World's #1 Extreme Athlete: The MINDSET Behind Overcoming FEAR! | Alex Honnold EP 546

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12Was there ever a time where there was, like, did anyone ever lose their life on a climb that you were on ever, or an expedition? No, I don't think so. Nothing, like, too, too close. I mean, I've seen a couple terrible accidents, like cliffs. Really? Yeah, like, you hear screaming, you run around the corner. They broke their leg or something, or? Well, a couple things like that. Not many people dying, though. Really? Like, you were there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't in your group or it was just another group? Different group, like some random kids at this... Climbing? Yeah. Oh, man, what's that like?

0:43Yeah, a kid fell and some of the protection ripped out and he landed on the ground and his head collapsed basically and he died. What's that like when you're on a climb and you see and you experience that? I mean, you know, yeah, it's terrible, but you're always sort of rationally aware of the risks involved. I mean, and this might be one of the things that separates me from some of my friends or family, let's say, because I don't know if my wife feels the same way necessarily. But, you know, I feel like I'm rationally aware of all the risks involved. And so seeing them firsthand is sobering for sure and very sad.

1:15And, like, seeing his friends is very, you know, like, they were all very inexperienced. And so, like, nobody had any idea how the accident happened or what had happened or why he's dying. Like, it was all terrible. It's terrible for the partners. And, you know, so that's, like, hard to watch. but you are sort of like this is what you've signed up to do you're like you know that this is a possibility seeing it doesn't make it any less of a possibility you know like it basically is always on you to mitigate risk as much as possible does something change in your brain or in your heart when you're i guess seeing either a bad accident or seeing someone you know lose their life is something shifting inside of you or are you just saying it's more of like a blessing and a gratitude of like okay this is I have to really make sure I prepare it's another reminder of how difficult and challenging this is.

2:00That's the thing I think you can go either way I mean I think you can either deal with those kinds of things by sort of shutting yourself off to it and like inner yourself like numb yourself to it and be like doesn't matter that whatever don't care or you can sort of let it in and be like this is really really sad and there are high consequences in this sport but I love doing this sport anyway and it's still worth it to me but I I will do my best to avoid things like that happening. Right. In some ways, I think that that second option is the slightly more responsible and sort of the more seasoned response, maybe.

2:31And I think that that's kind of where I probably am now. I think as a younger, you know, as an early 20s man, it's easier to just either shut it out or just be like, well, they made a mistake and that won't happen to me, which is like, it's not really the right call. What's the biggest loss you've had, whether it be like an emotional loss or a physical loss? You mean like loss like blow in life or loss like somebody dying? Could just be like a grieving of anything. You know, it could be a physical grieving of someone or it could be an emotional grieving of something. I don't know. I mean, there are obvious things that come to mind.

3:05Like my father died when I was 19 and grandparents have all died and family members have died. But those are kind of like normal grieving in a way where like in some ways that's the natural course of life. Like my father obviously died much younger than he should have. but it's still sort of natural in a way. You're like, you know, at some point your parents are going to die before you, hopefully. And you kind of want them to because it's better for them to die before you than for you to die before them. And so, you know, now as a parent I'm like, well, I hope I die before my daughter or daughters soon.

3:35So, I mean, that to me is sort of like natural grieving. In some ways I think accidents and climate accidents are almost harder. Even though they're, you know, in some ways more fair. It's like people are taking risks of their lives, occasionally they die. You're like, well, they made choices. I mean, that's kind of the callous way to look at it, but it's still really sad, and it's sad for the families. I've only had a couple of truly close friend climbing partners who have died in accidents. None of them were with me. But those are sad because you see the impact on the families. You're close to their friends, their families.

4:07You know their circles. Yeah, and you still think about them. You're like, oh, it would be nice to hang out with that person right now. But with climbing, I mean, there is a lot more risk. but then that also gives you more from the sport in some ways like i think some of the some of the life lessons you can take from climbing you can't necessarily get from handball i mean with all respect for handball because obviously all the lessons around like training and perseverance like those are all kind of the same but some of the like managing fear and like the different different levels yeah it's just different things yeah of course yeah you're not like managing mortal peril in the same way it's different and like grieving friends and and like being actually afraid for your life.

4:45Though it's funny because being afraid of failure or being afraid of like pressure of competition feels the same as being afraid for your life in a lot of ways. In some ways. You know, and depending on the person and depending on how neurotic they are and like how stressed they are, it can be worse.

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6:00Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.