Having just spent a year exploring the single map that I live on, just 20km x 20km (and writing a book about it), I’ve been reflecting about how it compares to the four years I spent cycling 46,000 miles across five continents (and writing books about it 😃). They were both big, long projects that changed the way I looked at the world and shifted the priorities in my life.

Round the World by Bike

• I wanted to look differently at how I was living my life, and dare myself to try something new.
• I didn’t know how the journey would unfold, but I enjoy that element of surprise in my life.
• The first day made negligible impact of the scale ahead. I had to accept that each small day was no big deal, but if I could keep going the end result would feel greater than the sum of its parts.
• I didn’t know if it would be how I hoped it would be, and I gave myself permission to give up if I really didn’t want to persevere. I wanted the experience itself to be rewarding, not merely reaching the finish line.
• I had to be willing to begin something that I may not be able to finish. That does not mean that I would quit as soon as things got hard, but it did stop me being paralysed by over-thinking things before I started.
• Getting started was difficult, but as momentum and confidence increase then the odds of you quitting drop and drop.
• It was a slow, simple project.
• Responsibility for keeping going was entirely intrinsic: it was up to me. Nobody else cared whether I kept going or quit.
• The secret superpowers necessary were curiosity and enthusiasm.
• Every day was about spending time outdoors. Even when it was cold or rainy, I appreciated that (albeit sometimes only to remind me to be grateful for a warm house and a soft bed!)
• The slower I travelled, the more interesting the journey became.
• The more I paid attention, the more I noticed, the more I learned, the more interesting the journey became.
• The journey changed the way I look at the world, and it gave me strong feelings that this world is too beautiful, this life is too precious, to waste.

A Single Map

• I wanted to look differently at how I was living my life, and dare myself to try something new.
• I didn’t know how the journey would unfold, but I enjoy that element of surprise in my life.
• The first day made negligible impact of the scale ahead. I had to accept that each small day was no big deal, but if I could keep going the end result would feel greater than the sum of its parts.
• I didn’t know if it would be how I hoped it would be, and I gave myself permission to give up if I really didn’t want to persevere. I wanted the experience itself to be rewarding, not merely reaching the finish line.
• I had to be willing to begin something that I may not be able to finish. That does not mean that I would quit as soon as things got hard, but it did stop me being paralysed by over-thinking things before I started.
• Getting started was difficult, but as momentum and confidence increase then the odds of you quitting drop and drop.
• It was a slow, simple project.
• Responsibility for keeping going was entirely intrinsic: it was up to me. Nobody else cared whether I kept going or quit.
• The secret superpowers necessary were curiosity and enthusiasm.
• Every day was about spending time outdoors. Even when it was cold or rainy, I appreciated that (albeit sometimes only to remind me to be grateful for a warm house and a soft bed!)
• The slower I travelled, the more interesting the journey became.
• The more I paid attention, the more I noticed, the more I learned, the more interesting the journey became.
• The journey changed the way I look at the world, and it gave me strong feelings that this world is too beautiful, this life is too precious, to waste.

😉