my name is james ketchel in 2011 i stood
on top of mount everest in 2013 i cycled
around the world
i rode a boat across the atlantic ocean
i successfully flew a gyro plane around
the world and
flew myself into the guinness book of
records which is i never expected that
when i was young
no shadow of a doubt if they were not
there
whacking me around the face saying you
can't sleep you can't stop you cannot
stop
move i would not be here today
there will always be a silver lining
around a grey cloud but you'll
never ever see it at the time
sometimes things are going to happen in
life things are going to work out or
they're not going to work out
and really what matters the most
important part is how you
react to those things
i was pretty down when i was first
rescued i first had my sort of
first failed mission if you like but
then actually i figured out and i
learned quite quickly that was quite
important
in terms of like how you react off the
back of that you don't always get what
you want
and but it is possible to turn the
things around and off the back of being
rescued in the indian ocean i ended up
working on a project out in the amazon
jungle
it was an incredible opportunity that
came my way
and um i think now looking back it was
probably a good thing that it happened
it gave me a different perspective on
things and it was a real learning curve
there is always always always something
good that comes off the back of
something not going your way
and it's never a failure it's a case of
okay that didn't quite go to plan but
what did i learn
and when you go back and you kind of
apply that
it will always work out okay and so i
never really look at these things as
failures actually to be honest it was
learning curves really you only find out
what you're really made of
when something doesn't go to plan and
you're pretty down and you're fed up and
you've got all these people watching you
and the pressure's on you to deliver and
something
totally unexpected happens you don't
achieve what you want to achieve but
you're all down and fed up
and that is when you find out what
you're really made of
have you got the ability to kind of like
dust yourself off
pick yourself up if you have that
ability
you're going to go a long way in life
but if you can't dust yourself off
every time something doesn't go your way
or doesn't go to plan
you're never going to get that far
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your brain can often be your worst enemy
as opposed to your greatest ally and
it's very important
to to know how to manage that and
especially when
something hasn't gone your way you feel
pretty down or fed up but
you have to look at the positive side of
it of what
what's come out of that what have you
learned okay let's just move on
and i'll tell you what if you can
develop the ability
to be able to draw a line under
something that's happened in the past
and move on that ability
will stand you in good stead and take
you a long long way
i had quite a serious motorcycle
accident and the doctor i never forget
lovely guy he said to me i don't know if
you're going to be able to walk again
and it was a real reality check for me
actually
because you don't realize what you have
until you do not have it anymore
so we take for granted the ability to
just get up every morning
and walk down the stairs and jump in and
out of the shower and
you're doing something that you're not
thinking about you're just you're
walking around and you're mobile
and when you can't do that anymore it's
you think my goodness
and i remember lying in that hospital
bed and
i was quite close to the window actually
and i could hear the kids playing
outside in the park and stuff and i
would look out the window and
see this blue sky and when he said to me
i think you're going to walk again it
was it was funny because i had a feeling
of sort of calm come over me and sort of
clear clarity and i thought
you know what i know 100
that i am going to row a boat across the
atlantic ocean i have
no idea how i'm going to do it but i
know what i want to do
a lot of people over time i've realized
a lot of people are lost
purely because they don't know what they
want to do
if you know when you know what you want
to do it isn't that difficult to make it
happen
i remember i was still on crutches at
the time and i went down to the
southampton boat show and i would
hobble onto their stand on my crutches
and passed them a proposal on there they
wouldn't they would look at me and say
really they'd look at me up and down
look at my cast and my crutches and be
like
you're going to run across the atlantic
yeah
i remember i was looking out across the
harbour wall
on day one when i arrived and the waves
were smashing up against the wall and i
thought
my goodness what am i doing here and
you're like
why don't i go back i can try again we
can go back i can look at the bow i can
fix this i can do that and then try
again
and that is the most dangerous part in
terms of
you know mentally in your head and i
said to myself and i said to my parents
this boat will have to sink before i get
out of it and if it does i'll get into
the life raft and keep drifting
i'm not going to stop
[Music]
anything that you think is difficult is
not as difficult as you might think it's
it's just your brain playing tricks on
you
and i say this to everyone that i speak
about in terms of the row it's like you
know what
every single person watching this could
get in a boat and row across the
atlantic i guarantee it
if they're not a very good rower they've
got 3 000 miles to learn they're going
to get very good by the end of it
and you just got to want to do it you've
got to want to do it
