Focus, choose, do

The Doorstep Mile

Focus, choose, do

You have dreamed about living more adventurously, reflected on why it matters and come up with some practical steps for getting underway. The final piece of the puzzle is to decide what you are going to do. Remember: you can do anything in life, but you cannot do everything. Here we encounter the agony of decision, the abundance of choice, analysis paralysis and FOMO – our Facebook-era curse of the Fear Of Missing Out.

To ease the anxiety of picking wrong, it is worth considering the long term risk of doing nothing. That would be far worse. But we tend to undervalue that distant consideration. Humans are terrible at weighing up long term benefits versus immediate fears and the easy option. We want a six-pack, but instead we eat six packs of crisps. Our immediate emotions cloud our decisions on the future.

There is so much good stuff out there that we agonise over anticipated regrets. The sheer abundance of choice can be so overwhelming that you might end up doing nothing. Imagine being offered every flavour of ice cream that you don’t eat any because you fear making the wrong choice or can’t bear the thought of missing out on all the others.

Perhaps you have decided what adventure you want to do. You may even have begun saving and allocated time in your calendar. Your family and boss are on board. Nothing is standing in your way. (You have permission to smile smugly at this point, give this book away and get on with it.)

For many of us, the yearning for change comes well before having a clear idea of what we want to do. The paradox of choice was a challenge for me when I first started dreaming of adventure. The world was so big, and there was too much choice. I didn’t really care what I did: I just wanted to do everything. I didn’t know how to make things happen or what was the best option. I didn’t know very much at all.

How do you narrow down your choices when the whole world is beckoning?

I knew only that I wanted to head far away from everything familiar and do something physically strenuous, though I had no specific skills to rely on. Wild places appealed to me more than cities. And it needed to be cheap. Oh, and nice food would be a welcome bonus.

I said I was clueless, but if you read that previous paragraph again, I already had quite a few parameters in place without realising. It is easier than you might think to narrow down your options to a level where you can start to make decisions.

I wanted to head far away from everything familiar: this ruled out exploring the UK or Europe.

I had no specific skills. No climbing technical mountains then.

I wanted to do something physically demanding. So no vehicles or hitch-hiking.

Wild places appealed to me more than cities.

It needed to be cheap. That eliminated ocean and polar journeys. It also made sense not to do the trip in expensive countries.

Eliminating what you can’t do or don’t want to do is helpful. Far from making me sad, this simplification brings a lightness and enthusiasm for what is still available. I could now write down my thoughts more clearly than I realised.

I wanted to do something difficult, but non-technical, in Africa, Asia or South America.

It probably would be on foot or by bicycle. Cycling sounded preferable to walking.

I’d already been to Africa. Asia has better food than South America.

From having no idea what to do, I had quickly narrowed down the infinity of choice to going for a long bike ride in Asia. This led to me riding the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan to China. Until now, my unimaginative, more conventional assumption had been that I might go on a cycling holiday in Italy.

Of course, I could have gone to Papua instead of Pakistan. Maybe life would have worked out better if I had studied for an Outdoor Education certificate instead. I should have taken more time over the ride rather than treating it as a challenge to be conquered. But I will settle for the choices I did make over the unsatisfactory world of coulda, woulda, shoulda…

It is time to sift through the galaxies of options and ‘what ifs’ and pick one adventurous thing. Lay aside the bajillion other ideas and get on with it. Choose your flavour and enjoy it. You can return later and choose another. But for now, you need to stop hiding behind the reading and the pondering, the research and the dithering. Pick a path rather than waiting for a lightning bolt epiphany.

It is time to make a specific choice of which direction you will go (at least for now). Reassure yourself that all paths run out of sight beyond the horizon. They twist and fork beyond our knowledge or control. The best thing you can do then is plump for an interesting-looking direction and get moving.

OVER TO YOU:
Write down a bunch of gut feeling, top-of-the-head parameters and see where they lead. Use them to draw up a list of plausible projects. Rank these by preference.
Select one specific project that you will take into the rest of this book and turn into action.
Slash a line through all the other ideas on your list. You can return to them later, but you must discount them for now and focus on one thing.
What will be your ‘late-night McDonald’s idea’? Write it down.

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