Adventure should be 80 percent ‘I think this is manageable,’ but it’s good to have that last 20 percent where you’re right outside your comfort zone. Still safe, but outside your comfort zone.
Many great people over the centuries have depended on their faith- it is a sign of great strength to need Jesus in your life.
You can’t become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times. There’s life in a nutshell.
Americans are cool; if you show just a chink of vulnerability, they respond so much. They’ll pat you on the arm and say, ‘Hey kid, you’re all right.’ Brits will respond but they are much more cynical.
I loved climbing because of the freedom, and having time and space. I remember coming off Everest for the last time, thinking of Dad and wishing that he could have seen what I saw. He would have loved it.
My work is all about adventure and teamwork in some of the most inhospitable jungles, mountains and deserts on the planet. If you aren’t able to look after yourself and each other, then people die.
Nobody wants to end up super rich and famous – but divorced. I’m always clear on that and try to stay on the right side of the line.
My faith is an important part of my life and over the years I’ve learnt that it takes a proud man to say he doesn’t need anything. It has been a quiet strength and a backbone through a lot of difficult times.
One killer exercise that’s really great is pull-ups with your legs out level. That’s my favourite. It’s such functional core strength, and that’s why I can climb up trees and down vines.
My faith isn’t very churchy, it’s a pretty personal, intimate thing and has been a huge source of strength in moments of life and death.
Christianity is not about religion. It’s about faith, about being held, about being forgiven. It’s about finding joy and finding home.
You only get one chance at life and you have to grab it boldly.
Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.
You’re not human if you don’t feel fear. But I’ve learnt to treat fear as an emotion that sharpens me. It’s there to give me that edge for what I have to do.
As for my diet, I try to eat lean, clean and healthy – nothing too surprising. And I avoid too much meat or dairy because they slow you down.
Some of the greatest survivors have been women. Look at the courage so many women have shown after surviving earthquakes in the rubble for days on end.
And Jesus, the heart of the Christian faith is the wildest, most radical guy you’d ever come across.
In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.
The rules of survival never change, whether you’re in a desert or in an arena.
Survival requires us to leave our prejudices at home. It’s about doing whatever it takes – and ultimately those with the biggest heart will win.
I try and eat really healthy when I’m home, but I certainly don’t eat worms and snakes.
I come from a line of self-motivated, determined folk – not grand, not high society, but no-nonsense, family-minded go-getters.