Ross Edgley: The Art of Resilience
EPISODE 148
Bestselling author and award-winning adventurer Ross Edgley has been studying the art of resilience for years, applying all he has learned to become the first person in history to swim around Great Britain, breaking multiple world records. Now Ross focuses on mental strength, stoicism, and the training needed to create an unbreakable body.
In The Art of Resilience (buy on Amazon), Ross uses his amazing endurance feats, where he managed to overcome seemingly insurmountable pain, hardship, and adversity, to study the performance of military, fitness specialists, and psychologists to uncover the secrets of mental fitness and explore the concept of resilience, persistence, valor and a disciplined mindset in overcoming adversity.
This groundbreaking book represents a paradigm shift in what we thought the human body and mind were capable of and will give you a blueprint to become a tougher, more resilient, and ultimately better human – whatever the challenge you face.
SHOW OUTLINE
INTRO
Ross and an intro to his journey into pushing his limits
Resilience redefines you
STICK WITH IT
Why Ross thinks resilience is strategically managed suffering
Hard work is the answer (3m37)
Ross’ experience of building resilience in his mind during his aquatic odyssey
Swimming Great Britain (1m31)
IMMERSE YOURSELF
Focus on the process not the outcome, and how Ross gets lost in it
Put one foot in front of the other (1m21)
OUTRO
Ross’ advice for taking a challenge today: just start
Resilience is free (2m14)
CLIP CREDITS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHR02sHk4EI&ab_channel=LondonReal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ph7u1YeD8&ab_channel=WorldFitness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzThDcxRt2k&ab_channel=EvanCarmichael
TRANSCRIPT
And welcome to The Moonshots podcast. It's episode 148. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as always I'm joined by the man with the plan is to Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning, mark. Good morning, Mike.
He's the real manmade of iron steel and every other precious metal in the world. I think he's a bit mad. I think he's done some amazing things. He would, I would even go far as to say he might be the David Goggins of the United Kingdom. I think you might be right. So today, Mike, you and I, and our listeners are digging into the book, the tome, the guidelines, I suppose you could say.
And the art of resilience by none other than Mr. Ross Edgeley who is not only might a pretty well-known best-selling author, but he's [00:01:00] won awards for his adventure. As well, and he's really focused his work, his experience, his physical explorations into adventure, around the idea of resilience, which is perfect for the series that you and I are digging into at the moment.
Yeah, it is a great body of work because he really makes the charts, the course on how his mind was able to unlock it. This incredible feat amongst many things that he has done, what he has successfully done. And this is going to sound so crazy. Are you ready? He swam around the entire. Of the United Kingdom.
This is 1,780 miles for 157 days. And of course he's climbed Mount Everest and done all these other things but mark, as a [00:02:00] Brit, does it not strike you as a lunacy and madness and almost the impossibility of it to swim around the United Kingdom? How for reasoning, that must have been how challenging that must have been.
It is a very hostile coast. Isn't it? Yeah. Hostile is the only way I could probably describe it. You obviously don't have the luxury of having those warm waters. They're well-known for ship racks, particularly up in the north coast and Scotland. You've got very treacherous waters and I cannot even comprehend or imagine what it would have had to be like.
Put on your wetsuit jump overboard of the boat that you're on and just swim day after day hour after hour and a month after a month. Oh, listen, I'm so proud of a few laps of a beautiful pool. In the sunshine of Sydney, Australia, I think, oh wow, what a feat but he went so [00:03:00] much further and it was mind over matter.
And what is ahead of us today, mark you and I, and all of our listeners, we're going to break it down and we're going to understand the role that resilience plays in achieving so much. We're going to work out how we actually successfully swim around great Britain and we're going to learn his process, his method.
We're going to put it all together so we can not only let our jaws drop, but what we will do is we'll pick ourselves up and learn how we can do it too. And I think this idea that we can study. Which is, as the byline on the book says strategies for an unbreakable mind and body. And I think that is well, that's a pretty exciting topic.
It is totally on brand for us here at moonshots. I'm very excited and I'm really glad too, that we've got someone to compliment [00:04:00] sort of Eric from last week who had all of that military experience. We had Angela who was an academic and found out that resilience and grit is really the defining factor of success.
Today. We've got someone who from his own volition chose to swim around great Britain. We're going to work out how he did it. Mark. I'm excited. Where do you want to start? I want to start with none other than Mr. Ross. Edgeley actually introducing us to how he pushes his limits and the idea that resilience redefining.
I believe that comfort comes at a cost to know what you're truly capable of. You've got to push beyond your limits and keep pushing, demanding more and more of yourself physically. You adapt fast, but the mindset that takes time, you don't just switch off. [00:05:00] You're not a machine you wake up, saw your body say stop, and you doubt yourself.
I know I did. Just being resilient is about pushing through that doubt, convincing yourself. That's the hardest part. It's those moments that break you that.
Does that not just set the time for a very different looking to resilient? Yeah. Like you say, Angela came at us with quite an academic breakdown of resilience which was perfect. That was like the building blocks, Mike. It was building that foundation of, okay what's the idea of grit, how.
Get off footholds and purchase a little bit on the idea of resilience and Dan to Eric, it was all about how he was helping his friend based on some lessons that they learned within the Navy seals. Ross is coming at us today with, [00:06:00] I almost want to say Mike, dare I say it. And every man approach he was a guy, he didn't come through the Navy seals.
