I am a visualizer and I visualize giving
this talk and what it would feel like to
potentially embarrass myself forgetting
my words falling on stage my family
doing the wave when I came out hopefully
I didn’t happen now I can’t visualize
everything but what I can make helps me
feel more prepared for the challenges
that I might face and I first started
using this form of visualization when I
did something scary or as my colleagues
called it a potential disaster around a
marathon in Antarctica and marathoners
followed the same rule as vegans and
CrossFitters we must tell everybody that
we do it so here I am telling you about
it
and if you don’t know that history of
the sport of marathon legend has it that
a Greek messenger around to the town of
Athens Greece to tell everyone that the
Persians had been defeated he ran for 26
miles and then he collapsed and died
that’s how this sport got started and
Iran won in Antarctica and if you’ve
ever seen an article on a globe it’s the
part in white I think white stands for
cold temperatures hovered around 15
degrees Fahrenheit minus the wind chill
and I had to wear three layers of
clothes lie around so they look like
that little kid from a Christmas story
who couldn’t put down his arms and to me
I was going to have to spend more to go
to Antarctica than my car was worth but
creating meaningful experiences to me is
an investment in a life worth living
much more so than inquiring tangible
things like a luxury car to get to an
article is not easy it’s quite a feat
people always ask me how do you get
there and I had to travel it to the
bottom of Argentina and then I boarded a
boat with about a hundred runners and
then we sailed through some of the
choppy waters in the world
for three days and I suffer from extreme
seein motion sickness and to give you an
idea of how bad it is I went through the
teacups right at Disneyland and then the
staff came to me and asked me never to
so I visualized how I would deal with
the seasickness and I visualized myself
staying calm going outside to get fresh
air and carrying a vomit bag with me
always and luckily the staff on the ship
lined the hallways of hundreds of vomit
bags every morning for the end of the
night only a couple remain until I use
them but soon enough we arrived in
Antarctica and it is race day and
everyone is dehydrated which if you’ve
ever run a marathon you know that is not
the way you want to start a marathon and
we had to carry all our own nutrition
and water as there were no aid stations
on the course and we also couldn’t leave
any garbage behind to feed our
spectators on the course which were
thousands of penguins and on the course
I had to climb out the glacier twice and
with every step I took forward I ended
up falling back two steps so I locked
arms with a number of runners and we
marched our way up the glacier to add
more weight to ourselves but the
conditions of the glacier became such a
blizzard that we couldn’t see and so a
race director actually drove an ATV up
to the top of the bliz top of the
glacier spun it around turned on its
headlights and started yelling to the
which I thought sounded ironic because
that is what they tell you to do when
you die and I thought this is like the
original marathon I might die and I did
not visualize death on this race
and I watched several runners get
injured one runner breaks his hip that
has to be carted off the course at Mile
5 I fall into a sandy muddy pit and I
start to sink but luckily I am a fan of
the show man versus wild with Bear
Grylls who once demonstrated how to get
out of quicksand and I thought what a
useless skill who gets stuck in
quicksand but in my research about an
artic I realized that that is a thing
and so I visualized myself using the
skills from the show and then also my
water bottle as leverage to hoist myself
out so when I do start to sink I do not
panic and I do just that but
unfortunately I left the cap to my water
bottle open and mud gets in for the next
10 miles I am drinking mud but I was
once voted San Diego’s worst home chef
true story
and so the mud just kind of tastes like
my cooking at Mile 18 I enter an Alfred
Hitchcock movie because then our Takaya
is home to attacking Birds they attack
you and then try to eat you but I
visualize this and I anticipated it and
I visualized myself using my water
bottle as a weapon to fend themselves
off so when I do get attacked I do not
panic and I do just that at Mile 20 it
starts to rain sideways and I think how
is this even possible
like maybe gravity’s different at the
bottom of the world I don’t know I’m not
a scientist
I don’t reminded me of that scene from
Star Wars where if you remember the
Millennium Falcon goes into hyperdrive
and all the stars start to mow together
only in star wars are going really fast
and I’m going about the same pace as
that penguin next to me
and at this point the mud from the mud
pit had dried to the bottom of my shoes
and every step feels like I’m picking up
the weights but I’d visualize what it
would be like to run 26 miles and bitter
wind and how I positioned my body and
changed my stride and I’m able to do
just that and I run through the rain we
