PROFILE
NAME: Amelia Boone
TYPE OF OUTLAW: The Courageous Outlaw
INTRO
“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” - James F. Byrnes
Amelia was a thriving global attorney for Apple when at 28 years old she entered the unforgiving world of obstacle course racing. She's not only accumulated one of the most impressive resumes of women in the sport but also men. People die competing in some of the races she's participated in. She has accumulated over 50 podiums & 30 victories. She is a Spartan Race World Champion & the only 3-time World’s Toughest Mudder Champion. In the 2012 World's Toughest Mudder competition which lasts 24 hours she covered 90 miles & 300 obstacles. She's also competed in the Death Race 3 times which is a race specifically designed to kill you. Ok that was an exaggeration, it’s just designed to break you physically & mentally. It's no wonder she has become known as "the Micheal Jordan of obstacle course racing" & is considered to be the world's most decorated athlete to grace the sport.
HOW AMELIA THRIVED BEING COURAGEOUS
“I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m really good at suffering.” - Amelia Boone
Looking at what she has accomplished it's natural to try & be dismissive & assume she's a freak of nature who was just genetically predisposed to race. That's far from the case though. When she first embarked on her mission to dominate the sport she couldn't do 1 pull up. Yes that’s right, 1 PULL UP. Before her first race she spent 6 months training just to do 1 pull up & still couldn't do it. When it came to race time she fell off of all the obstacles & failed miserably. Rather than just quit it only spurred her on.
She loved the fact that she was bad at something & had all of these opportunities to get better & grow. To get to where she is now she trained incessantly, waking up at 4am to do this before going to work. She regularly trained in the worst conditions to get an edge over her competition. She believed no one else would be training in the rain & snow like she was, so mentally she'd be more prepared for any situation that arises during these races. Rehearsing the worst case scenario is a tried & tested method to becoming more resilient. Something that you wouldn't be able to complete one of these 24 hour endurance races without. She embraced not only the pain & suffering but also the fear of failure & let it guide her from this weak human being who couldn't do 1 pull up to earning the title of "the queen of pain."
“Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair.” — David Seasbury
Being courageous isn't just about cultivating a mental grit to deal with psychical pain. It's also about training your mind to deal with emotional pain. Being able to look inwards & deal with who you are. When you look inwards, you're never sure what you might find & the unknown is scary. When everything is going well in your life & you're experiencing win after win its easy to ignore & dismiss any lingering underlying dysfunctions you might be experiencing. Behind the worlds view of Amelia as the iron queen, champion of all obstacles, lurked an obstacle she privately battled for 2 decades. She recently strengthened her facade as all the above by sharing her battle with an eating disorder. You can find a link to that blog post below amply titled "The recovery I needed". In the post she shares her guilt. Her shame. Her honesty. And most importantly her courageousness once again.
Amelia's Blog Post - The Recovery I Needed
WHY YOU SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO MASTER FEAR
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being fearless is essentially just learning how to fear less. You can't be courageous if you’re not overcoming some sort of fear. The best way to do this is by exposing yourself to your fears because when you do you will see that what lies behind these fears is just empty space. Empty space isn't scary right?
Being brave isn't easy though, it means putting yourself in uncomfortable situations & we all know how as humans we much prefer being comfortable. Paradoxically the more you suffer the less you suffer. If your biggest fear is having no internet connection then disconnect for a week, no excuses just do it. Yes, it will be scary & hard being disconnected at first. If you have no sense of direction like me & rely on your phone to get you everywhere, you'll spend a lot of time walking around lost as well. I promise you will survive though. People have a knack of adapting when they have no other choice. By the end of the week you might even come to a crazy realisation that you don't even need the internet to get by. It has only been around for a couple of decades after all & people seemed to manage just fine. You might even enjoy the simplicity it adds to your life. Imagine how much free time you'd find you had if you weren't constantly checking Instagram looking at memes or falling into an internet rabbit hole reading various articles you don't care about.
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” - Anais Nin
As a general rule if something scares me, I do it. The only way to master fear is to face it at every opportunity. Earlier this year it led me to doing a 3 day fast which involved not eating anything & only drinking water for 3 days. The thought of going 3 whole days without eating an avocado terrified me. I Regularly do intermittent fasting so day 1 was fine but day 2 & 3 were hell. Well it felt like hell in the moment but looking back at it now, it was fine. I’m actually planning on doing a 5 day fast next. To quote my Nan who regularly told me this when I was little - "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I now know that I can go 3 days without eating if I needed to. It might even come in handy for those months when you over extend yourself financially & need to budget until payday.
I regularly do things that scare me whether it's launching a brand that I have no idea anyone in the world would even be interested in engaging with, or agreeing to do an MMA class & having a bunch sweaty guys man handle me for over an hour. It's like training a muscle, the more you find the courage to do things that scare you, the less things you find will scare you.
WHAT KIND OF OUTLAW ARE YOU?
“I don’t want to be ‘the eating disorder recovery girl’, I don’t want to be ‘the athlete’. This is just me. I’m super flawed, I’m super complex, just like everybody else out there.” - Amelia Boone
Amelia is known for doing the really hard things in life & revealing & choosing to tackle her eating disorder head-on was the hardest yet. We now live in a world where everyone only shares the good times. The wins. The highs. Everyone only wants to project this perfect life when we all know deep down perfection doesn't exist. I get it though, being honest with yourself is scary & hard. If we act like everything is perfect, then we can avoid dealing with our lingering problems & avoid doing the work to fix them. I know that my dad not being around to raise me has had a negative impact on me emotionally. Feeling like one of your parents never loved you isn't an easy thing to deal with & I know it's had an adverse effect on my relationships. I used to think if someone who created you doesn't love you enough to be around why would anyone else. This mindset made it so easy for me to discard relationships & still does but I know this isn't healthy. I'm honest enough with myself to admit I’m not perfect, I’m flawed, I have issues & I'm going to be brave enough to deal with them as & when they manifest.
In the current climate of fake perfection, it takes more courage than ever to be vulnerable & admit that you're not ok & need help sometimes. Amelia is an example that doing this isn't a sign of weakness it's a sign of courage. She is the courageous outlaw.