I once had a young musician come to me and say that he wanted to be a professional musician. I asked him to write his list. When he came back to me, the three things in his life he most wanted were: to be paid for his music; to travel around the world; to meet new people. We came to the decision, after thinking really creatively, that if he got a job on a cruise ship, he would fulfill those goals.
Phil KeoghanI'm not saying that you shouldn't go to college or you shouldn't finish your degree, but sometimes people have a very clear vision about what they want to do, and they just want to get on with it.
Phil KeoghanInevitably you're going to be delayed somewhere. Always have a book. Always have a movie. Always have a notebook. And then always have a sense of humour.
Phil KeoghanI'm all about nonfiction. I rarely read fiction. I like to read about things that really happened, facts, real life situations. That's what inspires me.
Phil KeoghanI really wish we could stay longer in the countries we visit, but I've been lucky to have visited most of them before, because I've done a tremendous amount of travel.
Phil KeoghanI love finding myself in the most bizarre situations, drinking cobra's blood - really diverse stories. And yet, I will still turn up on location sometimes and be surprised by what I'm encountering or by how to do something.
Phil KeoghanIf you look around my room, you see lots of lists. I'm inspired by what's up on the wall.
Phil KeoghanI'd always felt like I was going to take part in adventures in my life. That's what led me to diving in the shipwreck to begin with. But when you're faced with your own demise, you have to accept that you are vulnerable and that you are only here for a set period of time.
Phil KeoghanI love stories. When I tell a story, I try to think of people sitting around a crackling campfire.
Phil KeoghanThere was some expiration point to my life, and it became very important to maximize the time that I did have on Earth. That's what led me to my personal philosophy: "No Opportunity Wasted" - NOW for short, which is about living life to the fullest.
Phil KeoghanWe have a gift of life. What we do with that gift is dependent on the choices we make. The people who we spend time with. The things that we go out to do every day.
Phil KeoghanI'm a big fan of human dynamics. Nothing fascinates me more than really interesting people and human dynamics.
Phil KeoghanInstead of focusing on the amount of money lacking in your budget, focus on what you DO have: a willing spirit, an imagination filled with bright ideas, people who care about you and can perhaps help you in some way. These are the things that will enable you to do almost anything.
Phil KeoghanPeople ask me what the most important thing to take on the race is, and I always say it's a sense of humor. If you've got nothing but a sense of humor, you will survive.
Phil KeoghanStories have inspired me all my life. I like reading about what other people have done and it inspires me to share my own stories, and encourage people to make their own life stories.
Phil KeoghanSchools often box kids into predefined categories. But we don't know what amazing ideas, inventions, cures, and contributions all these youths really have.
Phil KeoghanOur schools are filled with this potential energy, and we need to create an environment for that energy to manifest itself.
Phil KeoghanWhere we really effect change, in terms of creating a passionate work force, is by listening to kids early.
Phil KeoghanA good storyteller can hold everybody captive without the special effects of Hollywood.
Phil KeoghanI try to encourage people to identify the things in life that they really want to do, so that over a period of time they can design or steer their life towards those things.
Phil KeoghanAll of us make assumptions about what somebody's potential is, because we all think of why somebody can or can't do something. We make terrible assumptions.
Phil KeoghanWith any good story, you need the adversary, the heroes and villains. You need a good mixture to make it work.
Phil KeoghanThere are amazing teachers, but the system doesn't always allow them to address the individual needs of a child.
Phil KeoghanI've always been about setting goals. Then when I had a near death experience at nineteen, it made it even more important to strive to achieve certain things.
Phil KeoghanWhen I hear people watched my film and then got on their own bikes and rode, whether a few miles or across America, to achieve their own goals - that excites me. It's the power of a story.
Phil KeoghanAfter more than twenty-five years in television, there are days when I feel like I'm just beginning, because I'm learning new things. I want to be better all the time.
Phil KeoghanI tell you what I love - and I think you get better as you get older - when you're younger and you don't know what you don't know, you tend to talk more about what you think you know. You shut out the opportunity to learn what you don't know.
Phil KeoghanAs you get older and you realize you really don't know as much as you think you know, you listen more. Because then you think, now I need to be more receptive to the things I don't know. That's how you learn.
Phil Keoghan