Unless he w he was secretive. I'm not sure.
No, but you're right. Like he's, he just brings it in the most relatable, simple terms because he wasn't in the military. So it doesn't have that sort of language. He wasn't like a professor at a big university. This is just another take on what is really. Starting to appear to be the clear differentiator between success and failure.
It seems to me, those that don't give up those that are when they fear those triggers of fight or flight, they can use their mind to say, no, I'm going to push through it. And many many things stick to me about the relationship between athletic achievements and achievements in life.
[00:07:00] And one of the themes that always seems to come up is that when we have these moments where we doubt ourselves, we want to run, we want to fight at, or our body is saying to stop, to give up. It hurts too much that often that is a tipping point moment. Which if we can break through that, we discover we have so much more potential inside of us.
And this is a big theme that we've had on the show. Isn't it? That it's the ability to understand you're pushing your limits and it's okay. Yeah. The admission that life can and will be uncomfortable. Yeah. He, Ross calls out in that intro clip right there, which is kicked us off Mike.
And I'm really excited to get into Ross's idea and art of resilience and building unbreakable spirit and mind. This idea of comfort is perhaps a little bit to orientate it into our lives now. And the truth is that when you [00:08:00] do expose yourself to difficult things, let's say let's use a marathon or, oh, let's no, let's break it down.
10 K. You're going to go on some practice runs and your body will probably adapt. You might be able to get that a little bit fitter. You'll be able to get moving a little bit quicker. But as Ross calls out, mindset takes more time because you're almost conditioned into let's call it the easy path, and everything like a 10 K run or anything more significant. It's going to take that little bit more time and you're going to have to push through those comfortable limits. And that's such a consistent thing that you and I keep on running into with the idea of success in order to be successful, you have to break through those let's call them comfortable limits because when you do, that's what sets you apart and enables you to go out and create something that's maybe a little bit more unique or maybe go and do something that is a little bit more [00:09:00] unexpected and the context in which Ross Edgeley is inviting us to be resilient is.
A world where a lot of things provide us comfort and come. So instantly. If you're an old guy like me, you remember when there wasn't the internet and you can't back in the day, if I wanted to, when I was a kid, if you wanted to know the answer to a tricky question, you'd have to go to the library and try and find a reference book.
And that kind of thing today, we can just Google, if you want food, you just hit Uber eats and it's here in half an hour. The there's a lot of things come to us instantly now. So this is what for me is so good to come back to hard work day after day. In fact, Ross actually did it for 157 days as he [00:10:00] swam around the United Kingdom.
Like totally mad. And so he's got a lot of wisdom for us. Mark. He's got a bit of a playbook that will help us do it as well. Where should we start with Raj at Ross Ashley's book the art of I think as you've just mentioned, it's all about hard work and this concept of resilience that we keep on coming back to, we keep on seeing interact with all of these moonshots is that we cover, it's all connected with success.
Isn't it? And the hard work is what underpins all of these individuals and all of the success, inverted commerce that they go into. So what better way to really dig into the guidelines and the books and the strategic direction that Ross can teach you and I, and our listeners then actually hearing from Ross break down this concept of hard work and why it is in fact, the answer to resilience.
[00:11:00] I want to quote you. And this is a quote that you said recently it was on one of your Instagram pieces and it's this, it's my hope that people remember the great British swim as an example, or an experiment in both mental and physical fortitude, this lost art of grit and determination that we used to have in the golden era of exploration.
Hard work is so often the answer. The question is so often irrelevant, right? Does that mean I go swimming? When we spoke all that time in February, I didn't realize how much that swimming, solitary confinement would affect me but you aren't left alone with your own thoughts over 157 days swimming for 12 hours a day.
We worked how I spent probably over 20 to 30 days on my own staring at the bottom of a sea bed with air plugs in. So I can't hear anything. I can't smell anything. So you were just purely left alone with your own thoughts. And when we spoke again in, in February I, it was purely a theory [00:12:00] at the time.
And we spoke about central governor theory. And I was saying to Brian, I believe that fatigues, emotionally driven state that you use and your brain basically gets you to pull that physiological handbrake to make sure that you maintain homeostasis. You don't do any damage to yourself self preservation mechanisms.
And I said, I think I theorize that. You can override this. You were doing iron mind at the time, and I'll say, there's going to be that moment during your iron man. And it's relative. It doesn't matter. You're doing your iron man, me swimming around great Britain. It doesn't matter. Somebody's going to run their first 10 kilometer race.
They never run before. They're going to get to that point where the body says, this is fatigue, pull the physiological handbrake don't do damage to yourself. So that part of the end, where I said Todd work yourself and the answer. And the question is so often relevant. What I meant by that was during the great British swim and going back to the central governor theory, swimming became a really small part of it.
It was just a, you going to get [00:13:00] in scrape, ice off your wet suit, which I had to Aberdeen our members. The first day of autumn, I left my wetsuit out to dry. It was two o'clock in the morning. The tide had changed and I put that in and I was like, and it's just a thin layer of ice. I scraped it off and I'm just putting it on my that.
