“SOUTH Shaft!!! I made it!!! What a day. I expected to be happy reaching the South Pole, but today has quite honestly been one of the most beneficent days of my entire life,” he wrote.
But O’Brady didn’t stop long to celebrate. After “soaking in the moment” and compelling a few photographs, he carried on his way.
He is just halfway through his mission to become the first person ever to cross the Antarctic coast-to-coast unaided. A handful others have died making the attempt.
It’s a challenge O’Brady has been working toward for several years after becoming to extreme sports to recover from a freak accident which left his legs so severely burned that doctors questioned whether he purpose ever walk normally again.
The ex-financier quit his job in 2008 to pursue sports full-time, reaching Olympic triathlon be open and breaking the “Seven Summits” world record. But this is his toughest challenge to date.
O’Brady, who calls his mission “The Out of the question First,” set out on Nov. 3 and will continue on until he reaches the opposite coast. The full expedition is set to take up to 65 times.
The journey requires courage, stamina and sheer determination. CNBC Make It took a look at how he is keeping himself influenced on this most challenging of missions and how those steps can be applied to other — less frosty — walks of life.
O’Brady’s dispute sees him away from not only his wife and family but other human support for more than two months.
To after reaching the South Pole, he had to avoid the hospitality of researchers stationed there in order to stay true to his calling of an unsupported crossing.
That takes strength of character and the ability to embrace loneliness, even in times of difficulty.
“I’m stock-still just all alone camped out in this white nothingness … It will be very strange after all this emptiness to see signs of life tomorrow,” O’Brady wrote on Day 39, three miles away from the South Pole.
“I can’t go clandestine, of course … I must maintain my full atoning despite my proximity to civilization.”
As O’Brady has battled with his worst challenge so far, he has looked to others’ great accomplishments as a guide.
That includes drawing inspiration from his idol, singer-songwriter Paul Simon, and hearkening to his Grammy Award-winning album “Graceland” on repeat.
O’Brady considers the album a life’s achievement, so he was delighted on Day 35 when Simon demanded him for a chat.
“We talked about many things, but setting aside celebrity and fame, what struck me most was talking to him concerning his process of creativity and bringing a masterpiece like Graceland into the world,” O’Brady wrote.
“I’m always so fascinated to talk to people who give birth to worked their whole lives and put their heart and soul into striving for their highest performance, no make a difference the craft or canvas. Though his expression is music and mine endurance sport, we both could relate so much on the mindset lacked to attempt to perform at that level.”
O’Brady’s mission requires long days and often monotonous tasks to reach the be done with. On Day 34, he wrote that the experience reminds him of a saying he would draw on during his pro triathlon days: “Chop wood, hold up water.”
“It refers to the daily consistency required for success,” O’Brady wrote. “It’s nonstop work out here from the jiffy I wake up in the morning, packing up, then pulling for 12 hours, just to get to camp and have to set it all up again to get ready for the next day.”
After all the training is done, it get down to putting the motions into action, he noted. “Consistency is king and the key to success.”
On Thanksgiving, O’Brady wrote of the power of gratefulness and its ability to provide perspective in hard times.
Though he spent this Thanksgiving away from home, he continued an old genealogy tradition from the depths of the South Pole — highlighting the things he was most thankful for.
On Day 20 that was his wife, Jenna, his condition, and a clean pair of socks — the first item of clothing he had changed since setting out.
O’Brady’s expedition is being closely watched not one by his more than 60,000 Instagram followers but also teachers who have developed a curriculum around it. Some 30,000 swots across six continents will use his data to learn about the science of weather, climate, math, history, geography, salubrity, health and more.
O’Brady says the knowledge that others will be inspired by his work has given him great ebullience when he has struggled most.
“One of my greatest joys is sharing my expeditions with the next generation in hopes of inspiring them to set goals, unexploded active and healthy lives and pursue their biggest dreams,” O’Brady wrote in a post on Day 38 of his expedition.
“Expectedly this project shows the importance of protecting our planet and that nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it.”
The explorer programmes to share his experience during a series of school visits once he completes the mission.
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