What stops us from practising good self-care even when we know we should? What can we do about it? We all know that practicing good self-care is important. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Sarah Janin returns to share a story of a time where she inadvertently neglected her self-care which led to some fairly serious consequences. This leads into a great discussion around some of the obstacles around practicing good self-care for us and the people that we may be leading.

Sarah is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Rock and Split Board Guide and an assistant AMGA Alpine Guide. Sarah is on the final leg of working towards becoming the first IFMGA certified Mountain Guide who has type 1 diabetes. Based in Boulder Colorado, Sarah currently works as a full-time guide and one of the head guides at the Colorado Mountain School.

Sarah joined Delivering Adventure in Season 2 to share her perspective on the importance of self-care. As a type 1 diabetic who leads an extremely athletic lifestyle, Sarah has a unique perspective on the importance and challenges of self-care.

Always candid, Sarah shares her real-life challenges and learnings. This is a fantastic conversation.

Key Insights

What are some of the obstacles to practicing good self-care and how can we avoid them:

Common Self-Care Obstacles: Cost, pressure to prioritize service to others ahead of safety to us, and embarrassment as we may be holding others up.

Macho Attitude: This is where we or the people we are leading may believe we can handle the consequences of not looking after ourselves

Recognizing Experience as an Obstacle: If we are inexperienced or younger, we may may not appreciate the long-term effects of not practicing good self-care.

Projection Bias: This is where it becomes difficult to predict how we might feel based on how we are feeling in the moment. This can also be a reason why we do not prioritize self-care.

Prioritizing Self-Care: Recognizing that self-care needs to be a necessary part of our day that needs to be prioritized. This is really step one. Being disciplined and holding ourselves accountable can help with this.

Importance of Routine: Following a routine can be extremely beneficial – of note is that one danger sign of neglecting our self-care is when we break from our routine.

Guest Bio

Sarah Janin is a full-time mountain guide at Colorado Mountain School located in Boulder Colorado. She is the only full-time female guide at this time and one of their head guides. Sarah became one of the first certified female splitboard guides in America this March of 2024 making history.

Sarah is on the AMGA track with one more exam to complete this summer. Her goal is to become the 19th certified female American Mountain Guide. Sarah will then have to pass a ski movement test in order to become IFMGA certified which will be her focus this winter.

Sarah has worked as a guide for a decade after getting to experience a few different careers before settling on her true passion. Sarah is also a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic and has been for over 43 years. She will potentially become the first diabetic certified guide this year.

Guest Links

Colorado Mountain School: https://coloradomountainschool.com/guide/sarah-janin/

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How do you build trust? The ability to build trust is an important skill for anyone who wants to build and maintain relationships. It is also essential tool for a coach, instructor and guide to have if they want to help the people they are leading to achieve adventure.

When people do not trust their leader, they are more likely to challenge decisions, question intentions and second guess direction. People are also far less likely to believe in themselves if they do not believe in their leader.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Brenna Kelleher returns to share some of the secrets to building trust. Brenna has developed a successful career as an outdoor athlete, instructor, guide and realtor. She has been an NCAA ski racer for Montana State University and claimed the 2001 Junior World Championship as a freestyle kayaker.

She has guided horseback trips in Yellowstone Park and has coached freestyle kayaking. She has also traveled to Africa leading a group of high school girls, as an educator in a semester abroad program; teaching math, travel journalism, and physical education in the distant outdoors.

Brenna is a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America’s National Alpine Team. In addition to being a PSIA Ski Instructor Examiner, Brenna is a ski instructor and guide at Big Sky Resort where she leads advanced women’s and youth-specific clinics.

Brenna joined us back in Season 2 to explore how we can build more resilient teams. In this episode she shares what it really takes to build trust as a leader.

Key Takeaways

Building trust requires us to:

Develop rapport early: This can include finding points of connectivity by finding things everyone can relate to or has in common.

Identify the Best Communication Style: Trust building involves determining how people are likely to respond to different communication styles. This also includes identifying their needs and aligning expectations.

