#443: Motivational Speaker Vicki Anstey on Why Fear Is Opportunity In Disguise, Navigating Difficult Relationships With Others and The Importance Of Building Momentum!

Today on the podcast:

Vicki Anstey is a motivational speaker, adventurer, entrepreneur and world record holder.

After 20 years in a relationship that limited and stifled her, former advertising professional, turned fitness pioneer and award-winning entrepreneur, Vicki became one of the first ever women to participate in Channel 4’s ‘SAS Who Dares Wins’, reaching the final stages after 11 days in extreme conditions at an altitude of 3,000ft in Chile.

In 2021, she and 2 other women, the Girls Who Dare, set a new World Record for rowing unaided across the Pacific Ocean, confronting her fear of deep, open water to do so. It took 60 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes.

This year, she plans to participate in the World’s Toughest Bike Race, the Race Across America (RAAM), covering 3,000 miles across 17 states in just 7 days.

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Here are some of the things we talked about in today’s show:

Episode Outline

03:28 How leaving a 20 year marriage gave her the permission to live her best life
07:43 The reason becoming physically fit gave her emotional empowerment
14:30 The resilience misconceptions she had
21:08 Why fear is really just opportunity in disguise and learning to manage it
28:18 Navigating difficult relationships and why you can’t live as a lone wolf and expect to achieve great things
34:14 The extra 60% of ourselves that we don’t know about
38:50 The importance of momentum and breaking things down into manageable chunks

Key Points

Striving for physical fitness has the added benefit of toughening mental and emotional strength. According to Vicki, stretching herself physically allowed her to test her limits and then expand them, allowing her to navigate some of the toughest periods of her life, which included a divorce. At the same time, physical fitness got her through that nadir and guided her through to a new life filled with growth and achievement that she never would have imagined.
Resilience comes down to realizing that you already have everything you need to reach your goals. By making the decision to draw on those inner resources, you learn that when it comes down to it, your greatest ally is yourself. Resilience is not just about “gritting through stuff” or enduring, but about reflecting and learning from failures and setbacks so that you can come back stronger and wiser the next time around.
You can never conquer fear. You can only manage it. The way to do this is by understanding how your brain creates a narrative around certain situations in such a way that it tries to “protect” you from them. After you become objective with your fears, it becomes much easier to face them. After all, all fear ultimately comes down to fear of the unknown, and once we shed light on what we don’t know, we gain the confidence to take action.

Powerful Quotes by Vicki

Physical exercise is an incredibly underestimated medication for tough periods in our lives.
The adversity is what makes you at the end of the day. That’s where your life story comes from.
You don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step

(Links)

(Website)

Vicki Anstey – Female Motivational Speaker

Personal Growth | Intrepid (weareintrepid.co.uk)

(Instagram)

Vicki Anstey (@vickianstey) on Instagram

(Facebook)

Facebook

(Twitter)

vickianstey (@vickianstey) / Twitter

(Linkedin)

Vicki Anstey – Motivational Speaker – Vicki Anstey | LinkedIn