Wisdom in fragments

Within each of us is a deep, complex network of capillaries, veins and arteries which extend a distance equivalent to more than 3 times the circumference of the Earth, and because our body has lost its conditioning to nature, our hearts have to pump 20-30 times a minute more than if we regularly exposed our body to cold water.

Extreme athlete known for ice exposure & breathing technique methods

We come from mammals, we are mammals… we're just mammals that wear clothes. We're destimulated – we don't feel the cold, the heat, everything in our environment – even though our physiology is built for it. We've allowed them to lose this fitness, to lose their conditioning – and so our hearts compensate.

Extreme athlete known for ice exposure & breathing technique methods

Nobody knows how far we can go as humans and so I listened only to myself and my body and pushed it to go beyond perceived limitations, and guess what – outside that boundary is a whole new life where you really start to live.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

I don't see things as impossible; I got right to the equations to figure out how this could be achieved; I didn't put a barrier on my mind or body. A practitioner is the person who goes out and breaks the limits of the mind, the soul, the body.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

To overcome extreme obstacles, to do the impossible, you have to create another human being inside yourself. I had to create an image of how I wanted to look, how I wanted to act, how I wanted to believe, how hard I wanted to push. I trained that image in my mind, and then I had to become an artist to create it.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You have to go into a very quiet place in your mind, away from the noise of the world, the noise of doubters, insecurities and your own self. You have to quiet your disbelief and create open mindedness to your own ability to succeed and overcome.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

Very few people know how the bottom feels, but I do. It's like quicksand. It grabs you, sucks you under and won't let go. When life is like that it's easy to drift and continue to make the same comfortable choices that are killing you, over and over again.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

In reality, you're rarely (if ever) completely helpless, you allow yourself to be helpless. You need to take ownership of a situation, break it down into bitesize chunks and plan accordingly.

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

Having a plan, feeling confident and being competent are the greatest antidotes to fear. If you're just trying to deal with the unknown by crossing your fingers and hoping, you will be utterly helpless when a situation finally manifests.

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

99.9% of the time, you are not in a burning building- and that is precisely the time to think about what you would do in that 0.1% of time when it is on fire.

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

Most every decision that your team will make is independent of you as a leader. If those individuals and teams don't know what that end-game truly looks like, the odds of them making the right decision at any moment in time diminishes.

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

We are facing a global catastrophe, one which should be a bigger motivator for us to come-together around a common cause than even World War II. Climate scientists tell us we're facing an existential crisis, and unless we get emissions under control in the next decade, that climate change will be irreversible.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International

There has been a pathetic failure of governments to invest in educating people about the rights that they hold and enjoy; I suspect because if people knew their rights, they would claim them and put the governments of the world under pressure.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International

According to Global Witness, 4 environmental activists are killed somewhere in the world each week, predominantly in Latin America but also in Africa and Asia. These are individuals doing everything from defending water, land and forests to the rights of indigenous communities.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International

The sad reality is that if we tried to pass that declaration today, the UN General Assembly would fail to do so. Firstly, we don't have someone like Eleanor Roosevelt as an advocate for human rights, and where previously the US played a leadership role, Trump would no doubt block virtually every human rights pillar associated with the declaration.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International

We have made money, capital, materialism and consumption into our God, it's a disease – you could call it affluenza. It is perhaps because of this context that humanity has lost its way, and the consideration of human rights has been subordinated to the interests of a handful of powerful people who sit at the top of the pyramid.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International