Speaker shares lessons of survival, success.

• Author: Huhtala, Sari
• Position: Yvonne Camus

From the depths of the jungles of Malaysia to a 650-foot vertical rappel along a steep cliff, Yvonne Camus leads 12 her audience through a 500-kilometre Eco-Challenge race with a powerful message of self-determination and self discovery.

At the heart of her message is the challenge, not the challenge of winning the race, but rather the challenge of self-improvement.

Camus, a business executive and life enthusiast, was the keynote speaker at the Influential Women of Northern Ontario Awards Luncheons held in Timmins and in Thunder Bay in May.

Camus accomplished a life goal by completing the EcoChallenge race as the female member of Canada's Team Sunlight. Her fascination with performance excellence has led her to deliver presentations in the areas of service, sales, motivation, teamwork, leadership and life balance that have benefited companies all over North America.

The race, to be completed in 12 days, is intended to break teams and break people down, she said.

Camus firmly believes a person's experiences are shaped by his or her thoughts. What you believe to be true, you will create, she said. Camus applied this concept to her experience in the first leg of the race.

"12 hours into the race I wanted to quit," Camus said. "It was harder than anything I could ever imagine. So I decided I was going to quit after the 36-hour mark...and I planned every detail about how I was going to quit after the bike leg of the race.

But after the bike leg her team mates were so excited, she opted to continue the race onto the next leg into the jungle. About one hour into the jungle she informed one of her teammates that she was going back, and that she was dropping out of the race.

Her teammate said to her that it was fine if she wanted to quit, but asked her to quit at the next checkpoint, and she agreed.

"At that moment in time nothing changed physically," Camus said. "The only thing that changed was one single thought that I wasn't going to go back to the checkpoint, but I would make it to the next checkpoint."

Changing her mindset to focus on making it to the next checkpoint, rather than dwelling on thoughts about how difficult the race was at that moment in time, eventually helped her find the will to complete the race.

"That's why I believe that whatever you say, you create," Camus said.

Camus...