[Music]
so it was in the middle of the night
pitch pitch black and in those
situations where the moon and the stars
are completely covered by thick clouds
we’ve got nothing that we can see apart
from what I had like our head torches
are shining through but we’re in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean and when
you’re in that scenario out by ourselves
just four of us on a boat two of us out
on the oars and it’s pitch pitch black
you can’t see the waves coming towards
you you can’t see the 40-foot waves that
are twice the size of this room towering
above you until the last minute when all
you can see is this wall of water about
to crash on top of you and you suddenly
get that adrenaline that that pit of
your stomach where you first second you
you hold your breath because you don’t
know if this is the wave that’s gonna
throw you off your seat and throw you
into the middle of the Pacific Ocean
it’s the one thing that as an ocean
rower you’re always so scared about
being thrown overboard and being lost at
sea and thankfully that didn’t happen so
I’m talking to you today but it’s one of
my biggest fears was one of my biggest
fears cuz I don’t plan to run ocean ever
again in my life but that being said
what we set out to do was to set two
World Records being the first all-female
crew and the first ever Falls crew to
row across the Pacific Ocean it took us
two hundred and fifty seven days at sea
we only thought it was going to take us
about six months in end it took us nine
months and during that time we went
through a huge amount of ups and downs
but the biggest one that I would start
off with is actually just ten days in
ten days into 257 days at sea and I face
the biggest barrier I had out of the
whole trip ten days in we were 500 miles
offshore and 500 miles offshore during
that time we’d already experienced two
massive tropical storms and as I said
four 40-foot waves they even the
corniche coastline in a force nine gale
couldn’t prepare me for and during that
time I had ten days solidly of
seasickness where I couldn’t keep food
down I couldn’t keep
two down and each time I just had to
keep getting back up and getting on the
oars during that time we got thrown off
our seats and to top it all off at ten
days just ten days into this trip I went
and checked the hatches and where the
batteries were kept it was full of water
and for most of you I’m sure you’re
aware water electricity don’t really mix
too well and certainly when you’re out
in the middle of the Pacific with no
other support the last thing you want is
to then have a small fire on the boat
and that’s exactly what we were faced
with ten days in now the thing is you
might think that you know come on you
can get through that you’re only ten
days into this journey but the problem
for me was that I wasn’t just ten days
in I was four years and ten days into
this trip I’d actually overcome a huge
amount of barriers just to get to the
start line and that’s often what you
don’t see in expeditions it’s getting to
the start line is one of the biggest
barriers you sometimes have to face
especially in expeditions I thought I
was naive enough to think I would get
this row off the ground in just a year I
thought wow how hard can it be I’ve just
got to learn to row because I wasn’t a
rower I’ve just got to get fit I’ve got
to eat a lot because I need to put on
thirty percent body fat and at the end
of the day I need to just find 250 grand
from a sponsor and build a boat I can’t
be that difficult commit but you know
what all of these were completely new
things to me though and I wanted to be
put myself into that position to see
actually can you whatever age you are
can you adapt to any given situation if
you’ve got an open mind can you learn
new skills could I learn to actually set
up a business in the end can I learn to
put a team together can I overcome these
barriers I was faced with and in the end
it took four years it took three years
of postponements each year after year
not knowing it was going to happen it
took a number of sponsors turning me
down and that sense of failure when I
walked away and I didn’t have the two
hundred fifty thousand pound budget it
took over eight crew members to come and
go and then finally for me to find my
team that I could work with and that
made this a successful journey but those
barriers that I continued to overcome
and constant people saying to me you
know what Laura it’s not working out
really you know if you thought about
just
this in but in the pit of my stomach I
knew that one day there was gonna be a
team of four women at some point in my
life that would achieve this would
achieve rowing across the ocean and I
kept on saying to myself why why can’t I
make this work and because I asked
myself that question constantly and that
was my goal I set out to I had to adapt
each year that I’ve postponed it I had