And no one was asking me to, I didn't have to get in the war. If I didn't, that's a six hour tied, that's gone. That could be 15 miles. And if you miss 15 miles and you add up just a few of those all of a sudden the window to actually swim around great Britain, which is the British summer, which is very short you're thinking may to, and we've been lucky that I finished just yesterday.
November the fourth, I was lucky that we had a really good summer because it would have become impossible. We had storm Callum and store Mali. They came in. And if you're trying to swim around the top of Scotland storm boats, don't go round the top of Scotland. Nevermind a swimmer.
Really? So when I weather yeah. You're not going around Cape Roth at the top there. So Northwest Scotland, you're not going around the top of there. [00:14:00] If you're getting Arctic winds from Iceland 50 knots smashing into the side of the Western, got, you're not going past there in a boat. You'll be just people have lost their lives out there.
And so when I say hard work yourself and the answer that the questions are relevant. What I mean by that is on the great British. The limiting factor, the defining factor. Wasn't how high my elbows were on a swim. How CRA how streamlined it was what was my head position? None of that mattered, but you're going to put your face in the water and you're going to get in for six hours and make 12 miles.
Cause if you do, you might make it around the top of Scotland before the British winter comes in and that's it hard work is the answer. I just I think the, where this brings me to is that sometimes when we face great challenge and hardship and we feel like nothing is going our way, that it's so easy [00:15:00] to think that either stopping or.
Doing something else, or maybe blaming the conditions around you is the reason that we walk away from things. And I think it's such a powerful mantra that hard work is the answer. And the question, and I love the fact that he says the question or the challenge you're in you're facing really doesn't matter.
Hard work is just the answer, period. That's pretty emphatic as a mantra. And I think of myself when I'm facing challenge and I love this idea of just hard work is the answer sticking to it is the answer, grinding it out is the answer. And. It's we forget this. It's like our mind plays our trick tricks on us and says, wow, [00:16:00] this is a crazy situation.
You don't have to deal with it. It's like all the self preservation stuff kicks in, doesn't it? Yeah. And it's a familiar topic that I think we've run into a few times, which is your, you can be your own worst enemy. I know that lack of confidence or let's call it courage, can kick in and make you question.
Do I want to get in the water? I love that little reference that Ross has I didn't have to get in, but if I didn't do it and I didn't put in the hard work, I'd have to do it later. There'll be a knock on effect of some kind. Regardless of the challenge, regardless of the question, or what I had to do was put my face in the water.
Is that what I'm going to do today? And this idea of hard work being the answer, no matter what that challenge is, speaks volumes to me because although I'm not trying to swim around. Whether it's the north west coast of great Britain or any part of great Britain there are going to be challenges [00:17:00] that I run into on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.
That to me is a similar situation. It's going to feel like I'm having to get out of bed and swim around great Britain, and it's going to challenge my comfort zones. Don't you think it could be a great mantra to almost build into yourself that whenever you're facing a moment of doubt, when all those little voices say, stop, do something else or blame others or whatever our temptation might be.
Don't you think it's like it's I think it's pretty empowering. If you can remind yourself and always come back to hard work is the answer. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Stay the course, if and I can hold onto the fact that it's something that you should be doing, even though it's damn hard, somethings you should be [00:18:00] doing the, never allow yourself to entertain quitting, changing, blaming, judging, hold onto it.
Hard work is the answer. And you know what? It doesn't matter what you're doing. Hard work. Pretty good. Yeah. I think it's really, it really is a valuable mantra. He also references the idea that fatigue is an emotionally driven state. And I think the connection for me with that.
Is fatigue comes in many forms. Doesn't it? You wake up the morning after a stressful run, let's say, and you can feel like, oh yeah, my muscles were a bit sore. I think equally, if the challenge is more of a physical sorry, a mental one. So maybe it's a tough conversation. It's a tricky project or maybe it's something else I'm not sure.
Maybe it's just continual struggles, then you're going to get emotionally fatigued and you're going [00:19:00] to wake up or you're going to look at the problem and think, you know what? I don't have it in me, but again, referencing and connecting it to yeah. But hard work. Just keep on putting in that hot.
Just keep on putting it in, having it go, pushing yourself a little bit further beyond that mental fatigue. I think then that's how you can continue. Let's say deal. You're dealing with that suffering, that challenge, whatever it might be every single day by just like RAICES calling out, putting your face in the water, putting in that hard work and just swimming.
Yeah, I think it's very powerful. And I'll tell you what, I'll tell you, who else is working really hard and that's all of our members. They have been so great in coming in to support us. It has been, I'm so grateful that we only recently started inviting people to [00:20:00] become members of the moonshot podcast.
And Mike, it's so great to see that people have answered the call. Isn't it. Now I think they deserve a bit of a bit of a roll call. So who does, who do we have to give a shout out to? Yep. I'm giving a roll call to all of our members of the moonshot show. We've got Bob, we got nos. We've got John. We've got Terry.
We've got variety. We've got now we've got Sandy modulating, Ken DMR, Tom and Byron, a call-out and a row call to all of you guys. You are our favorites and you are. Most importantly, joining us as we explore all of the different topics that we're diving into in the member series. Yeah. When you become a member of the moonshots podcasts, I think it's really important.
You're supporting us because we have lots of bills to pay, to put this show together. So we thank you. We have several different hosting providers. So I [00:21:00] think right now our current members pay for one of those the rest that we pay for ourselves. So we're really grateful for you, our members for supporting us.
