6 Life-changing Things I Learned Walking 105 Miles Carrying 42 lbs of Water

First, a brief overview before I dive into one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.

The challenge was to walk 105 miles (the average distance women and children walk to get water each month) carrying 5 gallons (42 lbs - which represents the average amount they carry on each journey).

My goal was to raise $50,000 to help generate awareness and funds for people in need to gain access to safe water in Partnership with the non-profit Vivid Roots Collective.

I completed the challenge in 4.5 days and we raised $78,000+ which will help roughly 2,000 people gain access to clean water for the rest of their life.

I share this because I’m a normal person with fears about the future of our world, but I’m also sick of the bad news getting the most real estate in my mind and in the collective mind of our society.

We are not helpless, we can create change.

1) To make a change our feet must move faster than our mouths.

Have you posted on social, shared something, or complained to a friend about some issue facing our world? I have to.

But as I analyzed what my words were actually achieving, I realized I was just part of the noise.

To make a change, we must move our feet... Google organizations that are doing great work, call them up and see how you can help.

GET INVOLVED and don’t just stand on the sideline talking.

2) The fastest way to align your mind, body & soul is to do something physically challenging for an extended period of time.

I could write pages on this one but for sake of time, I’ll summarize. Your soul should set your path, it knows best what the target is and if it’s worth pursuing. Your soul is strong and does not waiver like your mind and your body.

Your mind will create reasons (excuses) why quitting is fine, and it’s a good idea. If you don’t listen it will start talking to your body, and your body will create ailments, so now you really think it's a good idea to stop.

But if you keep going, a few hours later, the ailments will fall away, and your mind will quiet.

Your body and mind will fall in line with your soul.

3) Spring always follows winter

So when things get tough, just remember, everything in life comes in seasons and the beautiful spring always follows a cold, dark winter.

4) Relentless forward motion

After the refreshing spring, the blistering heat of summer will come. Your mind and body will begin to disagree with the soul, but you must not give in. Just keep moving forward, even if it’s super slow. Never stop moving forward.

5) Prime your Reticular Activation System (RAS)

The RAS is a bundle of nerves at our brain stem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through.

The RAS is the reason you always see the car you drive (or want to drive) everywhere. Or you start hearing a new word you learned all the time.

The RAS sifts through data and presents only the pieces that are important to you.

Why does this matter? Because if we prime our brain for the bad stuff... guess what we will see the most of? Yep. Bad stuff.

During a challenge, we want to prime our brains for wins and things that will give us encouragement to hit our goal or target.

Of course, there are going to be hard times. That’s par for the course. It is called a challenge after all.

Whether it’s an endurance challenge or life, priming our RTA for “the good stuff” will serve us better if we are trying to reach a goal or live a more positive and joyful life.

6) Align yourself with people who believe in you

I’m fortunate to have an incredible wife who has supported my crazy ideas. That alone makes challenges like this a million times easier.

Beyond the people whom you KNOW are in your corner, when you set out to accomplish something challenging, that’s bigger than yourself, you’d be amazed at how many people are in your corner.

I know I was.

I came up with this idea because I was tired of doing nothing and I couldn’t sleep one night.

As I began to piece the idea together I started talking to people about it.

Most of the time I got something along the lines of “Woah, that’s crazy” and it didn’t go much further.

But along the way, I met people who just assumed I was going to do it, we would talk logistics, training, and mindset.

When I spoke with these people, there was no “if” or doubt, just ideas for how to complete it successfully.

When I first started talking about it, I wasn't sure if I could do it. So I called my friend and trainer Marshall.

He never once questioned the possibility of me completing this. His belief inspired belief in me.

The world is a wild place, especially in the past few years. My hope is that we can see the light and the opportunities to make it better.

I hope we can find gratitude and joy in the service of one another.

I hope we can TAKE ACTION on what’s important to us and that our feet can move faster than our mouths.

Action inspires action.

We are not helpless, we can make a change.