to think well that didn’t work this time
so what can I do differently to make it
work next time and that didn’t work so
what else can I do what skills can I
learn and so fast forward to those ten
days in and I’m bobbing around in the
ocean and at this point I’m thinking to
myself you know it’s just the first time
I’ve got a sense of doubt this is the
first time out of this whole four year
and ten days sort of thing that I
actually think you know what maybe the
odds are starting to stack up against me
maybe I should really consider that this
isn’t going to happen are we gonna have
to give up because at the end of the day
you know we had flooding on the boat and
we had a fire on the boat so those were
pretty big things to warrant that we
would have to pull the pin but at the
end of day nobody was there to help us
we had to sort ourselves out so we had
to decide where we gonna continue
forwards rowing in the dark not a no way
of communicating back home no way of
sort of telling other ships that we were
there was that the safest of options we
still had two thousand miles to go to
get to Hawaii and so we did make the
decision that we were going to turn back
into land but then we had the decision
of well is that it do we turn back in
row another five hundred miles to Santa
Barbara and we just get off the boat and
then we call it quits or do we fix the
boat get back in the boat rear oh that
500 miles and get started again and that
was the position that I was in and in
essence you know what decision would you
make this isn’t 10 days in this is four
years and ten days would you have given
up at that point we did get back in that
boat thankfully and I’m so glad that we
did and we overcame that hurdle but
people asked me how did I overcome that
what was it that changed my mind from
that sense of doubt and there are a
number of reasons having worked with a
sports psychologist for a number of
years he’s very much taught me to
control the controllables when things
are taken out of your control
nothing you can do about it if you’ve
controlled and you’ve done everything in
your power in your best to be able to
achieve what you set out to achieve and
something still happens it’s out of your
control with him fair enough you can
never leave yourself with that question
of well what if I had actually done this
what if I had seen it from a different
way you don’t leave yourself with that
question of what if and he taught me
that you need to adapt in different
scenarios when you finally do see that
that’s your new pathway adapt to that
new pathway and make it your own and
enjoy that journey and to be honest with
this that turned me around because we
were part of a team and I had a group of
girls around me that actually they
helped me to see that instead of see in
that first 10 days as a big disaster we
actually ended up seeing it is well
that’s just given us the best experience
ever so when we restart from Santa
Barbara we’re now experienced rowers
what else can the ocean throw at us
although it did still throw some other
things our way but that being said we
were able to then be a bit more prepared
and a bit more understanding of what
difficulties we were gonna face and
suddenly you feel a lot more relaxed
because we thrown ourselves into the
unknown now coming back to that team
scenario what if I was out there as a
soloist would I have actually made that
decision to get back in the boat I don’t
know to be perfectly honest until you’re
in that situation you don’t know any of
us what we would do and what you choose
to do but what I do know is I’ve just
returned from having supported Marc
Beaumont who was a solo cyclist having
cycled around the world and he’s just
set the world record for having cycled
around the world 18,000 miles in less
than 80 days he overcame a huge amount
of barriers of people saying it’s not
possible there’s no way you’re gonna be
able to psych around the world in 80
days there’s no way you’re going to be
able to cycle 240 miles a day 16 hours a
day in that saddle how is your body
gonna hold up to that how are you
mentally gonna be able to hold up that
it’s not possible it’s not been done
before so don’t even bother trying he
didn’t believe that he’s a solo cyclist
that has been a solo cyclist for his
whole life since the age of 12 he cycled
across Scotland late teens he psych with
the length of Britain early twenties he
cycled around the world
our soloist and set the record back then
and then going on from that he’s like
with the length of Americas he cycled
the length of Africa second setting the
world record for that all of this was
building up to the point of building his
belief his confidence so that when he
did decide to cycle around the world in
the fastest way possible finally with a
support team with me behind him trying
to help him physically to adapt the
sitting in that saddle for 16 hours a
day
he’d set himself up to achieve this goal
