20 seconds of insane bravery!

I work in the outdoors helping people develop their leadership through practical experience. It’s an awesome job, and I work with awesome people (we have a pool of staff of 38 professionals from all walks of life). One of them owns a trekking company (which I’m now a partner in).

After a particularly difficult program in Margaret River, he asked me if I’d like to join his Everest Base Camp trip – the problem was it was only four weeks from there. I thought about it for a nano-second – it was never really on my bucket list (and being over 50, didn’t think I would ever do it). And I said yes.

I trained like a madwoman – at the gym four times a week, leg pressing up to 170kg to gain the leg strength I needed to make it. And suddenly it was time to go – pack the bags, head for Nepal. The trek was everything I thought it would be – and more. And it was even more wonderful than I can ever have imagined. Trekking through blizzards in -15 degrees to get to the base camp at over 5000m…. exhausting and totally life-affirming. I would have missed this experience had I been too scared.

It took 20 seconds of insane bravery to say yes…. the courage to commit to it and complete it came later. I help women to find the courage to say yes more often. Life is too short for no’s.