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“The one thing I knew was my biggest asset going into it was my mind and I believed that, especially in a course like this, 90 per cent of getting through it is the mind \u2013 simple as that,” the 44-year-old says.<\/p>\n
“I knew that I was going to tell myself, no matter how sore I was when going to bed or waking up, I would say ‘okay, you’ve got to go again, you are going to get through this’.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to give it my all and the biggest thing I did not want to have\u00a0was regret.<\/p>\n
“I did not want to come home and be sitting on the couch with the family watching, knowing that I gave my number in. That would have killed me.”<\/p>\n
Mark says his greatest challenge came at the end of day two when his knees \u2013 which have undergone multiple surgeries – swelled up like balloons.<\/p>\n
“I was freaking out and all these negative thoughts started coming into my head and I just had to push them out and tell myself ‘you’ve got this, one task at a time’.<\/p>\n
“Day five the swelling was pretty much gone, my body starting adapting and I got mentally stronger.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mark says while he would have liked to gain selection at the end, he respected the decision and still took away positives from the experience.<\/p>\n He says he learned a swag of things but there were two key take-aways for him personally.<\/p>\n Firstly, that he is capable of much more than he thought and, secondly, failure can be a positive.<\/p>\n “The word failure, I hated the word failure, I was very uncomfortable with the word failure,” he says.<\/p>\n “But I learned to say ‘okay, you failed that, but how are you going to come\u00a0back stronger and take yourself to the next level?’.<\/p>\n “To become comfortable and excited by the word failure is incredible.”<\/p>\n Mark says he had amazing support from his wife Silvana and children, Nicholas and Maia, who would have been proud no matter how far he went on the show.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/IMG_6478-300x300.jpg\")
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