We invite those of you who really do love the show. We create this value for you. We religiously put out this show every single week and we ask that if you feel that you're getting something from us, we would ask you to become a member, support us, help us pay some of the bills. We'd love to build a moonshot app.
But of course we need to invest in that. So we'd really invite you to become a member because not only will you give us a dollar a month, a dollar a week, sorry to help us invest in the show is you also. VIP exclusive show called the moonshots master series, where we go really deep on some of the topics that we cover in the moonshots podcasts.
So you get a whole second podcast from the moonshots guys. Ideal. So mark, if [00:22:00] you are fired up, if you want to support the show, if you want to become a member, where do you go to do that? That's right. If you want to hear our comprehensive deep dive in a motivation into first principles, as well as into collaboration and teamwork, listeners pop along to www.moonshots.io, click on the banner at the top of the screen and become a member.
As Mike was just breaking down. We've got lots of exciting things in our roadmap, but it's only going to be possible if you come and join us, give us the support and be part of our moonshots. Yeah, fantastic stuff. Now let's turn our eyes back to, and our ears back to Mr. Ross. Edgeley. Now we're going to start hearing some of the details of his mad capped adventure, his hundred and 57 day adventure swimming around.
Hard work yourself and the answer. And the question is so often relevant. If you focus on the [00:23:00] process, the outcome is inevitable. You have just spent the last 157 days to become the first swimmer to circumnavigate the whole of great Britain. This wasn't a physical experiment and mental you're alone with your own thoughts, your true self will be revealed to you, whether you like it or not.
I remember thinking why are you doing this? The wounds open wounds, just chafing the soul, your tongue's falling apart. You've not been worn for 157 days. You've scraped ice off your wetsuit. Want to be warm and just have Sunday dinner with my. As humans, we don't need a lot to be happy. This was born out of a failure right now.
I had failed to swim from St. Lucia to Mazzoni. I didn't do what I said I was going to do. It lit a fire under my belly, wanted that fairytale ending and then got it for those people to come out of the end. I [00:24:00] felt reverberated across the sea, the energy. I think you were feeling this overwhelming connectivity, spirit of life, you feeling something so powerful that it actually has a, an effect on your biology.
It's just a little bit strange that I had to assume around great Britain to almost discover that. But when you are in complete exhaustion, you find the most honest version of yourself. Alrighty, we've got a few different things in there, Mike, but that will laddering up into a process that we can dig into and learn about resilience.
Yeah, I love that. But using that failed swimmers he's a sort of fuel for the fire. And I think if we're all honest, we've all not lived up to our expectations at some point in life. Haven't we? And we can all use that. Yeah. Again, we've heard it from some of our other moonshots as well. Whether it's the Elon [00:25:00] Musk running into roadblocks or disapproving looks from his childhood here.
Serena Williams. Exactly. She was big on like true champions. I measured how they how they rise after a fall. That's right. You can use. Failure either of others or yourself in order to feel your approach into let's call it resilience, driving towards or swimming towards success in Ross's case.
But I think what's interesting and most relatable to me, Mike, is Ross's intro in that clip where he says it, wasn't actually a physical challenge, swimming around great Britain that he had to, obviously you had to eat. I think it was 12 and a half thousand calories a day. Can you ever, if you have a look at how big this guy is he's built like a tree or maybe he's pretty it's pretty broad, but the [00:26:00] fact is it wasn't necessarily a physical one for him.
It was purely for majority of. Mental. And as we heard in the previous clip, looking at the bottom of the seabed for 20 to 30 days within the 157 days, it took him to swim around continually, no stimulus from other people. You can't hear anything, you can't taste anything. He's just looking at one solid Sandy or silty and bed.
I think that speaks volumes to me because it helps me realize when I've got a challenge that I can't really see through the challenge, the problem, whatever it might be just to keep on reminding myself. Okay. So it's a physical challenge. If I strengthen my mind that little bit, I can cut through it and I can get that clarity in order to succeed and get to the end destination and a lot easier, because it's all within me.
I can control my reactions to it. Yeah. And I think the role of mindset being the [00:27:00] differentiator, I think we learned that when we studied Michael Jordan, You actually knew that in the end, the thing that led to Jordan's success was his mindset. His complete will to win and to get to training first, be the last to leave, to put in the work.
And the reason that all of his teammates rose around him was because he never asked them to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself. So again, the lesson of hard work comes back. This is very powerful stuff and it makes me very curious mark on, how do you see this working for those of us who aren't the swimming around great Britain?
Like how do we put some of these things into practice? If I say to you, okay, so how are you going to apply some of this thinking from [00:28:00] process Julie's book, the art of resilience. When might you use. I think it's all about for me. It's then that last clip where he's he, I'm just imagining myself and drawing a comparison between that feeling that you get, or at least I get Mike, when I know I've got a lot of spinning plates, there's a kind of weight on your shoulders and you can't really see where to begin.
Okay. I've got this thing over here. I've got that thing over there. This is a bit of a challenge and everything's a little bit blurry. I'm now transporting my mind into Ross, his experience of swimming. So my face is in the water and it's all a bit silty. I can't really see anything. Maybe it's a bit cold.
