Yesterday, I hosted a call focused on pushing through obstacles and building resilience. During this call someone asked who inspires me to dig deeper and push harder when I am in the mountains.
That’s an easy answer: Kilian Jornet.
If you haven’t heard of Kilian, he is an incredible mountaineer and ultramarathoner who just completed his Alpine Connections project. The numbers speak for themselves:
82 mountains in 19 days.
Over 749 miles covered, with 237,000 ft. of elevation gain.
Few athletes in the world would even consider - let alone complete - a challenge of this magnitude.
What inspires me about Kilian is his unrelenting focus on exploring his own abilities - mental, physical and technical - alone in the mountains. Of course, he has a support team, but at the end of the day, every step is his own. No one can make him mentally tough, physically ready, feel the pain and exhaustion, and no one can train for him.
He is competing with his own ability. There is power in understanding exactly who you are alone in the mountains. No podium, no number pinned to your chest. Just you and you alone.
None of us have to be a Kilian Jornet to believe that we can do more than we think.
The mind is a wonderful thing and is indeed our strongest asset. But it is also the weakest link and the first to scream “no way!”. Challenge your mind to believe you can accomplish more than you think, and I guarantee the body will follow.
No one told Kilian he could climb 82 mountains in 19 days. His power is that he never told himself he couldn’t.