These principles broadly work from the starting point that you should work out the best possible plan and execute this to your ability. Now assume everything goes wrong. Train for this possibility, and you'll always be ready.
The final thing I'd say is that, whatever you're setting out to do, many people have done this before, often with less gear, knowledge, and fitness. You'll be fine as long as you believe that. Otherwise, you're fucked. The good news is, this is entirely up to you.
Looking back on 2021, I realise the investment I made in myself to go out and do hard things. Often by myself. Not by choice, but I'm not going to wait around for someone else to turn up and hold my hand. This is arguably the best investment I have ever made.
That's the metaphor of life. We think we have so much time, we think we get to make the choices, but by the time we realise the fragility and shortness, it's too late. The ride was almost over before I realised I was running out of time, as is often in our lives.
There are two types of 1% clubs. There is the one with limited membership, where you need to displace someone else to get in. The 1% club I care about is spending 1% of your time (days) doing something well beyond what you usually do. That’s three days a year, four if you round up.
Hardship training is a way of understanding who you are physically and mentally by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and working out how to get out of them. A small component of hardship training is learning how to suffer, or what I’d describe as the negative space. Most hardship training is going somewhere uncomfortable and then working out how to get back to comfortable(ish), being in a positive space. Hardship training is doing the opposite of what you currently do.
Reward structures are what we use to convince ourselves not to quit when we encounter difficulty. The strength of your reward structure determines the level of difficulty and the duration you can tolerate the experience.
One of the most common misappropriations is to compare ourselves to those from an earlier time. The basic narrative is that people used to do hard things, and I should also be able to. If you wake up cold, wet and hungry, trust me, you'll get up and get going for no reason other than to warm up. If you're in a comfortable space, it’s much harder.