The destination is of any swamp, maybe 50% around great Britain. I've still got all of that distance to go. And I think, okay, that's okay. All it is one. [00:29:00] Okay now try it again and just break it down into small. Let's call them bite size pieces. And when I try and break it down, and I think about this concept of just do hard work.
That's the answer. I think it's completely relatable to me as somebody who wants to try and do the best project or the best work possible. And you can do that with just spending your own time, really thinking about that problem, writing it down, preparing maybe it's practicing, maybe it's new skills in order to deliver the best with your team.
And I think it's like you say with Jordan, it was the preparation, it was the practice he was putting in the hours. And I think that translates directly into this concept of hard work as well, which is if you're going to go out and do the best work you can. You just have to [00:30:00] create that process and framework around the work that you're doing in order to enable you to go and do the best version or the best level of hard work that you can do.
Yeah, it's interesting. Isn't it? It's like resilience becomes like a habit or like James clear was saying habits are our lifestyle and they're not just for a fixed amount of time. It's like the, they become a way of operating. I th I think this is what I was starting to see within Angela's work with grit.
This idea of grit being not disposable is is I guess, an interesting way of putting it. It's something you have. And it's not something that we're taught at school resilience. Isn't something that you're going to sit down and say, okay, what's my next class. It's English is math. It's resilience.
Instead, [00:31:00] as we referred back to, I think in that show, or maybe it was last week, Mike, you and I were reflecting on the idea that it is something that you start learning more as you get older, because you'll run into more of these challenges. You're not necessarily you and I aren't necessarily taking on challenges like swimming, great Britain every couple of months.
Instead, our version of swim in great Britain will be, maybe it's a difficult project. Maybe it's a difficult conversation. And by practicing and building that resilience early in advance, maybe it's through projects that have gone a little bit sideways in the past, or maybe it's just by reflecting and learning on people like Ron holiday.
Eric Angela or Ross, we can start learning these techniques in order to be like you say create a habit of resilience and reflect on it, dig into it. Maybe it's daily, ideally it's daily, or maybe it's weekly. And through the act of looking into it, I think [00:32:00] we can start building that foundation of resilience earlier so that when we do inevitably run into a challenge, whatever it might be, whether it's jumping in the water and swimming, great Britain or otherwise, we're going to be that little bit more prepared.
Yes. And so I think the point that we get to here is a very good reminder of some of the themes that Ross is touching on that came back in some of the other shows in our resilience series. I think what we saw from Angela grit is. A defining factor of success. So she had studied 16,000 people.
She'd gone to west point and studied the candidates at west point. So for me, the interesting thing here is her thinking around that statistically resilience and grit, we're defining [00:33:00] factors of success. And then what we saw was the capacity of Eric Greitens to help a friend who was overwhelmed in challenge to build resilience as a process, as a habit of, as a way of operating.
And what's quite interesting. The two sides of this challenge is what we'll hear from Ross actually is we have complete control of our thoughts and resilience is free. However, Resilience is hard because we have these trigger points that when we push ourselves, when we encounter our limits, we have a natural desire to want to stop.
Don't we mark. And so this is what, this is the real pointy end of making it a habit is pushing through those barriers to anything. Yeah. Yeah. I really do many times, or maybe not many times, but several times in my career, [00:34:00] have I run into moments when I think, oh, this project is it little bit uncomfortable now?
I really wish I wasn't here. And your natural inclination often is in which case I'm out of here. And when you look back fast forward, six months a year, whatever it might be, you think back and say, actually, you know what? That was really pivotal in my. I was able to really learn something from which I didn't see at the time.
And that value of force sorry, what's the right word, Mike. Not foresight when you reflect back when you read the opposite of foresight and when you're hindsight, when you have that hindsight and you look back at that challenge and you think, oh yeah, you know what, that really did define me.
And now I am that little bit stronger. That's the work that I think we can get out of reflecting on resilience so much. And going back to the show and [00:35:00] Eric, what I thought was a very valuable lesson from Eric. And I think I can see references within Ross's work as well. Is this circle of control?
Yeah. So the circle of control, I can't I'm Ross. I can't control the weather around the Northwest tip of the UK, but if I don't get in, I'm going to lose several hours. What do I do? I put my face in the water and I'll give it a go. That resilience, it's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be a hard swim, but I'm going to expose myself because I can see the benefit in the long run.
That seems to me, that speaks volumes again, to me, this idea of the circle of control. I can control my emotions to the cold, to the discomfort I'll go in and get over that. Yeah. And what we saw is stories of people in their early years in a previous show, Disney was told that he didn't have any imagination.
Oprah was told she wasn't good for [00:36:00] television. If they hadn't been resilient, they would never have gone on to achieve what they have. But likewise, even when. Pursue something and you are resilient, but you don't get the result. What we can often find is, oh, I didn't succeed at that. However, I met this person there, or this new opportunity came because I did it.
And then I found my thing. Like how often do you hear stories like that? That it was. Doing something to your very best if it's sticking to it. And even if you didn't achieve the Heights that you dreamt of often something maybe indirectly good comes of that endeavor, isn't it? Yeah. That is very true.
Once you've experienced that discomfort maybe is collaborating with the right people, or maybe it's just testing your character, your spirit, you're going to have that benefit in the long run. And that's for me, [00:37:00] Mike is really what we're trying to do on the moonshot show. Isn't it. We're trying to look at these individuals, these inspirational characters in the world and determine what we can learn from them.
