When the voice in your head barks, ‘You can’t do it,’ how do you respond? Pro-skier and climate activist Brody Leven has always chosen to look forward. He created a business when he was 9 years old, paid for his tuition at a Vermont ski academy, transitioned from a competition park skier to a ski mountaineer, and combined his skiing skills with the power of social media to carve out a successful career. Despite his success, Brody continued to feel that he wasn’t quite part of the cool kids club. That feeling worsened when his main sponsor declined to renew his contract at the height of his career and popularity. Rather than allowing that to derail him, Brody harnessed the rebuff. For him, leveraging self-doubt has helped him create a fulfilling life.
When we start to think about battling climate change, fighting for conversation and saving Mother Earth, it can make our heads spin it’s so complicated. For ecologist, filmmaker, and conservationist Chris Morgan, the solution is simple: bears. Chris is a self proclaimed bear nut. When he was 18-years-old, Chris assisted a black bear biologist with nighttime field work at a garbage dump; it was enough to change Chris’ entire life. He changed his college major to ecology, took research jobs all over the world, and helped create over 50 films and television programs about bears. Chris has spent over twenty years dedicated to protecting the world’s eight bear species and their habitats. And Chris’ work has illuminated one irrefutable fact: if we save the bear we will save the world.
“Going fast is amazing,” says professional windsurfer Zara Davis. “When you’re going over 50 miles an hour, at that point your eyeballs are properly rolling back in your head. It is like being a cork out of a bottle.” In 2012, Zara broke the 500-meter world speed record. She blasted down the course in Luderitz, Namibia at over 50 miles an hour, a feat that took years of physical and mental training, preparation, and logistics. In 2015, Zara’s record was broken and she immediately wanted to try to reclaim the title. Instead of focusing solely on the big goal, she broke it into incremental achievements.
