Authbition Weekly — Everything Is Possible
Pushing limits, honoring boundaries, and finding peace in between
Welcome to the weekly newsletter for Authbition—it’s Authenticity and Ambition. It’s the best of the best, built on vulnerability, non-attachment, caring, thoughtfulness, and whole-mindedness.
I had the words of Vidya Sury in my head as I struggled to fall asleep on Friday night. “Anything is possible,” she said while reading her essay, Second Innings, New Beginnings, for episode A023 of Authbition. It’s a story of leaving behind a six-figure career, caring for her mother through illness, and slowly stepping into her true calling as a writer.
The next morning, I was set to do the most challenging mountain bike race of my life. So here I was, in my Airstream at Davidson River Campground in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. Abby and the dogs were all sleeping while my mind was reeling.
“Why am I doing this? No one is making me do this. I have a friend in town who wants to go ride on Sunday. I could skip the race, spend the day with Abby, then ride with friends on Sunday. That’ll be much more fun.”
And there was Vidya, reminding me of the possibilities. I was finally able to fall asleep, after crafting a statement I’d tweet the next morning just before the race.
A tweet from the Authbition account reads: “I don't know what I'm capable of unless I push myself to try things that appear to be beyond my limits. Sometimes they are. Sometimes I climb higher than expected. Every time, I learn something new about myself.” The tweet ends with hashtags: #Growth #GrowthMindset #mtb #pisgah #pisgah555.
Eleven hours into the race, I was standing at a peak in the forest and took a photo of the sun setting. After 8000 feet of climbing, and standing at an elevation of 4000 feet in Pisgah Forest, I knew the ride down to the finish line would be in the dark - the moonlight blocked by the dense canopy cover over the trail.
I finished the race in twelve hours and twenty minutes. Abby greeted me at the finish line. The trials and tribulations of that race are a whole story yet to be written. I climbed higher than expected, and I finished the race with the synergy phrase that Vidya and I found while playing The Whole Mind Game together: Inner Peace.
Watch or listen to Vidya’s Story and our Whole Mind Game exploration
YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music
Highlight Essay of the Week
The Night I Found Out I Hate Horror Movies by Jojo Teckina
Jojo’s essay is the other side of this week’s mountain. While I pushed my limits at Pisgah, she describes the moment she learned to honor hers. At ten years old, she sat through a low-budget horror movie that haunted her for decades — not because of the gore, but because she realized some things shouldn’t be witnessed.
In the story, young Jojo gets wise advice from her father — a reminder that sometimes strength means knowing when to look away to keep your spirit whole.
Together, Vidya’s courage to begin again, Jojo’s wisdom to step back, and my own drive to climb higher form a kind of whole-mind triad: possibility, boundary, and discovery. Sometimes peace comes from going further. Sometimes it comes from knowing our limits. Both come from experience.
Thank you for taking the time to read, listen, and watch Authbition. I appreciate you.
Sharing Authbition with your friends and letting me know what resonates is the energy that keeps this podcast journey climbing higher.
Health, happiness, kindness, respect
for every being and all things.
— Andrew