And I think the thing that underpins. The majority, if not all of them, is this character disability to immerse themselves, put their backs against the grindstone and just get it out. Yes. And so I think it's the ritual of being able to instantly respond when you sense yourself, doubting questioning, judging, even contemplating giving up that you say no hard work is the answer.
Resilience is the answer, grit and determination. Get on the other side, like why would you suffer? And then give up in the middle of this suffering and challenge move through that so that you can get to the other side. And I think we all know there is another side of it.[00:38:00] There's no permanent valley of darkness.
Is there. I am not in my experience. No, because you can always complete the project or you can always get through the difficult conversation and come out the other side. Yes. And that then enables you to look back and say, Hey that wasn't so bad. Or maybe it was that bad, but it didn't last forever.
And now here I am on that little bit stronger. Exactly. So let's catapult ourselves to the moment where we hear from Ross. Edgeley what he does. When he hears the doubts coming into his mind. What does he do when he faces this valley of darkness? Great challenge. We get the privilege and the opportunity now to hear from Russ, Edgeley how he gets on the other side.
Th the main thing that I've learned is just to focus on the process. Too many people [00:39:00] focus on the outcome. So if you're running a marathon, you're going, how many ever run, how many of them run at 26.2 miles, how many miles away, how many miles, but sometimes if you just get lost in the motion, And you'll just like, oh, I'm just running full foot from using, running as an example, but for foot striking, I, it feels all right.
I know the crowd is nice. I'm enjoying the process and our oldest. Yeah. I've just had an energy flow. All of a sudden the outcome will be inevitable. If you focus on the process. My my little brother he's an actor. And he told me, do you know what Ross with such sensory deprivation going on you can't hear anything.
You can only see the bottom of the pool. Your mind is going to wander. And he said, just embrace that. So wherever it goes, just run with it. And it sounds weird, but some journey, some of my longer swims you end up just like planning what you're going to have for Christmas dinner. Like a year in advance, almost daydreaming.
It's like moving meditation. And if you get lost in that, it's one of the best things you can do, [00:40:00] because you can plan things in your head and the holidays and what you're going to have for dinner. And everyone's Christmas presents assaulted. And then when you look at your watch and oh wow, 10 K's Dawn, so if you can tap into that, it's one of the most powerful things you can. I love that Mike, because it's so casual, Ross is casual reflection from I'm swimming, great Britain, but at the same time, I'm multitasking and I'm planning all my Christmas presents for my family. I think the the burden of the big goal or objective can really weigh you down.
And if you've got to swim around great Britain for 157 days, and you're on day two and you're like, this is really hard, I've got another 155 days. That's not a very productive way to look at it, but it, isn't it interesting that you hear from so [00:41:00] many great sports people. It is very common now in elite sports people to hear focus on the process, not the outcome, build the muscle memory, build the flow, build the rhythm, lose yourself in the process.
Be it one with the process. What comes to my mind is how when you look at great music artists like Michael Jackson, he would lose himself in the music. He would dance as if almost like he's dancing is part of the music. He's not thinking about making a number, another number one, he's in the process.
And what's quite interesting what we learned from our habits series. If we think about work. And when we think about relationships, if you put. Effort in, if you do the hard work to call your family, your friends, to spend time with them. If you put in the hard work to do the things, to get ready for a meeting, to get ready for a [00:42:00] presentation, if you do the work, don't worry on the outcome because if you know that you've put in the work, good things can happen.
And I think it's really powerful to hold on to that in the face of uncertainty, go back to the process. Th this is quite a significant penny drop moment for me, Mike, because I will be I'm regularly focused on the outcome. So I will judge the success of my my process, my work maybe that of my team based on the.
And I quite like where you've just gone there. I like that story with Michael Jackson, as well as we, where Ross wet took us here as well. And that clip, which is just enjoy yourself it's something that I really get lost or I lose track of focus on. Okay. Much like when [00:43:00] you're doing a run.
Okay. I've only done two K I've got another eight to go. It's going to take me forever. And what does it do? It stresses you out. It puts too much. On the situation and much if you're in the beginning, a big old project and you'll see how it's going to last for six months a year. Okay. This has been a challenge.
I wish it was over. What's going to happen. Your ability to perform is going to be impacted. Isn't it? Because you're not in the right head space. And instead an ad exactly. Imagine yourself swimming around great during, oh, I still got 150 days to go. If Ross was continually obsessing over counting down the strokes, counting down the days.
He would have been probably even more miserable than he was but you're hearing from him here and he sounds up beat and what he's done and I want to come back to your reference to Michael Jackson is removing the pressure of art. I've got to have a number one. Number one [00:44:00] song, right? Remove that.
What does he do? He enjoys the act of making music, which is his passion and he enjoys the process. Likewise with Ross. Okay. I'm just going to go out, have a go swimming. I enjoy swimming. What can I w where can I, what can I think about, okay it's Christmas presents. He's not thinking about his efficiency in the water or anything like that.
It's removing that pressure. And that's a huge lesson. I think Mike, when I'm reflecting on projects that I work on, if I remove that pressure, that output, and instead just saying, okay I can just work on the process right now. I can do my best work and hard work is obviously the answer. Suddenly it feels that little bit lighter.
