Challenges and more importantly tackling challenges head on without fear is what we discuss today Todays joining us on Join Up Dots has a life of highs, lows, amazing self indulgence and a dawning realisation that life is what we make it. At age 13, he moved to the U.S. from India and almost immediately squandered away over a year of his life with drugs and alcohol. So he joined the Marines to leave that lifestyle behind, despite two doctors telling me I'd never survive boot camp due to a blood condition he deals with. He not only survived, but found an inner strength he didn't know he had. He pushed himself and graduating with honors, but three years after he returned home from fighting in Iraq, the VA diagnosed me with PTSD. He chose not to abide by that label and instead created a new one for himself: Fearvana—a state of unity and bliss without fear that is only achieved through immersion in fear. Now let's stop and think about that for a moment. Instead of running away from what makes us fearful, we actually embrace it and get to the gold on the other side. And that can just be more confidence, more opportunities, more money, or love, sex, or anything that will generally only come when you go and get it. And now our guest since 2012, has left a comfortable corporate job to drag a 190-pound sled 350-miles across the world's second largest polar ice cap for a month. Swim through underwater caves, has almost been killed by a falling boulder while glacier caving, experienced severe altitude sickness while climbing in the Himalayas, and suffered through heat exhaustion while running across countries. So you can get the truth from this introduction, that this isn't a person that talks the talk but fails to back it up with action. Today's guest is a man on a mission, to banish fear, inspire the world and to show people everywhere how to stop existing and start living. So how does our guest decide on the challenges that will make up his next few months? And do our listeners have to be so bold with their own challenges, or can we do this from behind our desks? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Akshay Nanavati. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Akshay Nanavati such as: Why Akshay believes that we all have our own personal struggles in their lives, you just have to take them for what they are, and find a way past them all. How Akshay classes writing his book as one of the most challenging things he has ever done. The imposter syndrome joining with perfectionism, to name just two, had to be smashed to create his new bestseller. Why he loves the advice that "You cant give birth to an adult" offered by the founder of Ugg boots, and what it means to him everyday. and lastly…. Why adversity is the real gift in our lives. Not the times that everything goes the way we want it to go, but the rough tough times that shape who we are.