South African-Swiss explorer Mike Horn has conquered both poles and the Amazon. Here’s how he’s cultivated an imperturbable resolve. — As told to Charles Thorp

Choose Your Idols Wisely

My father was a rugby player in South Africa. I was there in the locker room for the last game he played, and watched younger players show admiration. I was just a kid, but I thought if I could live a life where people talked like that about me, I’d succeeded. He woke up to go on a run every morning at six o’clock. As soon as I could, I went with him. He never slowed his pace to make it easier for me to keep up. The only option was for me to run faster. When I hit the point where I couldn’t keep up, I’d draw a line on the pavement. The next day I’d try to beat that line. That’s where my obsession with making goals started.

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Learn to Live

My country has compulsory military service, and I was selected for the South African Special Forces. I spent two years at war, mostly fighting Russian insurgents who were crossing the border to cause terror. The mental and physical challenges of guerrilla warfare are extreme. I discovered two kinds of people—the ones who want to fight and the ones, like myself, who had a desire to survive. The will to live didn’t mean I didn’t accomplish the mission. It made me think more tactically. I brought those experiences into my adventures after, where winning the day meant coming back alive.

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Remove Doubt

During my first true expedition to navigate the Amazon River, I had an opportunity to train with the instructors at CIGS [Brazil Jungle Warfare Center]. The training was incredible, but at the end they handed me a bunch of reading material, and one of the most unnerving books described what snakes could and couldn’t kill me. I flipped through the pages and found there were poisonous and nonpoisonous species that had the same exact coloring with slight head differences. I tore out the pages with the nonpoisonous species, because when it comes to those critical moments, you don’t want to be questioning yourself. I start my expeditions in the same way, by tearing the option of failure from the pages of my mind.

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Find Your Discipline

I believe people put too much worth on finding motivation. Instead, I’ve found pursuits that draw me in, then I focus on being as disciplined as possible. It isn’t motivation that gets me out of the tent to pull a heavy sled when I’m in the Arctic where there are polar bears that can eat me. It’s discipline. Even when not on an expedition, I practice that discipline every day by getting into a tub of water that’s [35 degrees Fahrenheit] for at least 20 minutes.

Get to know Mike Horn more by reading how the explorer found his way after losing his wife, here.

By: Charles Thorp
Title: How Explorer Mike Horn Has Built the Fortitude to Thrive in Extremes
Sourced From: www.mensjournal.com/adventure/how-explorer-mike-horn-has-built-the-fortitude-to-thrive-in-extremes/
Published Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:46:42 +0000

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