and he had that strength and that belief
that he would be able to do it against
all odds and against what everybody else
was saying to him but even he somebody
it’s very resilient very strong even he
had his ups and downs he had his
barriers day9 was his hiccup just like
as was on day ten day nine his whole
project was nearly thrown away because
he hit a pothole and when he hit that
pothole he went flying forwards nothing
we could do about it and he slammed his
hand down in his head hit the hit the
floor his face hit the floor he
fractured his elbow at that point and he
smashed his tooth and as a physio I
suddenly had to do some dentistry work
which definitely was an adaptation I had
to do not what they teach you in
university that’s for sure but for him
you know he had to overcome that huge
trauma that’s what’s just happened was
he gonna start to question did he have
senses of doubt am I going to be able to
continue with this journey the
sacrifices that he’s made the wife that
he’s left at home with his two kids
there the sponsors that have financially
given him all the backing and the risk
to allow him to do this journey was he
about to turn that all in and say no not
a chance
unless I said to him that that elbow was
fractured badly enough that he wouldn’t
be safe to ride his bike he was going to
continue and within 30 minutes he was
back on that bike yes a bit shaken up
yes in a lot of pain but he still
cracked on and he overcame another two
accidents he had three accidents over
the course of the whole trip he had
umpteen ups and downs from a mental
perspective of what he had to overcome
sickness chest infections all sorts of
stuff but that was just physical it was
the mental difficulties that he faced
but he still adapted and he overcame
now the thing with this is that both
Marc’s expedition and my expedition of
rowing the ocean we were there by choice
we’d set ourselves this goal this plan
we knew that we were going to have
barriers to get there but the end of the
day we have this goal that we wanted to
get to and in life we all get thrown
some barriers and some curveballs and
unfortunately for some those can be
bigger than others and those curveballs
can be the very thing that really
changes our whole life plan having
worked in Paralympic sport for over ten
years and worked in trauma as a
physiotherapist I’ve seen unfortunately
some people go through some severe
adversity in their times through illness
or injury but working in Paralympic
sport it always made me question when I
see people having like these two here
you’ve got Dave Henson on the right who
was blown up by a bomb when he was in
the army he lost both of his legs and
other severe injuries and then you’ve
got talent a fella Cornishmen who
unfortunately died motorbike accident
and became paralyzed from the chest down
Woods now has only got use of his arms
and his head and neck now both of these
have gone on to achieve amazing things
both of Paralympians talent in Vancouver
2010 that you can see there and break
with Dave I was in Rio this year now
they could have woken up and I’m sure
they still have these doubts but they
could have woken up and chosen to give
up in life but they didn’t they chose to
make the most of it they chose that
actually they were they were lucky to
still be alive and for them they
suddenly had to adapt to a new way of
life it wasn’t what they had planned but
this is what they’ve been given and
they’re lucky to still be alive
and for me working with those people
that’s always made me question why do we
have to wait for adversity to come to us
to make us realize how lucky we are to
make us realise what the opportunities
we have to face why do we have to wait
for that illness or injury to wake us up
we all know those stories of when people
are unfortunately given just 3-4 months
to live and they suddenly think you know
what I’m going to do all the things I
wanted to do in the next three months
why is it taken for them to
unfortunately be given their diagnosis
of cancer – to wake them up to say
go and do what you want to do why do we
not see that as healthy living be beings
now why do we not challenge ourselves
more why do we not adapt and open up our
doors to the opportunities that we’re
faced with and the thing that I see is
that we’ve all got that skillset in us
we are all able to be adaptable in any
given situation I chose to row the ocean
because I wanted to see at the age of 30
when I did it like what was I able to
learn a new skill pick up new skills
overcome things that completely out of
my comfort zone could I be adaptable and
is that the skill set that enabled me to
do that the skill that I see across all
of these guys was that it was
adaptability that enables you to kind of
be able to see things in a new light and
that to me is like being able to adjust
to those new conditions new situations
