Kerry and I have been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, we spent the last week in Fiji participating in the  Tony Robbins Life Mastery course and this week with our friend, Julian, in New Zealand.

We had a great time at Life Mastery, it’s one of Tony’s full immersion courses focused on health and well-being, and what better place to be than Fiji. It was our first time in Fiji and it’s a beautiful place, particularly where we stayed at the Namale resort (owned by Tony Robbins). Life mastery is part cleanse, part education and part relaxation, as you go through a process of  stopping the poisoning of the body,  cleansing and detoxifying and then rebuilding. It’s an incredible experience that teaches you the tools and techniques that you can practically apply in real life to improve your state of health and mind.

As is typical for Tony’s events the day we arrived we faced a physical challenge, in this case climbing a 50ft telephone pole and jumping to a trapeze 8-10ft away…all without ropes (only kidding we had safety harnesses on).  Prior to my accident this really wouldn’t have been a big deal, but only having one hand added a new twist to the whole thing.

Kerry ended up going first and showed incredible determination as she got to the top but couldn’t quite stand up. She must have hung on for 5+ minutes before she finally managed to push up and stand on the top. When she came down she told me how hard it was and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it…I knew I’d do it or if nothing else give it a damn good try.

As it worked out I ended up being the last one to climb, no additional pressure – since everyone else by that point had managed to at least nearly stand on top. I approached the pole calmly and knew that it was all in the legs (as with most climbing). I just had to find a way to hang on to the pole as I moved my feet to the next peg…hugging the pole with my left arm worked out pretty good…and I just keep stepping up one peg at a time.

Once at the top I had to jiggle around a bit to get in a position where I could stand and then from there I was on top of the world (oops, sorry I mean the pole). All that was left then was to jump for the trapeze. I figured it would be pretty unlikely I’d be able to hold on to the bar with just one hand, but I gave it a go anyway.

I reached the bar with my right hand but couldn’t hold on…but that really didn’t matter, as I’d conquered the pole. There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it!