Doesn't it? It does. It does. So let's do a little exercise and ask ourselves what our process is. And for me on any day, the first three things that I focus on, good sleep. Good healthy food and good exercise. But for me, that's my platform getting [00:45:00] focused on that getting up and making sure that I take those three things in order to have the best day I possibly can to do the best work, to be the best father, the best husband I can be.
Like for me, that's an essential part of my process. And then I get into stuff like writing down the important things for the day, making sure I've got a clear list of tasks that are. Balanced against my my calendar. Weighing up the work and the time that's another big part of my process.
Even before we get into the work itself, those are some of the process things that I do. I'm interested to know what do you do? What's your, what are the kind of key elements of your process to, to similar things? I will also try and get exercise. That's my way of, I read and I heard a pretty interesting.[00:46:00]
Interview the other day that broke down your kind of energy that's surging through your body. And particularly in that fight or flight moment, you've got a lot of energy that almost wants a reaction. You want to run, you want to flee. So channeling that into some form of exercise for me, really helps ground my mind rather than let it fly off.
So exercise for me, a huge one, lots of water as well. That's that for me really helps freshen. Myself gets right into hydration is often cause of fatigue. Absolutely. Hydration for me is so huge. Always has been, and that really helps me keep a clear head, but also.
Focus. It actually affects my focus quite a lot. As well as writing stuff down, whether it's over the weekend and I'll be sitting there maybe on a Sunday and I'll be thinking, okay what do I need to do [00:47:00] this week? I've got so much the simple act of taking a few minutes and writing down a couple of things.
I'm thinking. Okay I know I've got to do this well, that's cool because now I've got it out of my head. It's no longer a ball that is bouncing around in my brain. The act of journaling, the act of writing something down is actually my way of preparing for the week and preparing myself for the upcoming day.
Yeah. Not only as a means of reflecting on the previous day. Okay. How was I yesterday? How can I improve myself today? Allied Jordan Peterson instead it's okay. Just the act of getting everything out onto paper, then allows my brain to have that little bit of space. To then go into whatever that work might be.
So I'm being distracted by almost like notifications Mike, in your tone or notifications. Can you turn off your internal notifications by journaling loving it down? That helps me keep a clear head. Yeah, [00:48:00] it's interesting. Isn't it? That you see a list of things that we're describing. There is focusing on process, which we have learnt a lot from the 148 shows that we've done journaling waking up early, sleeping well, eating well, exercising, planning ahead, being prepared putting in the work, right?
Thinking clearly writing things down, asking tough questions. These are all part of the process. And very much if you focus on that, you can be resilient because the nice thing is if you had a good sleep, you worked out and you wrote your journal. Wow. You can feel really good because you can take off three things that are your process.
So regardless of the challenge that you're facing I've already had a good start to the day slept well exercised did my thing, journaled, ready to go. I've got a good plan for the [00:49:00] day. Okay. I might be swimming with sharks around great Britain I'm prepared and I'm focused on the process, right?
Yeah. It's exactly like William H McRaven make you bed in the morning because then when you come back to it later, something's already been done and it's the act of taking something off, getting it out of your brain and moving along is helpful and granting yourself and starting that day off, right?
Yeah. I, you. Yes. And it's almost like just like any athlete would have a Walmart training and warm down program. We should have the same for us, both in our personal and professional lives, but you know what, mark, we've got one more, one more thought from Ross, Edgeley the author of art of resilience and it's a big one mark.
So why don't you and our listeners get ready for the last thought from Mr. Russ, Ashley and people probably watching when they say I want to do [00:50:00] something similar, how do I do it? And I'm like, why do you look at the great British swim? And you've got to know that's the sum and substance of over 10 years of doing this and I did it initially as to raise money for charity teenage cancer trust because of my friend.
So I did it purely one to give myself something to train for. When I stopped playing international sport, I wanted something. And then two, it was just, it was really just to do something that was bigger than the event itself and bigger than me. And if that was raising money, getting people involved, that was always the thing.
But for anyone watching. So how do I get involved? You've got to understand. I always started off. And even with this, I start off with what, how can I do this with the least resources? So when I did the world's strongest marathon, that was when we first caught up, I was like, I can run a marathon.
'cause I can run that. You can do that anywhere as long as I've got something flat and I've got a car it's an old car, like Ben, I've got harness that my friends strong, man Jeff capes, let me want as well. Two [00:51:00] times from five, he was like, there's an old one you can have.
And I was like, cool. So I've got a harness. And then I was like, oh my girlfriend, she'll probably sit in the car. While I pull it from a, and like she's used it. So that, and I was like, so what do you need to run a marathon? Pulling the car? Nothing is free something and it can be so small and that, and another nice thing, even this honesty, I love this story, but after the triathlon I did that as in nevus to raise awareness for the eco produce, wants to become the world's first carbon neutral island by 2020.
So I did their triathlon carrying a tree and called it a triathlon. And that was the thing. So somebody saw that and there was a guy out in, I think he was from New Zealand and he ended up doing it with a hundred pounds of dog food to raise money for the dog shelter back home. And I was just like, I love that.