also ran past a number of research
stations and a Russian researcher comes
out with a canister of soup and I can
see the steam rising from the soup and
right now in life I want nothing more
than that soup so I offer him $1,000 for
it which I do not have that he gives me
some because some Russians can be nice
and I take a sip of that soup and it is
so spicy which is great because now I
know what the Sun tastes like and it
also burns off my taste buds which is
also great because now I can officially
eat my own cooking but despite all these
hardships 6 hours and 44 minutes later
which is not a good marathon time I
I like this photo because it shows a
runner behind me which is photographic
evidence I did not come in last place he
does look about 40 years older than I am
but I do not like to focus on that
aspect I’ve interviewed and researched
hundreds of athletes over the years and
I’ve come to realize that visualizing
obstacles is necessary for success think
back to the Winter Olympics and this
freestyle skiers who would float through
the air what would happen if a wind
gusts flew at them they’d jump or the
weather suddenly turns bad these are
things Emily cook of the United States
freestyle ski team thinks about she runs
through all the negative things that
could happen to her that way she can get
back where she needs to perform mentally
think back to the Jamaican bobsled team
which sounds like an oxymoron but it is
not that is a thing and they have to how
would they visualize going over ice if
they can if they’ve never even seen snow
they have to do the mental preparation
and they have to do a lot of research
this form of visualization has helped me
accomplish a number of my other marathon
goals including racing over an ice cap
in the Arctic Circle in Greenland
climbing almost six thousand steps at
the Great Wall of China marathon running
in a hundred plus degrees through the
desert of Jordan and out of racing Cuba
I was hit by a car and then a race in
Peru I was hit by a city bus but
visualization got me to the finish line
of every single one of those races and
some might say I created these hardships
for myself simply by visualizing them
and to those people I say you are
clearly not familiar with marathons
they are never easy people die okay
I now challenge you to shift your own
visualization technique no you can’t
visualize everything but through
research mental preparation and
experience you will feel more confident
and prepared to cross your own finish
line whatever finish line that may be
for you thank you [Applause]
this talk and what it would feel like to
potentially embarrass myself forgetting
my words falling on stage my family
doing the wave when I came out hopefully
I didn’t happen now I can’t visualize
everything but what I can make helps me
feel more prepared for the challenges
that I might face and I first started
using this form of visualization when I
did something scary or as my colleagues
called it a potential disaster around a
marathon in Antarctica and marathoners
followed the same rule as vegans and
CrossFitters we must tell everybody that
we do it so here I am telling you about
it
and if you don’t know that history of
the sport of marathon legend has it that
a Greek messenger around to the town of
Athens Greece to tell everyone that the
Persians had been defeated he ran for 26
miles and then he collapsed and died
that’s how this sport got started and
Iran won in Antarctica and if you’ve
ever seen an article on a globe it’s the
part in white I think white stands for
cold temperatures hovered around 15
degrees Fahrenheit minus the wind chill
and I had to wear three layers of
clothes lie around so they look like
that little kid from a Christmas story
who couldn’t put down his arms and to me
I was going to have to spend more to go
to Antarctica than my car was worth but
creating meaningful experiences to me is
an investment in a life worth living
much more so than inquiring tangible
things like a luxury car to get to an
article is not easy it’s quite a feat
people always ask me how do you get
there and I had to travel it to the
bottom of Argentina and then I boarded a
boat with about a hundred runners and
then we sailed through some of the
choppy waters in the world
for three days and I suffer from extreme
seein motion sickness and to give you an
idea of how bad it is I went through the
teacups right at Disneyland and then the
staff came to me and asked me never to
so I visualized how I would deal with
the seasickness and I visualized myself
staying calm going outside to get fresh
air and carrying a vomit bag with me
always and luckily the staff on the ship
lined the hallways of hundreds of vomit
bags every morning for the end of the
night only a couple remain until I use
them but soon enough we arrived in
Antarctica and it is race day and
everyone is dehydrated which if you’ve
ever run a marathon you know that is not
the way you want to start a marathon and
we had to carry all our own nutrition
and water as there were no aid stations
on the course and we also couldn’t leave
any garbage behind to feed our
spectators on the course which were
