Damian Browne | Adventurer

Damian Browne joins us on the line for episode #117 of Paddy Holohan’s No Shame Podcast. Damian is an adventurer, former professional rugby player, motivational speaker & mentally one of toughest people we know. If you needed a lift today, look no further, Auld Stock is at your service.

Damian was our first ever guest on the No Shame Podcast, at the time he was setting out to row across The Atlantic Ocean on his own, a feat he would successfully accomplish in just 63 days. He returned to the No Shame studio on episode #024 to tell us about that incredible journey. His latest appearance marks his 3rd on the show & Damian true to character, has numerous challenges & adventures to tell us all about.

During the podcast Browne talks to Paddy about the success of his 14 day burpee challenge. It was something he created at the start of Lockdown to set a daily goal, helping to keep the mind active. The challenge started with 1 minute of burpees on day 1 building all the way up to 14 minutes of burpees on day 14. It went viral on instagram with people of all ages, levels & creeds taking part, including many of his former professional rugby team mates.

Damo also talks about his February cold water challenge, which started with 1 minute in ice cold water on 1st February culminating to 29 minutes in ice cold water on the 29th of February. Damian mixed it up throughout the month, plunging into the rivers, lakes & the Sea.

Auld Stock attributes a lot of his success to his mindset & stresses the importance of staying in the present moment. He states how “it’s the only thing we can control”. We can’t control the past or the future, the more we think about the past & present, the higher anxiety levels will go. Control the controllable as Paddy likes to say. Fundamentally, on a day to day basis, It’s about finding something that keeps you in the present moment. That can be anything from Yoga, BJJ, lifting weights, whatever it is that suits you.

Prior to the Covid-19 Global Pandemic, Damian was approaching the tail end of the mammoth, Seven summits challenge. The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven Continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them & reaching the North & South poles has been dubbed the Explorers Grand Slam.

Damian had completed 5 summits, with Mount Everest the next one due to take place right around now. Browne had been 2 years into the seven Summit challenge & had been training over 6 months for his Everest bid. unfortunately the adventure came to an end due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, however Damian intends to climb Everest at a later date in 2021.

Damo touches on the challenges faced during the Seven Summits & contrasts them to his experiences rowing across The Atlantic Ocean. The king of isolation also gives us some useful tips to help counter the struggle of Lockdown. Solid advice from a man who spent 63 days alone at sea.

Compared to all that he’s conquered, self isolation looks like a walk in park. Not content with the challenge of a global pandemic, Damian is weighing up the idea of 12 months of challenges next. The man knows no limits, he believes in facing adversity headfirst, “embrace it, because eventually it comes to us all one way or another.”

Damian is a great friend of the show & never fails to lift our spirits. If you haven’t checked out episode #024 make sure to give it a watch, some proper motivational stories in there of his journey across The Atlantic Ocean.

The full episode #117 of Paddy Holohan’s No Shame Podcast is available now across all the usual platforms including Youtube, iTunes & Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from.