hall, who is a UK ultra running national treasure.
Damian won this year’s Spine Race, a middle of winter jaunt of 268 miles on the UK’s Pennine Way in 83 and a bit hours.
Imagine being on your feet, moving that fast, for that long?
(Incidentally the course record is held by Jasmin Paris who also expressed milk for her baby in breaks from running. That’s awesome!)
Then he went and ran in the Barkley Marathons just the other week (bonkers … Google it. Better still, Youtube it, it’s pretty amazing).
So really …
What would you ask him?
Let me have your questions and I’ll put them to him. I’ll let you know when you can listen back on the podcast.
Super excited about it.
I am so fascinated by athletes and adventurers and high performers who seem set on making life as uncomfortable as possible.
Part of my head says, “Isn’t life challenging enough?”.
But the other part of my head gets (some) of it.
It’s about adventure, it’s about flow, it’s about chasing mastery, it’s about “What if?” – seeing what’s possible.
It’s about rising above the humdrum and really being truly alive.
I think we all need something to grow into.
Something that stretches us, even just a little.
Whatever that may be for you is cool. But life takes on a certain aliveness when you feel like you’re doing something worthwhile and moving forward with it, right?
That’s why I think Victor Frankl, inmate of the Nazi concentration camps and psychotherapist, once wrote:
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“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”
— Victor Frankl
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It’s about struggling gracefully – so gracefully, the struggle disappears.
Now –
You might not get to choose your challenge. Some challenges are just enforced upon us. But when you turn and accept your challenge, somehow the burden is lightened, even lifted.
Lightening your burden, struggling gracefully … it’s the whole attitude behind, “Is this happening to me, or for me?”.
And our attitude to the thing is something we can always choose.
So choose well.
Struggle so gracefully, struggle disappears.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes of all time, from Epictetus – a Stoic philosopher from back in the day who was once a slave:
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“Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.”
— Epictetus
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(Excuse the old school use of “men” from both of these guys. They obviously never met Jasmin Paris. Or you.)
Choose well. Embrace the challenge. You’re learning to become better in all ways.
Go well!
Arjuna
PS.
We have 2 more seats for someone new wanting to learn Ascension meditation on the next course 31 March - 2 April (starts 7pm).
There won’t be another course til July, so don’t dilly dally if you’re interested.
Just let me know.
Go well my friends, let me have your questions!