You've just taken it and just made it your own and done it. And the triathlon was already set up in his hometown. So all the health and safety was there and he just went up to the organizer and he just said, Hey, I'm going to do it. But Karen dog food and the organizers okay, say it didn't cost them any more than it would have [00:52:00] been to enter a normal triathlon.
And you get, I think the point, I suppose I was in a roundabout way is you still get those moments and he doesn't need to be as grand as the great person you can. It doesn't need to be as grand as the great British swim a thing. Mike is the key reference and reflection that I have upon these different lessons.
And these tips from Ross today, we don't all need to jump in the water and swim nearly 2000 miles. Do we, because we can actually utilize these lessons around patience courage mindset that Ross experienced in that pretty record-breaking occurrence and applied to our own lives because fundamentally sometimes it feels like we're swimming around great Britain ourselves.
It can. And what I think is he's also [00:53:00] inviting us to start small, but most importantly, just start isn't he just start exactly. Just have a go, go out, begin today and you'll then be able to, whether you've already started practicing and have a habit of resilience or not. If you start today. You will then be growing that muscle resilience from today onwards.
So it's really an invitation to not only go out and give yourself an ambition and objective for goal. Instead, it's a challenge to all of us today to go out and do something that maybe feels a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah. Cause it reminds me a lot of the Tim Ferriss show that we did and he talks so much about people setting crazy big goals.
And then very early on in the process, they focus so much on the outcome and realize how far they have to [00:54:00] go. And what Ross Edgeley is doing is focus on the process, not the outcome and to start free and it can be small. Like I think that's the thing, because if too, if you say, listen, I'm going to write a white paper, then.
Paragraph a day and then pretty soon you'll be like, I'm going to write two paragraphs a day. I think the powerful thing here is focus on the process, not the outcome. That's a big one, but also get started. Don't defer, don't get stuck in your mind, like if maybe, but what if, no, he's just saying start isn't.
He don't differ. That's a great lesson or tip from Ross, because I think we could all. Say, oh, I'll begin it tomorrow. And realistically, Mike, that's [00:55:00] just an excuse. Oh, I'm not ready yet. I'll give it another go maybe next year or something like that instead. Hey, it doesn't matter. You don't need to have a record breaking 10 K run, or you don't need to have a success or right off the bat instead, just go out, give it a, go.
See how you react to things. See what things you can improve upon and just learn about your reaction to these things, because. Eric caught out and even Angela, you're going to run into hardships in life. So laying this foundation now go out, don't differ is a way to prepare yourself and create that daily habit sooner rather than later.
Yeah. And I tell you, what's another great daily habit. Mark is becoming a member of the moonshots podcast. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, it really is. Not only with my journaling, it's something else that becomes a daily occurrence. It's going out and checking our men's shots members. So [00:56:00] members and listeners, please pop along to www.moonshots.io, where you can subscribe.
You can become members to the master series. And Mike, we have comprehensive. Deep dive with a number of moonshot, is that not only have we dug into before, but also brand new individuals, we haven't previously covered on the show with innovation with first principles, with collaboration. And boy we've even got a handful of things coming later this year, Mike, around habits, circles, influence communication.
We've got a huge plethora of content that's in that area, but you can only get access to it. If you are a moonshots member, absolutely the case. And you get a lunar powered dose of good vibes from us to use. I don't know who could say no to such an invitation, but I want to ask you mark. [00:57:00] We have got to the end of the Ross Angelie show, and I want to ask you, what's the big one that you're taking away from this.
It's going to be the putting one foot in front of the other, just have another go breaking it down rather than focusing on that outcome. So step away from the immediate the immediate focus on is going to be a successful night. And instead of saying, okay how can I best utilize the idea of hard work?
It's doing one thing at a time, one step in front of the other I can plan and I can look back and I can see the overview of the big picture, but by breaking it down, I can put my best effort into each single inverted commas, bite size piece, one thing at a time in order to help myself get to a really good process that then in the long run, maybe it ladders up to a good successful [00:58:00] output, but right now don't get too obsessed with the app.
But instead focus on that process. How about you? Where are you? Best leaning towards following this show on Ross hard work is the answer. When in doubt don't work. Don't think about the question, the challenge, focus on the input of hard work, be resilient, stick with it and know that's the thing that, that is the differentiator.
This was a very powerful reminder for me, but I liked your ones as well, but that one really got me pretty good stuff. Yeah. Huge very valuable addition within our series on resilience. I thought hearing from somebody who has so much to reflect upon a pretty record-breaking pretty grueling physical experience.
Totally. Micah, I want to say thank you to you. And I want to say thank you to you, our listeners. It has been great to have you [00:59:00] join us to learn out loud with none other than Ross Edgeley and his book, the art of resilience and what a story it was. He really got to the essence of it and said that it is resilience that redefined who you are, and it starts with hard work.
Don't obsess about the outcome. Don't worry about the challenge, focus on the hard work. And the reason he has so much to teach is he did that swimming around the entirety of great person for 157 days. And the way he did it was focusing on the process, not the outcome. He put one foot in front of the other, or one arm swinging in front of the other, whatever takes, focus on the process, not the outcome.
And this is an option that you have right now. You can stop to Zack today. Resilience is free. It may be hard, but it is free and it is the thing that will transform your life. It will help you become the very best [01:00:00] version of yourself. That's what we're all about here at the moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.