It’s often been said that choosing positive role-models, and learning from their positive traits is a good way to affect personal change. Well if you’re looking to learn about living a life of adventure, and reaching for your dreams, and having the guts to follow that path through ’til the very end, then Aron Ralston should set you in good stead.

The story began on Friday the 25th of April at the Horseshoe Canyon Trailhead, near the Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Aron Ralston, then an experienced 27 year old mountaineer, decided to go solo canyoneering to hopefully get to see the prehistoric artwork that still graced the mountain walls along the trail.

As his journey progressed, and just as he attempted to descend a 10ft deep narrow slot, a huge boulder gave way above him, in a frantic seconds that followed his right hand was crushed and trapped under it’s immense weight, and Aron’s life was to be changed forever.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place tells a harrowing story of survival, yet this is not a bleak book. It’s documentary writing style, puts the reader right into the desperate situation alongside Aron, hoping for salvation with each page turned.

I have come to have a lot of respect for Aron Ralston from what I’ve read and seen of his interviews. Here is a guy that quit his office job to pursue a life of true meaning. Valuing the experiences of his lifetime above the things that he owned. It made me immediately think of Fight Club in which the Tyler Durden states “The things that you own, end up owning you”, rarely are such wise words spoken.

Modern society seems to have got itself in a bit of a pickle, we work to consume products, the products that are beamed into our homes through television every night after work. The very same products that are imprinted into our consciousness through billboards, radio waves and social pressure to meet a certain standard of living. We are truly lost.

Between A Rock and A Hard Place  is really a story within a story. We are introduced to Aron Ralston because of the fate that befell him trapped under that rock and his subsequent salvation, but actually more inspiring, also perhaps a touch less dramatic is his honesty, values and determination to squeeze every possible experience out of the life he’s been gifted with.

He speaks of nature’s beauty throughout this book, and provides photographs that he’s taken on his journey across some of the highest peaks on earth. It’s this combination of stillness, juxtaposed with the frenetic battle for survival that makes this book unique. Each chapter taking us from the despair and reality of decay and death, to the liberation of conquering mountains.

Given the path that Aron chose for his life, and all the challenges that he’s faced along the way, it’s a true testament to the man that he looks back with no regrets. That he accepts the journey, and his role his choices played in what happened to him. This outlook that it’s our choices that determine our direction and ultimately our ‘fate’, that make this book such a valuable personal development tool. It’s not about how Aron beat the boulder and survived to tell the tale, there’s so much more depth to it than that. It’s about self-discovery and the power of intention, about accepting the challenges that come our way and seeing them for stepping stones to wisdom.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place is a book of hope, and I defy anyone to read it and not be affected by it’s message. We sometimes forget our dreams, in the chaos of everyday life, when our life should in fact be the dreams. We’re too busy working to notice the beauty of the sunset, and that’s such a shame. Give Aron Ralston a chance to make you question whether your life is all that it could be.

He dreamt of climbing, so he climbed.

You can find out more about Aron’s inspiring book using the amazon.co.uk link (above/right)