William Pike lost his leg in a volcanic accident on Mount Ruapehu and nearly died in the hospital. He learned to focus on what's possible in crisis, spend time outside, and act on what matters now instead of waiting.
The Lead on Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at nzmortgages.co nz what can a near death experience teach you? And I, well, I'm about to share that with you. I'm James Laughlin and on this channel we go deep on high performance and personal mastery. Very recently I sat down with an amazing human and I wanted to let you in on that conversation before it gets released in its full feature length episode. This guy is called William pike and he survived a very near death experience. He had a passion for the outdoors and as a young man was hiking at Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand, which is a volcano, and was camping in a bit of a shed kind of form, like an old beat up shed cabin at the top of the mountain. Overnight, was rudely awoke by a massive eruption and lost his leg, lost consciousness, thought he was going to die. The person that was with him had to run down the mountain, find help, come back up, and for weeks afterwards was in hospital on the brink of death with gangrene and many different complications, sepsis, all these different issues, and it really made him think about life, about what was possible. And I cannot wait to share the full length episode with you. It's truly mind blowing. Why do I bring people like this up in conversation? Well, they can teach us so much. Maybe you have had a near death experience and it's shaped how you live your life, but many humans haven't had that experience. And so I think it's really incredible that we can actually learn from others and hear about their experiences and how they've shaped how they see the world. So I want to share just a couple of things with you that I think will really help you to live on purpose, to be more productive and effective with your time, and to do what matters most. First things first, William, through his stories, through his experience, reminded me that we must always try to focus on possibilities, focus on what's possible. You know, a lot of those positive psychologists like Martin Seligman, like Dr. Ellen Langer, they focused on what's positive and possible. In times of chaos, fear, uncertainty. One of the best things we can do is look for what our options are. I often say to my one to one clients, whammo, wamo. When you're stuck and it looks like they've got no options, wham o wamo. What are my options? Write them all down. There are always options of some description. Sometimes that option is just to breathe. Sometimes the option is just to focus on where your mind is, is and where you're placing your awareness. So that reminded me in talking with William that he had a possibility in front of him to focus on all of the negative that his life might end. But instead he focused on what he did want. That takes me to the second thing that he shared I want to remind you of because I needed this reminder for me was get outdoors and embrace nature. That's his biggest passion, getting his boots on, hiking. He loves spear fishing. He loves fishing, he loves tramping, hiking, all the things you can think of. It was such a great reminder that we do live once. And William now has a prosthetic leg and gets outdoors more than you or I guaranteed he climbed 10 years after his accident, he climbed Mount Scott in Antarctica. He's just an incredible, incredible human. So reason I'm sharing this is that often we can get stuck in our own heads, go around in circles, be in a bit of a rat, feel sorry for ourselves. Look, we can do that for a bit, but when we start to make that habit, it doesn't serve us at all. We've got to focus on what's possible and move towards that. And if we are lucky enough to have influence on other people, if we have the privilege of being leaders and helping others achieve goals, we've got to help them adapt that mindset of what is possible. That's my challenge to you. Now, before I share the last one with you, this last lesson from a near death experience, I just want to ask you for one favor. Please share this episode with one person. It would be a huge help. Now, last insight. Now, this didn't come directly from William's words, but I brought my journal with me after the session. On the plane ride home, I was reflecting on what I'd learned and how it impacted me. The thing I've wrote down here is live today like there's no tomorrow. And to me, that is just so powerful. And he did say those in different ways and different words and that might even be a quote, I don't know. But live today like there's no tomorrow. That's how I felt on my way home. Like, don't wait for tomorrow. Today's the day. This is it. Be joyful today. Be accepting today. Be courageous today. Be patient today. Be still, whatever it might be, be that. Be curious. But today's the day. It's not tomorrow, it's not the next day. Yeah, we've got to prepare for our tomorrows, but we've got to live for our todays. And just talking to William like his life could have ended so easily on a number of occasions, but he kept moving towards what was possible and staying truly in the present. He kept talking about small steps, super small steps. And he's been on to form a number of companies that are doing incredibly well. One's a very global company called Pro Armor. What an inspirational guy he is. So I just wanted to share those little tips with you. If you're at a point now where you're stuck, frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed, I just want you to think about a near death experience and how that has shaped so many humans to think differently. And so hopefully you can learn something from William and bring that into your own life. But for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. The Lead on Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at nzmortgages.co nz.
