If you’ve just made a list of New Year’s resolutions and are looking for some inspiration to face challenges for the new year, you might look to Bear Grylls for some motivation. Bear, who spent time as an SAS soldier and climbed Mount Everest at the age of 23, is known for his survival TV shows like Man vs Wild and Running Wild.
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Bear has also written more than 90 books, and many of them address the mental side of surviving and how to have the best mindset to thrive in today’s fast-paced world.
Bear often writes about the life lessons he has learned during his adventures and how many of his survival skills can be used in day-to-day life. We love some of the advice we have learned from two books that he published in 2023, and we will be using much of it to face the challenges of the coming year.
Never Giving Up
In You Vs The World: The Bear Grylls Guide to Never Giving Up, Bear writes about everything from finding confidence to bouncing back from failure. The book was written for children but has two pieces of our favorite advice for adults to remember – that it’s ok to feel fear and how we should remember the huge power of kindness:
Turning fear into something positive
Firstly, Bear writes that experiencing fear is totally normal and that he often knows what it is like to be afraid. Bear writes how having fear is always okay – it actually alerts us to danger – and how it can be turned into something positive instead of something that stops us from achieving our dreams.
Bear says that rather than avoiding fear, or avoiding the adrenaline rush that comes with it, he has learned to make the fear and adrenaline rush work for him rather than controlling or overwhelming him.
“It takes time to get familiar with doing the uncomfortable and scary things in life. But the best way to get familiar is to do the very things that scare us,” he writes. “Because when we move towards the things we fear, we learn that those things aren’t always so frightening after all. That’s how we can then achieve amazing things.”
Bear says that every time you face something difficult and move towards it, your ability to deal with fear gets stronger. “That’s what courage is,” he says.
The power of kindness
Another great piece of advice that Bear writes about is how kind people are the best type of people to go on expeditions with – and how kindness is more important than being tough, strong, or brave.
“It’s something that’s in all of us. We’ve just got to make the decision to break it out every single day and use it as much as we can,” writes Bear. “Kindness doesn’t have to be things or money. It can simply be showing someone you care by giving them a hug or texting them something nice.”
Bear says that examples like helping a stranger, or doing a small kind deed like holding a door open don’t cost us much, but can make a huge difference to someone else. Being kind also makes the person doing the act of kindness more happy.
Never Give Up
Bear is UK Chief Scout and Chief Ambassador to the World Scout Organization, and in his 2923 book, “Do Your Best, How To Be A Scout,” he writes about one of his favorite mottos— “Never Give Up.”
“There’ll be a thousand times in your life when things will feel too tough. When things don’t go your way or you have to deal with something that just seems impossible. In these moments, there’s a simple message to remember, and it’s this: courage, kindness and never give up,” he writes. He abbreviates “Never Give Up” to “NGU” throughout the book.
“No matter how hard things get, if you just keep going, you’ll get to the other side. Never give up has a strength all of its own. Use it and depend on it. Make having an NGU spirit your superpower,” he says.
Five Superpowers
Bear says that when you are in a tough place, or trying to respond to a crisis or setback, you can remember the five superpowers you have.
The first is positivity and looking on the bright side (“there’s always a bright side, no matter how bleak things seem,” he says). The second is resourcefulness—using what you have. Courage (remembering that it’s ok to feel fear), determination (digging deep for strength) are and faith are the other three.
“It’s about having faith in your own abilities and having faith in others” says Bear.
Another important piece of advice is to always cherish your dreams. “Dreams are what drive us on,” says Bear. “The only way to achieve your dreams is through humility, kindness, courage, and resilience. The rest is detail. So dream big. And don’t listen to the dream stealers.”
Goals for 2024
With New Year’s resolutions front of mind, we can look to Bear’s writings on goals for advice. He often writes about how to achieve your goals, and one of his main pieces of advice is to believe that you can do something.
“Once you believe you can, anything is possible. The power you’ll have is almost beyond imagination,” says Bear. Secondly, get out of your comfort zone or comfort pit and grow.
Bear says that if you feel stress doing this, to see the stress as something helpful and that it will get easier each time, if you keep on going. He says that eventually you will reach the other side, and arrive at the learning zone, where you find out you have a new power. And then after this, you will enter the growth zone, where you “truly become”.
“It’s only when we step out of this place of decay, and put a toe into the fear zone, that we start on a journey towards true growth, happiness and purpose,” says Bear.