if you don't want it then that it will
get the better of you
but you don't need to be as fit as you
might think to do something like this
the brain will take you so much further
than you think it will
what you think is going to be difficult
probably won't be you'll get out there
and you'll be absolutely amazed
you'll be amazed at what you can do but
sometimes something just needs to click
and when that thing just clicks you know
you can you can become one
absolutely unstoppable it's unbelievable
what you can achieve
when you want something you have to have
the ability
to be able to block out any negativity
when you put yourself out there and you
say to your family and your friends and
people you know
i'm gonna do this you will get people
say are you sure it's very risky
but the reality is you will you will
never have
anything worth having if you don't take
an
element of risk and push yourself
outside of your comfort zone
and the more you push yourself outside
your comfort zone the more
you're you get used to that feeling and
you get used to that uncertainty and
and things don't bother you so much um
having that having that sort of ability
to be able to
to not worry about what other people
think and just go after
what it is that you want is will take
you a long long way
you know it really will don't get too
down
when things aren't going your way and it
feels like you're going backwards
because the wind will change it always
does
and as fast as you're getting blown
backwards or as fast as things aren't
working out as fast as things are not
going your way
just like that they can change and you
never know what tomorrow
may bring
everyone has a goal inside them everyone
has their own
atlantic row everyone has their own
everest everyone has their own thing
don't let that beat you up at the moment
it it may not be obvious to you
but you will find out what things you
love and
what your goal could be by
just simply doing the things that you
like when you're lying
on your own in a bed at night and you
put your head down on that pillow and
there's no one
else around influencing you telling you
what you should be doing
and what they think is the right thing
to do it will come to you
but you you have to start somewhere no
matter where you start your actions
uh are a measure of who you are everyone
can talk a good game everyone can say i
want to do that
okay go and do it
learning to be happy where you are now
is so so important there is no shadow of
a doubt if
they were not there whacking me around
the face saying you can't sleep you
can't stop you cannot stop
move i would not be here today
and i never underestimate that concept
of just keep moving you see
when people encounter problems in life
not just out on everest
everyone has problems and human beings
are designed and programmed to just stop
when something doesn't go your way or
you have a problem
but actually that's the worst thing you
can ever ever do
if you keep moving you will always find
a way to
work through something that something
will work out
the solution will present itself you'll
keep pushing you'll get to where you
want to go
the problem that you had will go away a
lot of people will just stop
and it was descending everest with a
lung infection which i didn't know at
the time
really opened my eyes up to the fact
that if you can develop the ability
to simply keep going
it's that ability that separates most
people if there's one ability that you
want in this that ability is just
nonstop
just keep going keep trying you'll be
amazed at how far it will take you
no one is ever going to knock on your
door in the morning and say
surprise i've got this great opportunity
for you that will never ever happen
never but all you have to do is get out
get up and get out
and do something
don't be afraid to put yourself out
there don't be afraid to have a go at
something
there is so much more in you than
people sometimes give themselves credit
for
to me there is always a way to make
something happen
always always always and
never ever say um i've tried
everything because if you've tried
everything you'll have it there's no
such thing as i can't
hard work beats talent every day of the
week there is no
shadow of a doubt about that and i
mentioned it before
even if you are not naturally that
gifted at something
if you do something every single day by
default
you will become good at it there is
that's just there's no question there
and that having that ability to work
hard every day
will take you a long long way i i had
people tell me
you you will not fly around you can't do
this you just stop
now you'll kill yourself and i would
personally say
i would never ever spend time worrying
about what other people say whether
negative or people that doubt you i've
had people doubt me that's okay
people are entitled to their own
thoughts and opinions
you know someone else's opinion of you
does not have to become
your reality so doubters are great
they make you work harder it's no
problem
you have to get up every day and get out
there
thanks for watching guys as always if
you want to see the full interview
please go below and the interview
channel is linked below
and the behind the scenes of how this
was filmed are also over on our vlog
channel
we got in james's helicopter and shut
the engines off halfway through which is
quite interesting
yeah and please check out james's
youtube channel that'll be in the
description
he's got some very interesting videos
and also if you want to support projects
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becoming a youtube member
and maybe check out some of our merch
which is all linked
below um as always thanks for watching
have a blessed and productive day peace