whatever you want to see we’ve all got
it in us because look at it this way I
know friends of mine but you know they
used to love eight hours of sleep a
night they used to love doing what they
wanted to do and yet they then are
chosen to have a family they then had
chosen to be in that situation and
suddenly they’re now having to adapt to
sleepless nights having to adapt to a
life path that’s not about them it’s
about their child but they’re still
fully happy but they’ve naturally
adapted because it’s a choice that they
made so if we can be adaptable when we
make our own choices why can we also not
be adaptable when we get thrown a
curveball because in essence
adaptability is in our DNA we were born
to be adaptable because actually our
ancestry adapted to in order to survive
but on top of that think of it this way
it’s in our physiology as well we
adapted when we get injections vaccines
our body adapts to that vaccine it
builds us antibodies we can adapt when
we have a family we can build new
pathways so it’s within us to be able to
change our path to change where we’re
going and for me what I would say is
that you know it’s not about rowing an
ocean it’s not about cycling the world
in order for you to see what’s out there
what’s available but I
say to you is just ask yourself the
question when you’re faced with those
barriers instead of walking away just
see other other ways around it other
ways over it or through it
have you made sure that there’s no stone
that’s left unturned if you really given
it your hundred percent could you say to
yourself in a few years time you know
what if only what if I take in that
pathway or this pathway because if you
rewind and at that point in time if you
say to yourself okay what if this or
what if that how are you what’s the one
that you’re going to regret are you
going to have any regrets because that
to me is the key question never leave
yourself with that question of what if
so there’s three takeaway points for me
one is that I’ve learnt from doing the
row and seeing these people go through
severe adversity is the key thing for me
is don’t allow yourself to have a choice
to give up don’t even put it on the
table and when you are given that life
pathway you face a barrier try
adaptability see if you can see a way
around it away over it different a
different pathway and the third thing is
never leave yourself with the question
what if thank you very much
[Applause]
so it was in the middle of the night
pitch pitch black and in those
situations where the moon and the stars
are completely covered by thick clouds
we’ve got nothing that we can see apart
from what I had like our head torches
are shining through but we’re in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean and when
you’re in that scenario out by ourselves
just four of us on a boat two of us out
on the oars and it’s pitch pitch black
you can’t see the waves coming towards
you you can’t see the 40-foot waves that
are twice the size of this room towering
above you until the last minute when all
you can see is this wall of water about
to crash on top of you and you suddenly
get that adrenaline that that pit of
your stomach where you first second you
you hold your breath because you don’t
know if this is the wave that’s gonna
throw you off your seat and throw you
into the middle of the Pacific Ocean
it’s the one thing that as an ocean
rower you’re always so scared about
being thrown overboard and being lost at
sea and thankfully that didn’t happen so
I’m talking to you today but it’s one of
my biggest fears was one of my biggest
fears cuz I don’t plan to run ocean ever
again in my life but that being said
what we set out to do was to set two
World Records being the first all-female
crew and the first ever Falls crew to
row across the Pacific Ocean it took us
two hundred and fifty seven days at sea
we only thought it was going to take us
about six months in end it took us nine
months and during that time we went
through a huge amount of ups and downs
but the biggest one that I would start
off with is actually just ten days in
ten days into 257 days at sea and I face
the biggest barrier I had out of the
whole trip ten days in we were 500 miles
offshore and 500 miles offshore during
that time we’d already experienced two
massive tropical storms and as I said
four 40-foot waves they even the
corniche coastline in a force nine gale
couldn’t prepare me for and during that
time I had ten days solidly of
seasickness where I couldn’t keep food
down I couldn’t keep
two down and each time I just had to
keep getting back up and getting on the
oars during that time we got thrown off
our seats and to top it all off at ten
days just ten days into this trip I went
and checked the hatches and where the
batteries were kept it was full of water
and for most of you I’m sure you’re
aware water electricity don’t really mix
too well and certainly when you’re out
