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On this episode of the active CEO Podcast, Craig Johns has a conversation with Natalia Cohen about choosing how we feel, what it takes to row across the Pacific Ocean, lessons taken from overcoming major challenges and embracing the uncomfortable. We discuss strategies on how to minimise conflict, the power of the mind and what it takes to achieve your dreams and goals.
Background
Natalia Cohen is an incredibly resilient, tenacious, ground-breaking and pioneering lady, who has defined logic by purposefully losing sight of shore.
When most people are looking for a goal to challenge themselves physically, mentally and spiritually, they decide to run a marathon, do a triathlon or visit a new country, not this young lady, she decided to row across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Cairns with 3 (plus 2 who would join later in the adventure) other people she did not know. Yes you heard that right! That’s 257 days or 9 months at sea, covering 8759 nautical miles with a stopover at Honolulu, Hawaii and Apia, Samoa.
Known forher nomadic approach to life, she has now lived in 60 countries, working in thetravel and tourism industries. From Tanzania to Peru, she has seen the world,but nothing like the beauty, power, isolation and serenity of the vastness ofthe Pacific Ocean.
She is now a known inspirational speaker, workshop facilitator and mindset coach continuing to travel the world and sharing her insights, Through the Eye of the Nomad.
Natalia talks about:
- Having supportive parents who encouraged her toexplore her passions and do things she love.
- Our mind can control almost anything in our lives.
- First taste of ultimate freedom, travelling to aplace all on her own, to the other side of the world where if I liked a place Istayed, if I didn’t like the place, I left.
- Her mother being the catalyst to being a global tourleader.
- The opportunity that something incredible mighthappen that day
- Learning a lot of her life skills through being partof the travel industry.
- Being thrown into situations where you are immersedin very different cultures, languages, the unknown, being surrounded by a lotof alien situations.
- Learning to appreciate that a lot of things in lifeare out of our control, and we can only control the controllable.
- When you deal with challenges, you learn and grow.
- Seeing the advert with Laura looking for team matesto row across the pacific.
- The recruitment process including interviews with sportpsychologist, Keith Goddard and completing SAS type drills.
- The last thing we wanted was four women on a pinkboat being rescued.
- Doing sea-survival skills, capsize drills, 24hrpractice rows, and strict strength and conditioning programs.
- It was 90% mental training that we needed to havefor the expedition.
- We had to get to know each other inside out. Weshared our hopes and our fears.
- Entering and about to embrace the unknown in anextreme way possible.
- We just rowed off into the darkness.
- The first ten days were probably the mostchallenging.
- We all had our own mental demons that we had tobattle.
- Making light of the situations out there and makethe girls smile and laugh.
- The most powerful thing out there is that we havethe ability to choose how we feel.
- Trust and respect were something that I think reallyhelped us cross the ocean.
- What holds people back from achieving the life anddreams that they really desire.
- The ability to look for the positive, even if justonce a day. Stop and reflect each day
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Tweets
“The 6 people who came to the project didn’t know eachother. They were very different people with different backgrounds and diversepersonality types. The learning how to work together and how to bring out thebest in each other. Understanding what brought out the worst in us. That was ahuge part of the project. They got very used to giving each other constructivefeedback, because out on the boat in the middle of nowhere, there is nowhere torun and nowhere to hide. ” Building a strong team with Natalia Cohen on theactive CEO Podcast.
“Quite often in life you do have to start again. Youdo have to go back to the drawing board, whether it be in your business orpersonal life.” Natalia Cohen on dealing with adversity on the active CEOPodcast.
“We may have crossed our literal pacific, we believethat every has their Pacific to cross and their challenges to face.” NataliaCohen inspiring you to achieve your challenges on the active CEO Podcast.
Resources Mentioned in this show:
Losing Sight of Shore www.losingsightofshore.com
Coxless Crew www.coxlesscrew.com
Losing Sight of Shore YouTube
TedX YouTube
Coxless Crew Twitter
Eye of the Nomad www.eyeofthenomad.com
Natalia Cohen LinkedIn
www.nrg2perform.com
craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn
Ben Gathercole LinkedIn
Ben Gathercole Performance Coaching www.bengathercole.com.au
Recommended Reading:
Better Than Winning – Ben Gathercoles’s best selling book