There is nothing courageous about my story. Hundreds of thousands of our troops who have volunteered to go to Iraq and Afghanistan when their country asked have returned home with both physical and invisible injuries. Unlike me, working for a news organization that cared for me and my family with unlimited rehabilitation and resources, many of our military families may not have access to the same level of resources all the way through. Not all of them have friends and family at home like I did to root for me and pick me up on the days when I felt low.

Erik Weihenmayer is simply one of the most remarkable men I have ever met. When Erik was in ninth grade, he lost his ability to see. For many of us, navigating without vision would have restricted our world in a million different ways, but he came to a place where he decided to take “pain into purpose, darkness into light.”

I first heard about Erik through my brother, Woody, who travels with an elite pack of mountain climbers and extreme adventurers. In 2013, Erik invited me to speak at his No Barriers annual event in Telluride, Colorado. I joined an amazing roster of speakers and guests, including some injured veterans, and it was clear when Erik spoke that he had a gift.

Erik spoke then, as he writes in this book, about the decision he made that nothing would stop him from achieving his goals. He was determined that his lack of vision not be viewed as a disability, but rather as a different ability. And that is where Erik’s story becomes both interesting and inspiring.

Erik was the first blind climber to reach the top of Mount Everest. But Erik didn’t stop there. He kept setting goals for himself, moving ever forward, because in his words, he “would rather be punched and knocked flat than to be doomed to a life of quiet acquiescence.”

The mark of true heroes is that they would never use that word to describe themselves. And Erik is no different. His many accomplishments have made him famous, but none of that matters to him. “You hang your pictures up on the walls,” he wrote, echoing the words of his Everest expedition leader. “You set up your trophies, and it becomes a museum, even worse, a mausoleum.”

Erik doesn’t climb mountains or break records merely to receive medals and praise. Instead, he operates from a need to prove to himself what he can accomplish and to use his story to help others.

In 2005, Erik cofounded the nonprofit organization No Barriers USA. His goal was to help those who have suffered from mental and physical injuries understand that although there exist plenty of barriers in our lives, there is also a map, a way to navigate these barriers and even obliterate them.