The sheer amount of ways that David Blaine tried and researched in order to hold his breath for 17 minutes was insane.  Obviously, at the beginning, he tried to get away with not doing it at all, but eventually the solution just became clear to him; he just needed to do it, not find ways around it.

I think that from there, his research on the subject of holding one’s breath did the most for him, not the fancy gigs that he wound up with along the way. He found out how to purge himself, and did so every morning; he found out that movement cut down big time on his oxygen supply; and he found out the different ways that made his goal of holding his breath significantly more difficult. Finding the first steps of slowing the heart rate and calming the whole body down really allowed him to move into the part of holding the breath that took willpower.

His sheer will to reach his goal, I think, also had a LOT to do with his success. The trials that he mentions beforehand – standing on top of a 100 foot pillar for 36 hours, freezing himself in a block of ice, being buried alive for a week – all had to do with his taking medical impossibilities as a personal challenge, and rising up to meet the obstacles. Obviously, this didn’t always work, according to his first failure to stay underwater, but he tried again, and pushed himself more and more not to fail. When he was being filmed on Oprah, he realized that there was “100% chance” that he would not be able to make it to 17  minutes, and that was at the 8 minute mark. But he stuck it out for another 9 and a half minutes, and he made it! If that’s not sheer willpower I don’t know what is.

Overall, I just really have to respect his ability to try and try and try, reforming his process and keeping with the basics, just to reach his goal. That kind of temerity is something that I’ll have to try for myself.