Sue Stockdale: What the Arctic Silence Does to Your Mind

Sue Stockdale answered a newspaper advertisement that asked whether she was man enough for the ultimate challenge. In 1996 she became the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole, thirty days and 350 miles across moving ice, and she joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast to describe what the cold, the silence and the fear did to her thinking. What she brought back matters more than what she achieved: the next small step as the only plan that survives something impossible, the team mates you want when everyone is a novice and nobody can leave, and the flat truth that reaching the Pole was an anticlimax. A polar explorer, executive coach and author who co-founded Access to Inspiration, Sue Stockdale also crossed the Greenland ice cap and led young people on expeditions in Chile and Antarctica. The Sue Stockdale podcast episode closes on asking for help, and why she now calls that a strength. In this conversation: what thirty days of silence does to your thinking, and how to stop catastrophising; why she calls the Arctic an environment that wants you dead; the next small step rule for a goal that looks impossible; why good team mates beat star performers when survival is shared; how to sit with discomfort when there is nowhere to go. Full episode page: Sue Stockdale on The BEYOND Podcast Watch the video episode: Sue Stockdale on YouTube Guest: suestockdale.com and Sue Stockdale on LinkedIn Host: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins. The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes every two weeks at thebeyondpodcast.com.