in the middle of the Pacific with no
other support the last thing you want is
to then have a small fire on the boat
and that’s exactly what we were faced
with ten days in now the thing is you
might think that you know come on you
can get through that you’re only ten
days into this journey but the problem
for me was that I wasn’t just ten days
in I was four years and ten days into
this trip I’d actually overcome a huge
amount of barriers just to get to the
start line and that’s often what you
don’t see in expeditions it’s getting to
the start line is one of the biggest
barriers you sometimes have to face
especially in expeditions I thought I
was naive enough to think I would get
this row off the ground in just a year I
thought wow how hard can it be I’ve just
got to learn to row because I wasn’t a
rower I’ve just got to get fit I’ve got
to eat a lot because I need to put on
thirty percent body fat and at the end
of the day I need to just find 250 grand
from a sponsor and build a boat I can’t
be that difficult commit but you know
what all of these were completely new
things to me though and I wanted to be
put myself into that position to see
actually can you whatever age you are
can you adapt to any given situation if
you’ve got an open mind can you learn
new skills could I learn to actually set
up a business in the end can I learn to
put a team together can I overcome these
barriers I was faced with and in the end
it took four years it took three years
of postponements each year after year
not knowing it was going to happen it
took a number of sponsors turning me
down and that sense of failure when I
walked away and I didn’t have the two
hundred fifty thousand pound budget it
took over eight crew members to come and
go and then finally for me to find my
team that I could work with and that
made this a successful journey but those
barriers that I continued to overcome
and constant people saying to me you
know what Laura it’s not working out
really you know if you thought about
just
this in but in the pit of my stomach I
knew that one day there was gonna be a
team of four women at some point in my
life that would achieve this would
achieve rowing across the ocean and I
kept on saying to myself why why can’t I
make this work and because I asked
myself that question constantly and that
was my goal I set out to I had to adapt
each year that I’ve postponed it I had
to think well that didn’t work this time
so what can I do differently to make it
work next time and that didn’t work so
what else can I do what skills can I
learn and so fast forward to those ten
days in and I’m bobbing around in the
ocean and at this point I’m thinking to
myself you know it’s just the first time
I’ve got a sense of doubt this is the
first time out of this whole four year
and ten days sort of thing that I
actually think you know what maybe the
odds are starting to stack up against me
maybe I should really consider that this
isn’t going to happen are we gonna have
to give up because at the end of the day
you know we had flooding on the boat and
we had a fire on the boat so those were
pretty big things to warrant that we
would have to pull the pin but at the
end of day nobody was there to help us
we had to sort ourselves out so we had
to decide where we gonna continue
forwards rowing in the dark not a no way
of communicating back home no way of
sort of telling other ships that we were
there was that the safest of options we
still had two thousand miles to go to
get to Hawaii and so we did make the
decision that we were going to turn back
into land but then we had the decision
of well is that it do we turn back in
row another five hundred miles to Santa
Barbara and we just get off the boat and
then we call it quits or do we fix the
boat get back in the boat rear oh that
500 miles and get started again and that
was the position that I was in and in
essence you know what decision would you
make this isn’t 10 days in this is four
years and ten days would you have given
up at that point we did get back in that
boat thankfully and I’m so glad that we
did and we overcame that hurdle but
people asked me how did I overcome that
what was it that changed my mind from
that sense of doubt and there are a
number of reasons having worked with a
sports psychologist for a number of
years he’s very much taught me to
control the controllables when things
are taken out of your control
nothing you can do about it if you’ve
controlled and you’ve done everything in
your power in your best to be able to
achieve what you set out to achieve and
something still happens it’s out of your
control with him fair enough you can
never leave yourself with that question
of well what if I had actually done this
what if I had seen it from a different
way you don’t leave yourself with that
question of what if and he taught me
that you need to adapt in different
