Nedd Brockmann: What the Oxygen Team learnt from this running legend

Written by Patrick Fisher

Nedd Brockman. Who is he? Nedd ran across Australia, from Perth to Bondi Beach over the span of 47 days. I had the privilege to attend a ‘lunch and learn’ event in Orange recently, where Nedd was the keynote speaker and went through his journey and the lessons he learnt along the way. In this blog, I will detail my key takeaways of the run and journey, and what I learnt listening to Nedd speak.

WHY?

Why did Nedd run? Why did Nedd decide to run just shy of 4,000kms across the country? He started running and doing exercise to be more active and live a healthier lifestyle. When he originally did that he was doing a program called 75 Hard, which for 75 days straight, you have to do 2×45 minute exercise blocks (one outside) and have a healthy diet (with no cheat days). He started running for his exercise and decided after work one day to run 100kms, he laughed and said that he wanted to know his limits. This was the start. He decided to then go about his journey in doing the run across the Country and raising money for youth homelessness.

Know your Limits.

Does Nedd know his limits after his run? He answered this question with a simple “no”. He completed the run, and he did it while not being 100 percent for the whole Journey. But Nedd wanted to test his limits, and see how far he could go. Nedd has such a fantastic motivation drive, commenting on how determined he was to finish the run, and how much he wanted to inspire the country. Nedd’s journey is not over yet, he will continue to push himself and test his own personal limits.

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

My favorite part of the whole talk was this single quote. I think everyone around the world can somewhat relate to this quote, whether you are an athlete, play sport for fun, or even relate to it in your day-to-day life. Nedd lived by this quote, every day referring to it along his journey. He was uncomfortable, the whole run suffering from various injuries and not even able to get a full night’s sleep most nights. He was in pain the whole run, every kilometer of that 4,000kms, however he decided to “get comfortable, being uncomfortable.”

Persistence

Nedd is an extremely tough young man. I will detail some of his gruesome injuries throughout his journey (skip through if you have a weak stomach).

·        Day 1 – Torn Bicep

·        Day 6 – Maggots in his toes

·        Day 15 – Had lost 13kgs.

15 days in. Only a third of the way through he had suffered all of this. He also had injured his knee prior to the run, and aggravated the injury on the run. The extent of the injury was bad. He should not have been able to walk on it, yet he ran 4,000kms on it. I think Nedd is the definition of persistence, his whole run and journey, he lived by the motto of “just keep showing up”.

Nedd raised over $2 million dollars for charity. He did not complete the record for the fastest run across the country, however he accomplished his goal. He finished the run and, in the process, inspired a whole country to support him on his journey.

I have taken the information from Nedd’s talk and applied this to my own professional life. As a recruiter, I have a heavy focus on Business Development which can be challenging at times however also very rewarding. Not everything goes your way in the world of recruitment, and every day brings a new challenge, so you need to be motivated and persistent to succeed.