Sweat, Pain, and Persistence

What a brutal bootcamp taught me about resilience

I’ve been thinking a lot about challenges lately, and the steps we take to get where we’re meant to be.

This photo was taken in August 2019 in Phuket, Thailand, about six months before the world shut down. On a whim, I joined 17 fitness enthusiasts for a two-week bootcamp many call one of the toughest on the planet. I was the only American. We stretched ourselves, literally and figuratively. We sweated through two grueling workouts a day. We ice-plunged. We endured daily deep tissue thai massages so painful they felt like penance. We were fed like kings and queens and weighed at every inch.

But the real work? That was ours alone to face.

Being yelled at. Training in the sweltering sun. Running drills as warm rain slipped down our backs.

This moment is permanently etched into my memory for two reasons.

First, it was one of the few times in my life I had to rely entirely on my body to carry me through. I was 9,000 miles from home with nothing familiar to fall back on except my own grit.

Second, it taught me something about the steps we all fear. There’s a line I once heard:

“The steps in front of us seem enormous...until we start taking them.”

That day, the workout was simple but brutal: a 4.5-mile climb to the Big Buddha with your partner, switching off every few minutes while carrying 20-lb kettlebells in each hand. Ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Blazing sun. No shortcuts.

I never wanted to quit, but I did wonder how long it would take us.

Eventually, we reached the base of the statue, and the reward was sweeter than anything they could have served us at camp.

In 2019, I was just five years into my first cancer remission. Today, eleven years later, I’m only one year into my second.

For anyone who is yearning to be free of whatever weighs on you, whatever grips you, squeezes you, or tries to bring you to your knees, remember this:

We can all speak to the wound, but the real magic is in the walk.

Ask any great leader, and I’ve had the privilege of interviewing hundreds who will tell you the same thing:

“Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

And when you do that, step by step, the world eventually has no choice but to follow.

I’m Savio P. Clemente, a journalist, keynote and TEDx speaker, two-time cancer survivor, resilience strategist, board-certified wellness coach (NBC-HWC, ACC), and best-selling author. Following a life-saving stem cell transplant — what doctors call a medical rebirth — I help leaders and high-achievers convert life’s fiercest challenges into actionable growth, adaptive resilience, and transformation.

My lived truth of turning breakdowns into breakthroughs, and my latest leadership insights can be found at → 🔗 saviopclemente.com ↗