scenarios when you finally do see that
that’s your new pathway adapt to that
new pathway and make it your own and
enjoy that journey and to be honest with
this that turned me around because we
were part of a team and I had a group of
girls around me that actually they
helped me to see that instead of see in
that first 10 days as a big disaster we
actually ended up seeing it is well
that’s just given us the best experience
ever so when we restart from Santa
Barbara we’re now experienced rowers
what else can the ocean throw at us
although it did still throw some other
things our way but that being said we
were able to then be a bit more prepared
and a bit more understanding of what
difficulties we were gonna face and
suddenly you feel a lot more relaxed
because we thrown ourselves into the
unknown now coming back to that team
scenario what if I was out there as a
soloist would I have actually made that
decision to get back in the boat I don’t
know to be perfectly honest until you’re
in that situation you don’t know any of
us what we would do and what you choose
to do but what I do know is I’ve just
returned from having supported Marc
Beaumont who was a solo cyclist having
cycled around the world and he’s just
set the world record for having cycled
around the world 18,000 miles in less
than 80 days he overcame a huge amount
of barriers of people saying it’s not
possible there’s no way you’re gonna be
able to psych around the world in 80
days there’s no way you’re going to be
able to cycle 240 miles a day 16 hours a
day in that saddle how is your body
gonna hold up to that how are you
mentally gonna be able to hold up that
it’s not possible it’s not been done
before so don’t even bother trying he
didn’t believe that he’s a solo cyclist
that has been a solo cyclist for his
whole life since the age of 12 he cycled
across Scotland late teens he psych with
the length of Britain early twenties he
cycled around the world
our soloist and set the record back then
and then going on from that he’s like
with the length of Americas he cycled
the length of Africa second setting the
world record for that all of this was
building up to the point of building his
belief his confidence so that when he
did decide to cycle around the world in
the fastest way possible finally with a
support team with me behind him trying
to help him physically to adapt the
sitting in that saddle for 16 hours a
day
he’d set himself up to achieve this goal
and he had that strength and that belief
that he would be able to do it against
all odds and against what everybody else
was saying to him but even he somebody
it’s very resilient very strong even he
had his ups and downs he had his
barriers day9 was his hiccup just like
as was on day ten day nine his whole
project was nearly thrown away because
he hit a pothole and when he hit that
pothole he went flying forwards nothing
we could do about it and he slammed his
hand down in his head hit the hit the
floor his face hit the floor he
fractured his elbow at that point and he
smashed his tooth and as a physio I
suddenly had to do some dentistry work
which definitely was an adaptation I had
to do not what they teach you in
university that’s for sure but for him
you know he had to overcome that huge
trauma that’s what’s just happened was
he gonna start to question did he have
senses of doubt am I going to be able to
continue with this journey the
sacrifices that he’s made the wife that
he’s left at home with his two kids
there the sponsors that have financially
given him all the backing and the risk
to allow him to do this journey was he
about to turn that all in and say no not
a chance
unless I said to him that that elbow was
fractured badly enough that he wouldn’t
be safe to ride his bike he was going to
continue and within 30 minutes he was
back on that bike yes a bit shaken up
yes in a lot of pain but he still
cracked on and he overcame another two
accidents he had three accidents over
the course of the whole trip he had
umpteen ups and downs from a mental
perspective of what he had to overcome
sickness chest infections all sorts of
stuff but that was just physical it was
the mental difficulties that he faced
but he still adapted and he overcame
now the thing with this is that both
Marc’s expedition and my expedition of
rowing the ocean we were there by choice
we’d set ourselves this goal this plan
we knew that we were going to have
barriers to get there but the end of the
day we have this goal that we wanted to
get to and in life we all get thrown
some barriers and some curveballs and
unfortunately for some those can be
bigger than others and those curveballs
can be the very thing that really
changes our whole life plan having
worked in Paralympic sport for over ten
years and worked in trauma as a
physiotherapist I’ve seen unfortunately
some people go through some severe
adversity in their times through illness
