Don't Wait for Someone Else to Fix It

CHAPTER NINEAchieve Purposeful Goals

For the last 40 days, polar explorer Eric Larsen and his partner Ryan Waters had been battling the most severe weather conditions they'd ever experienced. After two trips to the South Pole, a previous trip to the North Pole, and once to the summit of Mount Everest, Eric was one of the most accomplished explorers on the planet. Only 50 people in history had ever attempted what he and Ryan were determined to achieve: skiing unassisted 480 miles across the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole. Now their goal was in jeopardy. With 10 days left before they were scheduled to be airlifted from the North Pole, they still had 200 miles left to cover. The air temperature was a brutal minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Eric stared across the lunar‐like landscape, exhausted and trying to catch his breath after 8 hours of struggle, pulling his 300‐pound sled across the unforgiving ice. They were low on food and fuel. Ryan was battling worsening frostbite on his legs. In Eric's book about the expedition, On Thin Ice, he recalls that day: “The prevailing thought going over and over in my head was, why continue? Why go on? We are just going to die out here, and my son will never know who I was.” Thirteen unimaginable days later, moving across 200 miles of thin or floating ice and swimming through open water, Eric and Ryan miraculously reached the North Pole. That they succeeded against overwhelming odds is a tribute to Eric's approach to goal achievement.

SELF‐AWARENESS ...