Turning the dial down, all the way down.

Of the 614 km that was the frozen expanse between start and finish lines - I would traverse around 500 of them, completely alone.

No traffic noise, no background hum of enterprise or industry or ubiquitous human chaos. Simply the wind and the rhythmic crunch of snow, ice and wind-excoriated stone underfoot. As my small frame crossed the vast wilderness my mental thermostat was slowly but surely being re-calibrated. I had found a path, if somewhat extreme, that allowed me to turn my internal dial back down to 1.

The logistics and trials of simply surviving and progressing in an Arctic environment stripped away erroneous thought and effort. You simply cease to care what’s happening on Twitter, whether your fav insta-celeb is enjoying their chai-latte or if indeed the entire world has simply burnt to the ground. As you focus on fuel, warmth and hydration, as well as the slow and seemingly Sisyphean progress you’re making, you are mentally and emotional decompressing.

Returning the inbox to zero.

Which all sounds fantastic and alluring but let’s be real - tales of high adventure are great, and all that decompression sounds like exactly what the Doctor ordered - but there is the small issue of the ‘real world’. Why yes I’d love to take my dial from it’s current and somewhat rigid ‘11’ back down to a more manageable number. Most of us would settle for a nice 7. But getting it closer to 1…..to strip away all the cacophony, the maelstrom of chaos and input that is our every waking moment. I don’t have the time, skill or even in the barest inclination to go on some epic trans-frozen-wasteland adventure to find solitude and silence.

I need something that works, right here, and can preferably get done before the kids crack it, dinner needs to be cooked or my boss realises that I spent way too much time finding the perfect zoom background as opposed to actually doing what they pay me for.

Thankfully I think I have just the thing you’re looking for.

‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler.’ - Albert Einstein.

Across decades of training - both as a coach and an athlete - my favourite workouts, to program and endure - were almost incomprehensibly simple. They had a singular goal - long, hard, repetitive work. Unsexy, uncompromising, simply to be endured. SMMFs - Single Movement Mind F@cks. For context here’s some examples:

Row 500m or run 400m every 3.5 minutes - until you can’t.

Complete 1000 burpees.

25 ball slams & 25 kettlebell swings every 2.5 minutes - until you can’t. Choose your own loads.

In truth - ‘what’ it is is far less important that the act itself. All the value is loaded in the tail end. It isn’t really about physical adaptation or increasing your VO2 max. It’s about finding a way to force yourself into a place that is dark and uncomfortable and eventually requires the exclusion of absolutely everything else. Sole and unwavering focus on the task at hand. Simple survival for another round, or another rep, another metre.

The real gold lies at the threshold. Where first you want to quit, then later you absolutely need to quit, until finally you’re praying for salvation. That barrier from where you thought it was done and then challenging yourself to instead see it as an act of personal exploration. How far and how deep can I actually go?

Hard, uncompromising, yet entirely doable work brings with it honesty, an opportunity for ruthless introspection and later reflection.

The value of it cannot be purchased, it must be earned. The work cannot be marginalised or negotiated with or explained away. It simply must be done.

So allow yourself to sink deep into that dark and unexplored cavern of untapped capacity.

This is how you recalibrate the system.

Extend the margins and broaden the map.