RL9: Tom McElroy on wilderness survival, primitive skills, and creating a fulfilling life

Complete show notes can be found at redefinedlife.com/9

Tom McElroy is a wilderness survival expert and the founder of Wild Survival.  Growing up in a wealthy town, he dreamed of escaping the common path in order to live the hobo lifestyle.  He decided to learn wilderness survival skills to enhance his ability to make it on his own and he discovered his life passion in the process. 

Tom has has taught wilderness survival skills to more than 10,000 students over the past 20 years.  He developed his knowledge by spending a year living off the land, becoming an instructor at the most famous tracking and survival school in the country, hunting with blowguns in the Amazon with the Huaorani tribe, running through Copper Canyon with the Tarahumara (Raramuri), and living with a tribal shaman in a palm thatched hut a hundred miles off the coast of Sumatra.  His diverse experiences have given him an extensive toolkit for survival in nearly any location that he now passes on to his students.

In this episode Tom shares:

• How nobody in high school believed he could live in the woods for a year instead of going to college.
• What he learned during his year living in full survival.
• How living off the land turned changed him from a bad student to a great student.
• How he trained his brain for success.
• Why we need to experience nature and how primitive skills can enhance that experience.
• What he learned from living with indigenous people around the world.
• How he feels about his experience as a cast member on Naked and Afraid.
• What advice he would give to someone looking to lead a more fulfilling life.

More Information

Wild Survival

Wild Survival Facebook

Tom's Videos

Find all his videos here.

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Music from this episode can be found here: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/unreal_dm/33850