Episode 37: Roz Savage, Ocean Rower

One of my favorite guests on the Paleo Treats Podcast, Roz Savage combines the fierce heart of an adventurer with the ability to describe beautifully the wildest & loneliest places on the planet.

“I don’t really use the word fail.  You can produce an outcome that is not really the one you wanted.”

As a Guinness World Record holder (first woman to row solo across 3 oceans), Roz is a shining example of someone following her dream.

She started out as a money hungry young professional, saying “I was laboring under the illusion that money was going to make me happy.”  Working in London alongside the rest of the sharks (and whales) cured her of that drive; she realized it was an illusion, and in a famous story wrote down two obituaries.  First, the one she was headed for, and second, the one she wanted.

“I realized to my great embarrassment and shame that the dream that I’d been chasing for 11 years was not the right dream.”

Staring her in the face was her whole future, and it wasn’t one she wanted.  “I realized to my great embarrassment and shame that the dream that I’d been chasing for 11 years was not the right dream.”

She was “…actually quite terrified of the implications of realizing I was living the wrong dream.  I had to self-sabotage because I didn’t have the courage to change.”

So, cutting ties with job, relationships, and material possessions, she set out to row across the Atlantic and began to live the path she actually wanted.

Along the way she learned when to use the word fail (or really, what to replace it with) as well as what the right questions to ask were.  Having lost her self confidence in her 20s as a management consultant she regained it out in the middle of the ocean.

“A very important thing for me was letting go of caring so much what other people thought of me.”

Listen in to Roz as she describe her most harrowing experience as well as her most beautiful, and revel in the accomplishments of another human in pursuit of excellence.

If you’d like to learn more about Roz, please check out her website, www.rozsavage.com or you can read her books Rowing the Atlantic & Stop Drifting, Start Rowing  or if you've been inspired by her story and would like her as a coach, check out www.rozsavagecoaching.com

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