With a host of seriously impressive accolades under his belt including former Marine, Special Forces, and being lead instructor on two of Channel Four’s hot shows, SAS: Who Dares Wins and Mutiny, we chat to Ant Middleton about his ultimate survival tips and some surprising things we didn’t know about him.
Tell us about what we can expect from your upcoming tour?
I’m going to talk about my military tour and the lessons I’ve learnt along the way. It’s also going to be about everything I’ve done with SAS: Who Dares Wins and Mutiny, and what sort of mindset I used to get through.
There’ll be some behind the scene bits and some stories as well as some motivations stuff; hopefully you’re going to be leaving the tour wanting to take on the world. [laughs]
What’s your biggest motivation in life?
My biggest motivation in life is my family; my wife and children but alongside that, I’m hyper competitive, I look at life as one big challenge.
You know, I look at anything in front of me and I won’t let it beat me, so even if I do fall, which I do quite often, I get back up and look at the obstacle and think how best to challenge that – whether that’s physical, psychological or just everyday life.
What’s your ultimate survival tip?
Keep calm! When you find yourself in a stressful situation, the most important thing to do, and it’s hard, is to stay calm and acknowledge the situation that you’re in.
If you’re in a hard situation, acknowledge where you are and that’s when all your survival instincts will kick in naturally.
Is there one thing that you can’t live without?
Do you know what, I like being in hostile environments; you know, if you took me in the jungle naked it wouldn’t bother me.
Believe it or not, I do like to keep my hands clean. Commuting quite a lot, I’m travelling quite a lot, I find myself washing my hands all the time for some bizarre reason. So, let’s say soap!
When you want to give up, what’s the one thing that keeps you going?
When my body wants to give up, I go into a stand off with it. I think to myself, how dare you betray me, how dare you try and bring me down!
That’s when my mindset kicks in ; I sort of go into a mindset where my mind and body try to out do each other. I think to myself, right I’m not going to let my body beat me on this! I split my personalities into two and they battle each other till the death.
Finally, what is one thing that we don’t know about you?
I’m an Arsenal fan… not a lot of people know that about me!
By Sophie Bird
With tickets to Ant Middleton’s tour already sold out at Cheltenham Town Hall, tickets are still available for the Bath leg of the tour on Thursday 8 March 2018.
For more information or to buy tickets, call 08448 889991.
