Towards the end of last year I filed into an auditorium with a few hundred diverse people. To the naked eye we were all so different, that you couldn’t possibly imagine drawing parallels or seeing any common ground. But, even though you couldn’t see it, touch it or feel it – two hours later when we all walked out, we knew what it was.
We all had something big in common and it’s the same thing you and I have in common – no matter who you are and where you come from. It’s something that I believe binds us as human beings in a non-obvious way – and that is the need for inspiration.
Whether it is the inspiration to create an artistic masterpiece, a piece of music or a life changing string of words. The inspiration to pull you from the start and finish of a race, or the start and finish of your day. The inspiration to draw yourself out of a black hole that life has so unfairly dealt you, or to draw you towards a more purposeful life.
The inspiration to not just live, but to live fully.
Some of us battle entirely with ever being inspired while some of us are blessed with a never ending stream of inspiration, goals and purpose – but no matter where you fit on the inspiration scale, every single one of us fall entirely off the scale sometimes and need a booster shot.
Lucky for us, (and by us I mean the universal us), Lisa de Speville knew this when she created an event called FEAT.
FEAT is an annual evening of time-limited presentations. Each presenter speaks for seven minutes; on topics that range across a wide variety of life adventures.
You might be thinking –
Boring… Who wants to attend a night full of lectures… Why would I want to hear others speak about their amazing journeys… What value will this add to my life?
I could address all these points and answer all your questions and even tell you that before attending I didn’t see personal value in it, but, I’m going to do none of that and rather take you on a journey of what I experienced when I walked through the door of my first FEAT event…
I experienced the Yukon 1000 with Duncan Paul. Don’t know what that is? Neither did I!
Father and daughter Colin & Bianca Cooper taught me that you can ride over 30 000km on a single-speed Qhubeka bike with no fancy nutrition (not even a coke)! I will never forget his hilarious Sin Bin and Cool Wall routine.
Andrew Porter took me in to the wild on his solo adventures and let me into the mind games he encounters.
Hazel Moller made me feel slightly guilty for being over long distance running after only 3 Comrades marathons when she blew my mind sharing the experiences she went through during her 14th and 15th Comrades’ (and the 9 Comrades marathons she run in the 9 days prior to race day to complete the Ten10 challenge).
Jean Craven took me on six inter-continental swims.
Keegan Longueira biked from Cairo to Cape Town and sent chills down my spine when he spoke of the danger he faced along the way.
Peter van Kets doubled up as MC and speaker and showed me the Svalbard – another location I knew nothing about.
Bernie Theron took me trekking across Iceland solo – for 30 days – there were more mind games and what he shared about his feelings when he reached the end, sat on my mind. He opened up a snippet from his diary, which he wrote on the last day of his expedition, and those words will always sit with me.
“Happiness is not found at the end of an adventure but rather during the endless journey that is wishing for its end.”
The genius of Lisa is that not only does she make the videos of each FEAT talk available [FOR FREE!] after the event (as you can see above) so that you can keep the inspiration rolling all year round, but she also keeps every FEAT event unique. Different speakers, different adventures, different stories but the same levels of inspiration. What drove her to do this?
“It takes a different, special kind of courage and drive to abandon socially accepted norms (day job, family, home) to set off – often solo – on self-motivated and self-organised expeditions. Whether the adventure involves oceans, countries, continents, rivers or mountains, these achievements are extraordinary. I’ve yet to meet a person who is not captivated by tales of adventure.”
The 8th annual FEAT event will take place at the Linder Auditorium in [Johannesburg] on Wednesday, 14 September 2016. If you think it’s too soon to diarise, you are wrong! The Linder auditorium only seats 1059 people and even though the videos are made available after the event, trust me when I say you’ll want to be front and centre lapping up all the amazing inspiration on offer.
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