Aron Ralston

"You know me as the guy who cut his arm off. But this is the story of the guy who was smiling when he cut his arm off," explains Aron Ralston, who faced 6 days of unimaginable adversity with surprising gratitude. An extraordinary example of the human spirit pushed to the extreme, Aron's legendary tale of survival and post-traumatic growth personifies resilience, perseverance, and the power of our minds. Using evocative detail and bright humor, Ralston captivates and transports audiences into the intense darkness of his entrapment, through to the euphoric release of his amputation. In his adept storytelling, the boulder that crushed his arm becomes a metaphor for the adversity we all experience in our personal and professional lives. Aron urges us to reframe those challenges as the crucibles which clarify what's important to us and what's possible for us. Ralston's thesis is that, while we can't always control what happens to us, we can control how we respond, and he openly shares how that philosophy guided him through his recovery in 2003, as well as his later experiences with depression and divorce, and, more recently, the death of his father.

Aron teaches simple steps for embracing a crisis, rather than resisting it. He reminds us to breathe deeply and connect with our most profound motivations -- not just the will to live, but the will to love -- in order to find our courage. Ralston emphasizes how compassionate accountability for our mistakes enables us to choose a future of growth, resilience and thereby discover gratitude for the hardship we encounter, as it can both strengthen and soften us. At a time when life's boulders are more intense than ever, Aron Ralston helps us each find the possibility in our problems, the transformation in our traumas, and the blessings in our boulders.