sir robert swan

yesterday i sat in on a talk given by sir robert swan, the first and possible the last person to walk to both the south and north pole. he began the journey at the age of twenty and it took him eight years just to raise the five million dollar funds in order start the trip to the south pole. since his two trips, he's become an environmental activist inspiring students by bring them to antarctica and bring his message into their classroom. he's got a list of accomplishments that's a mile long (including being knighted by the queen).

a few points from his talk

• be proud of what you've achieved - everyone needs to be proud of something, no matter how big or small. and don't let anyone take it away from you.
• control what you can the shit hits the fan - whether you're in antarctica or at home and things go terrible wrong (like your boat that's supposed to take you back home sinks!) focus on what you can do and let go all the things you can't. focusing on all the other stuff will only stress you out.
  
• always check to see if you are still relevant - cleaning up the south pole isn't relevant to starving children in africa. adapt to remain relevant to your audience. he moved from cleaning of antarctica to AIDS education and sailing around the african continent to become more relevant to students he was trying to reach.
• work towards a sustainable inspiration - to often these days inspiration seems fleeting. something comes and goes in a blink of any eye. people jump from one thing to another with no lasting progress or improvement. find something and stick with it. better yet find an unfinished cause and help push it along, instead of creating your own.
  

for more information on sir robert swan's cause visit his website 2041. i'm debating going to antarctica.