I've just finished watching Alone on the discovery channel and it was an ending I had expected, as I'm sure most of you did too, that Alan Kay has won the Alone challenge that was aired recently on the discovery channel.
What made him a victor? Well essentially it was his mind set, he never fell down into his destructive thoughts..
Too often we allow our mind to control our rational thinking, allowing silly little destructive thoughts to enter in which take root, flourish, grow and end up suffocating out every other thought and paralysing us from common sense and affirmative action.
We saw that at the start of the series when other contestants allowed their mind free reign and thus it ended up beating them before they'd even really started. No other bushcraft/survival presenter has ever managed to put that across, relaying all too often that old adage that it's skills alone that get you through, but the show proved that's not the case with the amount of men who dropped out in the first two weeks, all capable men but no control over that little voice in their head that they give into and let take control.
The bit I loved the most were his philosophical musings about life, existence, love and family and I have to agree with every syllable he uttered, that love family and friends are all that counts in life.
For some reason it seems that true introspection comes most clearly to those who slip back into nature and allow the natural rhythm of the earth to course through their spirit and it did that with Alan, I could listen to his philosophies for ages and I hope it's not the last we see of him.. congratulations brother, you have won my admiration and I do not give that out lightly.
For some reason it seems that true introspection comes most clearly to those who slip back into nature and allow the natural rhythm of the earth to course through their spirit and it did that with Alan, I could listen to his philosophies for ages and I hope it's not the last we see of him.. congratulations brother, you have won my admiration and I do not give that out lightly.
Discovery Channel... give him his own series !!!!
( and to Sam, man you are a true woodsman and human being, well done and I salute you.)
I think the show demonstrated very well the difference between having individual wilderness skills, and actually being skilled at being in the wilderness. They are certainly not one and the same. We saw a lot of people who had practiced individual skills extensively in their own controlled environments back home, but had no experience actually being in the woods. Considering that they all pretty much had a complete camping set up worth of gear, there is no reason why anyone should have tapped out in such short time other than the fact that they clearly had never spent enough time in the woods.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying Ross, but I think the enormity of the situation only kicked in for a few of them once they got there. At that time that nagging little voice in the back of their mind piped up and started making them doubt themselves. I have no doubt that all were capable in their own environment, (though some skills are not transferable to different environments) but quite a few of them started to feel out of their depth very quickly in a place they weren't used to, the sorry thing about it is they weren't ! They could have made it easily with the correct focus and determination, even blunt stoicism could have taken them quite far.
DeleteStill it makes you realise that the first thing on the top of your kit list should be control over that part of your mind that makes you doubt.