Ep. 92 Pete Conroy on catastrophe, courage and what happens after the worst day of your life.

How often do you think about worst case scenarios? Contemplate fate or imagine catastrophes or run the gamut of ‘what ifs?’ 

The reality is that none of us really know what’s coming down the life pipes next … as famed author Joan Didion wrote “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You can sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”

For Pete Conroy, that instant came on the most ordinary of mornings - the third of November, 2022.

It was dead quiet on the peninsula that day. Pre-dawn. Pre-birdsong. Pete was driving to work, thinking about the day ahead, staring into the darkness, thinking about maybe an ocean swim at Dromana later on, about dinner tonight, about working on his golf handicap on Saturday. 

Just an ordinary morning. On an ordinary day. That with no warning, suddenly turned into the worst day of Pete’s life.

In the darkness, in an instant, everything would change: the life Pete loved, the body he lived in, the world he knew and the way he moved through it.

The Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius once wrote: “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”

This is a conversation about that kind of strength, and the story of a truly remarkable man who chose to meet the very worst of what happened on an ordinary day with unimaginable grace, superhuman grit and extraordinary good humour.

As Pete says in this episode: “Every human’s got their own Everest. Some are bigger and steeper than others but at some stage, everyone’s got to make the climb.

This is the story of Pete’s climb. 

Guest: Pete Conroy
Powering Up Pete: Donate here
Instagram: Powering Up Pete
Host: Mads Hanger (Grummet)
Producer: Audio Superstar Daryl Missen

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