or injury but working in Paralympic
sport it always made me question when I
see people having like these two here
you’ve got Dave Henson on the right who
was blown up by a bomb when he was in
the army he lost both of his legs and
other severe injuries and then you’ve
got talent a fella Cornishmen who
unfortunately died motorbike accident
and became paralyzed from the chest down
Woods now has only got use of his arms
and his head and neck now both of these
have gone on to achieve amazing things
both of Paralympians talent in Vancouver
2010 that you can see there and break
with Dave I was in Rio this year now
they could have woken up and I’m sure
they still have these doubts but they
could have woken up and chosen to give
up in life but they didn’t they chose to
make the most of it they chose that
actually they were they were lucky to
still be alive and for them they
suddenly had to adapt to a new way of
life it wasn’t what they had planned but
this is what they’ve been given and
they’re lucky to still be alive
and for me working with those people
that’s always made me question why do we
have to wait for adversity to come to us
to make us realize how lucky we are to
make us realise what the opportunities
we have to face why do we have to wait
for that illness or injury to wake us up
we all know those stories of when people
are unfortunately given just 3-4 months
to live and they suddenly think you know
what I’m going to do all the things I
wanted to do in the next three months
why is it taken for them to
unfortunately be given their diagnosis
of cancer – to wake them up to say
go and do what you want to do why do we
not see that as healthy living be beings
now why do we not challenge ourselves
more why do we not adapt and open up our
doors to the opportunities that we’re
faced with and the thing that I see is
that we’ve all got that skillset in us
we are all able to be adaptable in any
given situation I chose to row the ocean
because I wanted to see at the age of 30
when I did it like what was I able to
learn a new skill pick up new skills
overcome things that completely out of
my comfort zone could I be adaptable and
is that the skill set that enabled me to
do that the skill that I see across all
of these guys was that it was
adaptability that enables you to kind of
be able to see things in a new light and
that to me is like being able to adjust
to those new conditions new situations
whatever you want to see we’ve all got
it in us because look at it this way I
know friends of mine but you know they
used to love eight hours of sleep a
night they used to love doing what they
wanted to do and yet they then are
chosen to have a family they then had
chosen to be in that situation and
suddenly they’re now having to adapt to
sleepless nights having to adapt to a
life path that’s not about them it’s
about their child but they’re still
fully happy but they’ve naturally
adapted because it’s a choice that they
made so if we can be adaptable when we
make our own choices why can we also not
be adaptable when we get thrown a
curveball because in essence
adaptability is in our DNA we were born
to be adaptable because actually our
ancestry adapted to in order to survive
but on top of that think of it this way
it’s in our physiology as well we
adapted when we get injections vaccines
our body adapts to that vaccine it
builds us antibodies we can adapt when
we have a family we can build new
pathways so it’s within us to be able to
change our path to change where we’re
going and for me what I would say is
that you know it’s not about rowing an
ocean it’s not about cycling the world
in order for you to see what’s out there
what’s available but I
say to you is just ask yourself the
question when you’re faced with those
barriers instead of walking away just
see other other ways around it other
ways over it or through it
have you made sure that there’s no stone
that’s left unturned if you really given
it your hundred percent could you say to
yourself in a few years time you know
what if only what if I take in that
pathway or this pathway because if you
rewind and at that point in time if you
say to yourself okay what if this or
what if that how are you what’s the one
that you’re going to regret are you
going to have any regrets because that
to me is the key question never leave
yourself with that question of what if
so there’s three takeaway points for me
one is that I’ve learnt from doing the
row and seeing these people go through
severe adversity is the key thing for me
is don’t allow yourself to have a choice
to give up don’t even put it on the
table and when you are given that life
pathway you face a barrier try
adaptability see if you can see a way
around it away over it different a
different pathway and the third thing is
never leave yourself with the question
what if thank you very much
[Applause]
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