Episode #213
Focus on the process, not the finish line—break big goals into daily, manageable steps and adapt as conditions change.
Growth comes from purposeful discomfort and shared suffering; endurance challenges can reveal lessons, build resilience, and forge community.
Commit before you're ready—make a concrete move (e.g., sign up for the race) to create momentum instead of waiting for perfect conditions.
Stop waiting for the circumstances to be perfect to get started on that thing you've wanted to do.
Addiction is about having no feelings. Addiction is about being invisible.
And there's so much power in the commitment to get started, and that will get you moving down the path to your goals.
Dead Sea to Everest. (45:53)
Charlie Engle is an ultramarathon runner, an adventure-seeker, a global explorer and a philanthropist; he’s also a recovering crack addict, a convicted felon, and a man driven to the edge of human endurance and achievement.
After a decade-long addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, Charlie hit bottom with a near-fatal six-day binge that ended in a hail of bullets. As Engle got sober, he turned to run, which became his lifeline, his pastime, and his salvation. The Matt Damon-produced documentary, Running the Sahara, followed Engle as he leads a team on a harrowing, record-breaking 4,500-mile run across the Sahara Desert, which helped raise millions of dollars for charity.
Charlie’s growing notoriety led to an investigation and a subsequent unjust conviction for mortgage fraud for which he spent sixteen months in federal prison in Beckley, West Virginia.
In his book Running Man, Charlie tells the surprising, funny, and emotional story of his life, detailing his setbacks and struggles and how he blazed a path to freedom by putting one foot in front of the other.
In his latest adventure, Charlie seeks to become the first person in history to trek from the lowest point to the highest summit on every continent. From the lowest point of the planet – the depths of the Dead Sea – Charlie will swim, free dive, run, paddle, mountain bike and climb his way through multiple countries and landscapes, striving to complete his journey on the very tip of the earth – Mount Everest.
