I’ve seen extreme bravery from the least likely of people. Life is about the moments when it’s all gone wrong. That’s when we define ourselves.
Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.
All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.
But I also knew if I could somehow replace my doubt with hope, my fear with courage, and my self-pity with a sense of pride, then I just might be able to do this.
That fine line between bravery and stupidity is endlessly debated – the difference really doesn’t matter.
But the winners are those who know that when things get really hard and others start to fall away, that is the time to dig deep and give that little bit extra.
If you want it bad enough, you’ll pass.
If the person you’re speaking to will think worse or less of the person you’re speaking about, then it’s gossip, so cut it out!
At this point, my greatest enemy was myself. Self-doubt can be crushing, and sometimes it is hard to see outside the black bubble.
You climb only because the mountain allows it. If it says wait, then you must wait, and when it allows you to go, then you must struggle and strain in the thin air with all your might. Listening to the mountain and having patience on it are the keys to survival.
I wanted to work hard. I wanted to prove myself somehow worthy of the good things I had known.
But, that guy who quit also missed the real point. Good things come through grit and hard work, and all things worthwhile have a cost. In the case of the SAS, the cost was somewhere around a thousand barrels of sweat.
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.’ Pearl S. Buck.
Life rewards the dogged, not the qualified.
He would always say that what really matters in life is to ‘Follow your dreams and to look after your friends and family along the way.’ That was life in a nutshell for him, and I so hope to pass that on to my boys as they grow up.
Any blisters on your shoulder blades would weep painfully, as the weight of the pack went back on. Then somehow your mind would shut out the pain, for a while. Until, by the end of the march, your shoulders would start to wilt and cramp up as if they were on fire.
Tentative holds no power.
Sometimes you have just got to tackle these mountains head-on.
Just let me get moving, I thought, and the pumping blood will shake the stiffness and pain from my back and feet.
This is your life. Be bold with it. Live it with energy and purpose in the direction that excites you. Listen to your heart, look for your dreams: they are God-inspired.