Have you ever felt like a quitter? Do you ever feel stuck in your current situation and not quite know how to get out of it? Do you sometimes feel, deep down, like you’re destined for more?

“Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” Marianne Williamson

Those words have always resonated with the softly strumming chords of my soul. It is so much easier for me to be not quite good enough and to remain wrapped in the snug cloak of angst. My life was littered with the wreckage of self-imposed roadblocks. But I didn’t want to be that man anymore, and I could see my light shining up ahead, just waiting for me to step into it. I realized that I had just arrived at the moment this trip was designed to create.

Last year I ran the John Muir Trail, 223 miles from Yosemite Valley to the top of 14,505’ Mt. Whitney, through some of the most treacherous and beautiful terrain in the world. The journey was so epic, and I traveled so far (literally and figuratively) that I decided to write a book about it – which not surprisingly, also happened to be a fantastic learning experience. Something about the audacious nature of both goals seems to speak to some primordial part of people that urges them to dream bigger and stretch farther, and because of this I field questions all day long. What motivated me to run that far? How did I deal with being alone for that long? Didn’t it hurt? And perhaps my favorite question (because it really makes me step back and evaluate all the other questions) – What was my favorite part?
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