Alex Honnold (Free Solo): Conquering Fear, Defying Death and Finding Your Flow State (E280)
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alex Honnold is a world-renowned professional rock climber, best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. His most notable achievement is the free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a feat that brought him international fame and was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary, "Free Solo”.
In this episode, Jake and Damian sit down with Alex to delve into the concept of mastery and what it means to truly excel at something. Alex shares his thoughts on the conditions required to achieve flow, a state of optimal performance and total immersion.
Alex recounts his personal experiences of reaching flow state during some of his most extreme climbs, discussing how the difficulty of a task can push us into an autopilot mode where performance feels almost effortless.
This episode offers a profound look into the mindset of one of the world's greatest climbers, revealing how he continues to set and achieve his goals.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If I know anything about fear is from having experienced a ton. |
| 0:05.0 | In climbing you get scared all the time. |
| 0:07.1 | Ten years later, ten years of consistent training and practice and preparation and all that, |
| 0:11.0 | I finally felt ready to actually do it without a rope. |
| 0:13.7 | And to me that's where I sort of switch into, I can't overpower it, like I have to just |
| 0:18.8 | perform. |
| 0:19.8 | You know, I just have to trust my feet and my feet slip I'm going to die and that's it now it's like it's on. |
| 0:23.7 | If you're really trying to think about leading a high performance life, |
| 0:26.3 | I would think honestly about what's holding you back from it. |
| 0:29.2 | Maybe you should just do the thing you've been wanting to do. |
| 0:31.6 | What's to lose? |
| 0:35.0 | That is free climbing legend Alex Honeld and this is high performance, |
| 0:40.0 | the show that unlocks the minds of the most fascinating people on the planet. |
| 0:43.7 | I'm Jake Comfortry and alongside our expert Damien Hughes we learn from the stories, the struggles |
| 0:48.8 | and the successes of our guests, allowing us all to find our own version of high performance and Alex is a |
| 0:55.1 | true high performer he shot to fame internationally on the documentary free solo but in |
| 1:00.4 | the six years since plenty has changed and Alex is about to share it all in great detail |
| 1:06.0 | we loved sitting down with him just a few miles from his home near Las Vegas we recorded this |
| 1:10.8 | episode as part of our trip to the USA. |
| 1:13.4 | I really hope you enjoy it as we welcome Alex Honeld to the show. |
| 1:18.0 | Well Alex, welcome to the show. |
| 1:24.0 | Thanks for having me. |
... |
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