Be Right Early to Build Credibility: Being right early by delivering value can also help to build trust at the start of a relationship. One strategy that works well is to see if you can solve a problem that someone has early in your relationship.

Maintaining trust requires us to: Deliver on promises, this can include showing up on time, meeting timelines and objectives.

Be Flexible: Keep adjusting as situations often change. Keep checking in with the people you are leading to see where expectations, needs and your relationship with them stands.

To avoid losing trust: Under promise where possible, be on time, own mistakes and respect people’s egos.

About Them: If you can make people feel good about what they have accomplished and how they have accomplished it, they will feel better about you.

Guest Bio

Brenna Kelleher has developed a highly successful career as an outdoor athlete, instructor, guide and realtor. She has been an NCAA ski racer for Montana State University and claimed the 2001 Junior World Championship as a freestyle kayaker.

She has guided horseback trips in Yellowstone Park and has coached freestyle kayaking. Brenna has traveled to Africa leading a group of high school girls, as an educator in a semester abroad program. She is currently a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America’s (PSIA) National Alpine Team.

In addition to being a PSIA Examiner, Brenna is a ski instructor and guide at Big Sky Resort where she leads advanced women’s and youth-specific clinics.

Guest Links

Brenna’s website: www.bigskybrenna.com

Instagram: @brennakelleher

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How do our human needs affect our judgement? What happens fro our decision making if our needs are not being met?

Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Bruce Wilson joins Chris and Jordy to discuss the relationship between needs and judgment.

Bruce Wilson is an ACMG Hiking Guide, a sea kayak guide and guide trainer for the Association of Sea Kayak Guides. He is an avalanche educator for the Canadian Avalanche Association.

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many qualifications and certifications.

Bruce currently instructs the Outdoor Recreation Management Program at Capilano University in North Vancouver. He also provides coaching and guiding through his company Warrior Wolf Guide Services and Coaching and teaches avalanche and survival courses for Canada West Mountain School.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Bruce walks us through the intricacies of how needs affect judgment using real life stories and examples. This is a thoughtful and engaging conversation that ends with a look at how some First Nations peoples have prioritized human needs in relation to how we contribute within a community.

Key Takeaways

How do our needs affect our judgement?

Needs Checklist: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs works like a checklist that we can use to help us to identify where people are at and what needs to happen to enable them to reach their full potential.

Psychological and Physiological Needs: When these needs are not being met, our entire focus can become consumed trying to meet them. This can cause us to develop tunnel vision as we work to get warmer or more comfortable. Being low on energy or being dehydrated can also erode our ability to collect and analyze information accurately.

Safety and Security Needs: Our risk tolerance can cause us to perceive the risk around us in ways that are not accurate. If we do not feel that we are in a physically or psychological safe space, we are more likely to ignore our other needs like feeling connected socially to a group.

Communicating Risk to Others: It’s important to ensure that we are using language and framing information in a way that allows our audience to understand the risk accurately. This can help to improve their ability to make more informed choices.

Love and Belonging Needs: People inherently want to feel that they are a part of the group. If they do not feel they belong to the group, they are more likely to make decisions that cause them to behave in a way where they are trying to increase their popularity. This can cause people to become manipulative or to undertake other attention seeking behaviours.

Esteem Needs: If our esteem needs are not met, we are going to feel that we are not respected, and we may be less likely to trust others. When esteem needs are not met, we can start to develop self doubt. This can lead to us to second guess our choices. If our confidence is being eroded, it will directly undermine our competence.

Self-Actualized Decision Making: This is when we can make reasoned and objective decisions by being open to the fact that we may not know everything. When we are self actualized, we are aware that we may not have all the answers and instead of having this undermine our confidence, it actually increases it.

Guest Bio

When it comes to outdoor education and leadership training, Bruce is literally a Jack of all trades. Bruce is an ACMG Hiking Guide. He is a sea kayak guide and guide trainer for the Association of Sea Kayak Guides. He is an avalanche educator for the Canadian Avalanche Association.

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many...