In this episode, I’m talking to Sebastian Bates, founder of The Warrior Academy, an award-winning global martial arts organisation which has so far been responsible for developing the character of 25,000 children across three continents. Social enterprise and philanthropy are a part of Sebastian’s charity work at the Bates Foundation. He is also a two times best-selling author in the field of character development and anti-bullying.
Having studied six styles of martial arts for 25 years and competing in four of them at a national level, Sebastian is a former international professional fighter. He is also an experienced wingsuit base jumper with over 500 jumps worldwide to his name. He was part of an elite group of extreme sports athletes pushing forward human flight until July 2014, when during a wingsuit base jump in Switzerland, his parachute collapsed when he was 50 feet from the ground.
He survived the fall but not without devastating damage to his lower body, prompting surgeons to say that he would never walk again. Unsurprisingly, Sebastian defied the odds by rebuilding his body piece by piece through a gruelling rehabilitation process and made a full recovery. He is now on a mission to inspire a generation to make a global impact.
In our conversation, he discusses,
Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:54 When do you remember first experiencing pressure?
04:43 Positive view of pressure at a young age
08:00 Pressure and success: How do you build a solid foundation?
09:33 How did you start to learn on your own?
12:11 Insight 1: Lessons learned
13:08 Was your reward always intrinsic?
16:16 The toughest pressure you had to deal with
22:32 Body & signs: the beginning of pressure
25:02 Insight 2: Lessons learned
26:17 Big & little base jumps
29:22 The connection between pressure & fear
36:40 The practice of getting out of scarcity into possibility.
39:27 How do you manage other people’s pressure?
44:58 Insight 3: Lessons learned
46:19 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to be better under pressure?
53:03 Outro
