Everest Solo Climber: Why Success Can Still Leave You Feeling Empty - Sean Burch

This week's guest is adventurer, world-record holder, author and filmmaker Sean Burch.

Sean has climbed Everest solo, set eight world records and made first ascents of 140 previously unclimbed mountains. He’s also won National Geographic’s Ultimate Survival Alaska and spent decades testing himself in some of the world’s most extreme environments.

But there was something all that achievement couldn’t give him.

Peace.

Sean thought climbing Everest would finally leave him feeling fulfilled. He’d reach the summit, achieve his dream and get on with the rest of his life.

Instead, he found himself chasing the next challenge. And then the next.

Years later, he realised that none of those achievements could do the work he needed to do within himself.

He talks openly about divorce, the sudden death of a close friend, and a period when he was drinking not to celebrate, but to stop feeling. He also shares what helped him change direction, from focusing on his son to building a daily practice of meditation and gratitude.

We talk about the grandfather whose regrets changed his life, martial arts, surviving falls into crevasses, fatherhood, the Sherpas behind his documentary The Icefall Doctor, and the difference between being successful and feeling enough.

Because you don’t have to climb Everest to recognise the feeling of reaching a goal and wondering why you still don’t feel the way you thought you would.

Find out more about Sean: https://www.seanburch.com

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richleighpod

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"It's like Diary of a CEO, but for people that have to do the school run."

After my younger brother Jordan took his own life last year, I sold the business I’d spent a decade building and decided to go all-in on creating something meaningful.

This podcast is the result.

Project Possible is about success through adversity. Motivation. Resilience. Second chances, and what's truly possible.

Because your past doesn't define your future. You do.

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