Bear Grylls: Soul Fuel

The following are notes from Bear Grylls’s talk at #GLS19. Use them to help you apply the content you learned at the Summit.

Story of the SAS: Bear joined the British special forces and after six months was returned to unit. He felt like he wasn’t good enough or smart enough. That failure built his resilience and looking back, he sees the power it had on his journey.

The Four F’s:

1. Failure

• The truth hurt
• We like to gloss over our failures
• Failures are a large part of our story/journey
• They are the doorway that tells a story
• Failure shapes us
• How we react to failure determines everything because life doesn’t always reward the brilliant or talented

Story of his injury: Bear’s parachute cord wasn’t working properly when he jumped out of a plane. He hit the ground and ended up breaking his back.

2. Fear

• Face your fear and stop running from it
• Whoever we are, life will test us physically, mentally and emotionally
• Embrace the jump
• Use this as a driver–as an emotion to sharpen us
• The marks and the wrinkles make the story

3. Fire

• How do we access it?
• Keep moving forward even when you don’t want to
• Understand no one is brave, brilliant or extraordinary all the time
• Deliver the extra when it matters
• “Always a little farther”
• The trigger to give more when most people give up
• Simple but not always easy to keep going
• Persistence requires digging deep and finding the fire that burns inside us all
• What are you made of?
• An ember is all it takes
• NGU: Never Give Up
• Know the power of resilience because it is the storms of life that make us all strong

3. Faith

• The voice says, “I’m with you” and “lean on me”
• The universal presence around us
• Quiet, personal and a secret strength, a backbone
• Faith says, “I’m known, I’m loved and I’m forgiven regardless how many times I fall down or fail”
• Nothing to lose but everything to gain
• Different than religion

Story of Jesus: He did not conform to religion. He is a prime example of religious rebellion and abiding by faith.

Dreams will require failure first.

Fear is a constant journey map along the way.

Reaching our summits should never be our full story.

Finding true wealth is being grateful and being kind.

• Gratitude because we all stand on the shoulders of giants
• Don’t be an idiot
• Real wealth is going to be found in our relationships