How Creativity Beats Anxiety: Lessons from a 325-mile Adventure Race

What a brutal, sleep-deprived endurance race that I didn't even finish taught me about fear, decision-making, and the power of creative action

(photo credit: Tony DiZinno)

We had been racing for days with no sleep — trekking along roads, and steep ravines with no trails, with sections that contained sheer dropoffs hundreds of feet below. We used our ice axes (with no ice or snow in sight) to ensure our footing and safety. We crossed countless icy rivers, scrambled over sharp boulder fields and rock outcroppings. After a tyrolean traverse across a large river (think pulling yourself and your gear while dangling from a rope - like a zip-line with no “zip”), we ascended a brutally steep 3,000 foot climb to the top of a peak. From there, we faced yet another challenge: navigating massive glacier fields on our way to the first transition area.

This was the Eco Challenge 1996 in British Columbia, Canada.

Since there was no actual race course—just hundreds of miles of unmarked terrain, with only an occasional checkpoint every 4-12 hours—we had to chart our own path using only a map and compass.

Of course, I say ‘we’, as we were a team of five. But as far as navigation goes, I meant ‘me’ since I was the team navigator. I determined the direction of our every move… and I was about to make a big mistake for a multitude of “good” reasons. It made sense in my exhausted, foggy mind. But in adventure racing as in life, your ‘good reasons’ don’t matter — there are consequences to every action. One missed turn—unchecked and unnoticed for six brutal hours—took us completely out of the race..

You see, in an environment like that, uncertainty comes at you from every direction… and you’re making little and big decisions all day long. And stopping? Only when necessary, since your every move is on the clock. Every break you take means time lost. If you stopped to calm your mind every time a decision was required, you’d be out of the race before it started. Creative problem solving and quick decision-making is just part of the game. You’ve got to be willing to make decisions… sometimes quickly. Occasionally they were ill-advised. And every now and then they were catastrophic.

In an expedition adventure race, there is no time to get lost in your feelings. If you succumb to the fear, doubt, or uncertainty about the hundreds of things that could go wrong, or you agonize about making the perfect decision at any point of the race, you’re sunk. Sure you can make a mistake, but get really good at rolling with them and finding your way in spite of them.

Since making decisions happens on the fly, you’re constantly in problem-solving mode. And that means you’re also exercising your creativity. A problem rarely comes up that you anticipated. It’s a must to engage that part of your mind that allows you to find creative solutions, think outside of the box, do things you never considered doing before, find workarounds, and adjust your idea of what is possible.

Something surprising about an environment like that - it keeps you OUT of a state of fear, doubt, anxiety, and worry. How? There’s no room for it. The speed at which you move into creative problem solving mode is so fast, that it leaves no time or space for anxiety. You’re living with the decisions you make at almost the same rate that you’re thinking about solving them. In a slight tweak to Winston Churchill’s famous words: success means going from mistake to mistake without any loss of enthusiasm.

Does that mean you don’t encounter anxiety, fear, doubt, or worry during a race of any kind? Absolutely not. But those feelings never get air to breathe because they never get your attention for long. You don’t have time to worry about the future, since the problems you’re facing in the present are coming at you fiercely and continuously.

So… what does this have to do with life outside of adventure racing… since you’re probably not leaving the front door of your house anytime soon and heading out for a 250-mile adventure!?

That state of creativity—where action replaces anxiety—isn’t just for adventure racing. It’s available to you every day. And when you access it, it squeezes out worry, doubt, fear, and anxiety simply by leaving no room for them.

Just like anxiety can shut down creativity, the opposite is also true… creativity shuts down anxiety.

But you can’t just think yourself there… this sort of creativity requires action and self-imposed time limits since giving yourself too long to think about it will put you back into worry and fear about making a mistake or doing it ‘wrong’.

So the next time anxiety creeps in, grab a pen and start writing. Pick up a guitar. Sketch something. Move your body. The key is to act fast—before worry takes over. If a moment comes along where you get stuck and you don’t know what to do next, don’t give yourself time to fret about it, make a quick decision and then figure it out as you go. Getting ‘messy’ (what happens when you make a ‘mistake’) is part of the excitement and fun.

This may not cure anxiety, but it shifts you into a healthier mental state—one filled with curiosity, wonder, adventure, and playfulness. And that beats fear every time.

With Love -

Andy

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AND… THANKS FOR READING ALL THE WAY TO THE END. I APPRECIATE YOU!!