thousands of penguins and on the course
I had to climb out the glacier twice and
with every step I took forward I ended
up falling back two steps so I locked
arms with a number of runners and we
marched our way up the glacier to add
more weight to ourselves but the
conditions of the glacier became such a
blizzard that we couldn’t see and so a
race director actually drove an ATV up
to the top of the bliz top of the
glacier spun it around turned on its
headlights and started yelling to the
which I thought sounded ironic because
that is what they tell you to do when
you die and I thought this is like the
original marathon I might die and I did
not visualize death on this race
and I watched several runners get
injured one runner breaks his hip that
has to be carted off the course at Mile
5 I fall into a sandy muddy pit and I
start to sink but luckily I am a fan of
the show man versus wild with Bear
Grylls who once demonstrated how to get
out of quicksand and I thought what a
useless skill who gets stuck in
quicksand but in my research about an
artic I realized that that is a thing
and so I visualized myself using the
skills from the show and then also my
water bottle as leverage to hoist myself
out so when I do start to sink I do not
panic and I do just that but
unfortunately I left the cap to my water
bottle open and mud gets in for the next
10 miles I am drinking mud but I was
once voted San Diego’s worst home chef
true story
and so the mud just kind of tastes like
my cooking at Mile 18 I enter an Alfred
Hitchcock movie because then our Takaya
is home to attacking Birds they attack
you and then try to eat you but I
visualize this and I anticipated it and
I visualized myself using my water
bottle as a weapon to fend themselves
off so when I do get attacked I do not
panic and I do just that at Mile 20 it
starts to rain sideways and I think how
is this even possible
like maybe gravity’s different at the
bottom of the world I don’t know I’m not
a scientist
I don’t reminded me of that scene from
Star Wars where if you remember the
Millennium Falcon goes into hyperdrive
and all the stars start to mow together
only in star wars are going really fast
and I’m going about the same pace as
that penguin next to me
and at this point the mud from the mud
pit had dried to the bottom of my shoes
and every step feels like I’m picking up
the weights but I’d visualize what it
would be like to run 26 miles and bitter
wind and how I positioned my body and
changed my stride and I’m able to do
just that and I run through the rain we
also ran past a number of research
stations and a Russian researcher comes
out with a canister of soup and I can
see the steam rising from the soup and
right now in life I want nothing more
than that soup so I offer him $1,000 for
it which I do not have that he gives me
some because some Russians can be nice
and I take a sip of that soup and it is
so spicy which is great because now I
know what the Sun tastes like and it
also burns off my taste buds which is
also great because now I can officially
eat my own cooking but despite all these
hardships 6 hours and 44 minutes later
which is not a good marathon time I
I like this photo because it shows a
runner behind me which is photographic
evidence I did not come in last place he
does look about 40 years older than I am
but I do not like to focus on that
aspect I’ve interviewed and researched
hundreds of athletes over the years and
I’ve come to realize that visualizing
obstacles is necessary for success think
back to the Winter Olympics and this
freestyle skiers who would float through
the air what would happen if a wind
gusts flew at them they’d jump or the
weather suddenly turns bad these are
things Emily cook of the United States
freestyle ski team thinks about she runs
through all the negative things that
could happen to her that way she can get
back where she needs to perform mentally
think back to the Jamaican bobsled team
which sounds like an oxymoron but it is
not that is a thing and they have to how
would they visualize going over ice if
they can if they’ve never even seen snow
they have to do the mental preparation
and they have to do a lot of research
this form of visualization has helped me
accomplish a number of my other marathon
goals including racing over an ice cap
in the Arctic Circle in Greenland
climbing almost six thousand steps at
the Great Wall of China marathon running
in a hundred plus degrees through the
desert of Jordan and out of racing Cuba
I was hit by a car and then a race in
Peru I was hit by a city bus but
visualization got me to the finish line
of every single one of those races and
some might say I created these hardships
for myself simply by visualizing them
and to those people I say you are
clearly not familiar with marathons
they are never easy people die okay
I now challenge you to shift your own
visualization technique no you can’t
visualize everything but through
research mental preparation and
experience you will feel more confident
and prepared to cross your own finish
line whatever finish line that may be
for you thank you [Applause]
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