Today’s guest is Andy Torbet.
Andy is a professional cave diver, freediver, skydiver, and climber. This has led him into a world of exploration, TV Presenting, and as Stunt Performer.
In this interview, we discuss:
Overcoming fear. The need for and how to train for challenges in your life. How to build resilience in your own life. And so much more.
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on
Let your skills and actions define who you are and not your job title. There are adventures all around us, you don't need to go far to find challenges. Use sites like Meetup.com to find groups who go snorkeling, climbing, diving etc. You need to find challenges in your life, and work through them, to build resilience in your life, and realize how the hard times shape you, educate you, and evolve you to be a better person. Risks should be managed and controlled. You need to identify risks and threats and look at how these can be planned for, prepped for, and controlled as much as possible. You can never 100% reduce all risks and threats but you can mitigate the risks down where possible using planning, equipment, and checks. Andy assumes that his equipment will fail, which is never has, but always considers it will so incorporate backup options just in case, and can feel more confident that if something bad does happen he has options to use to keep safe. Once you understand the problem or risk, and what you can do about it to reduce the risks, and understand how dangerous something actually is and not what it appears to be, you can manage the fear as you have an understanding of the situation and task and not what your caveman fear is trying to tell you it is - "Knowledge dispels fear!" You feel fear to try and keep you safe, but your sense of fear doesn't know the true scenario, the checks, and balances that have been put in place to help, fear wants to keep you away from all bad situations but "fear is always on your side, but not always right". At the height of fear, you need to stop and relax, keep calm and think and observe the situation and look for a solution and not let your caveman fear run away with you and panic. Don't worry about what else is to come, look at dealing with the problem in front, reign yourself in, look at the solution, fixes etc, and manage the goal in front of you and what is to come. Andy sometimes wishes he could stop and look back at all he has done and take stock and feel greatful for it. Use your successes when you can overcome fear etc, and look back at the situation, journal about it, think about it, and look at how much you have changed and grown from the situation. Appreciate how much it has expanded your comfort zone and now the next time you are doing something fearful or dangerous, you have a new expanded comfort zone limit and your previous experiences to lean on to not panic and reign yourself in and act more effectively. Sometimes looking at what you have to do to survive is enough, use your priorities and responsibilities to overrule your sense of fear that is trying to help but might actually be holding you back. The more you experience hardships, the more resilient you will become as a person. Exposing kids to controlled risks will help them develop the skill of resilience as they grow and help them in their future life. There are no shortcuts, all paths to experience will teach you and help you learn, even if you are going down the wrong path. You should train one level up - so if something bad happens, you can fall back to your level of training and competency and not the situation. This means if you are planning to dive only to 30 meters, for example, you should train to go to 50 meters, so you always rise to the level of your training and not the level of your fear. Sometimes having too much confidence and experience can be the most dangerous place to be in. "Never underestimate your own ability to be a fucking idiot!". Use pre-checks, checks from others, double-check tanks, buckles etc, reduce chances for anything to go wrong where possible. Focusing on or helping others, can be the focus you need to reduce how you are personally feeling and allow you to focus elsewhere and overcome the sense of fear. Build a general level of fitness so that you can rely on your body when you need a help, boost, to escape etc. What works for one person in terms of diet and exercise, will not necessarily work for another. Trial different methods of exercise, diet and lifestyle and find out what works best for you. Most people will panic and be stressed during troubling and scary times - expect it and rise above it, be the leader you need in the situation and not part of the problem!