The Doorstep Mile

Interviews often ask, 'what advice would you offer to your younger self?' A more useful question is to ask what advice an older version of yourself would offer to you now. Our actions today have a direct bearing on our future selves, hence why we have savings accounts and plant apple trees.

Show Notes

Back to the future

Interviews often ask, 'what advice would you offer to your younger self?' A more useful question is to ask what advice an older version of yourself would offer to you now. Our actions today have a direct bearing on our future selves, hence why we have savings accounts and plant apple trees.
Sometimes when I'm sitting on a train, I like to look at everyone around me and make guesses about their lives. Each person acts as either a warning or an inspiration for the direction I want my life to go. 
So heed some encouragement and caveats from your 80-year-old self. Write a letter from 'future you' to 'current you'. What would they tell you to do with your life? What will they think about where you are right now? What would they plead with you to change? 
This is the idea of 'backcasting': if I want to end up there, what direction must I walk and how quickly? If I continue on my current path, where will that put me when I'm 80? 

A similar but opposite exercise is to write a letter to your future self. Picture where you want to be in a year or five. What are your hopes and dreams for that person? Declare what you will do today to try to make them happen. This is the less epic equivalent of Ulysses lashing himself to the mast. He wanted to listen to the Sirens' song but first commanded that his men must not change course under any circumstance. 
Try this exercise in self-accountability on www.futureme.org. The website emails the message to yourself at a chosen point in the future. It is an opportunity to hold yourself to account. You can also opt to make the letter public if you really want to be held to task.

OVER TO YOU:
- Write a letter of advice from your 80-year-old self to you today.
- Send a message to your future self.
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What is The Doorstep Mile?

Would you like a more adventurous life?
Are you being held back by a lack of time or money? By fear, indecision, or a feeling of being selfish or an imposter?
Living adventurously is not about cycling around the world or rowing across an ocean.
Living adventurously is about the attitude you choose each day. It instils an enthusiasm to resurrect the boldness and curiosity that many of us lose as adults.
Whether at work or home, taking the first step to begin a new venture is daunting. If you dream of a big adventure, begin with a microadventure.
This is the Doorstep Mile, the hardest part of every journey.
The Doorstep Mile will reveal why you want to change direction, what’s stopping you, and how to build an adventurous spirit into your busy daily life.
Dream big, but start small.

Don’t yearn for the adventure of a lifetime. Begin a lifetime of living adventurously.
What would your future self advise you to do?
What would you do if you could not fail?
Is your to-do list urgent or important?
You will never simultaneously have enough time, money and mojo.
There are opportunities for adventure in your daily 5-to-9.
The hardest challenge is getting out the front door and beginning: the Doorstep Mile.

Alastair Humphreys, a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, cycled around the world for four years but also schedules a monthly tree climb. He has crossed the Empty Quarter desert, rowed the Atlantic, walked a lap of the M25 and busked through Spain, despite being unable to play the violin.

‘The gospel of short, perspective-shifting bursts of travel closer to home.’ New York Times
‘A life-long adventurer.’ Financial Times
‘Upend your boring routine… it doesn't take much.’ Outside Magazine

Visit www.alastairhumphreys.com to listen to Alastair's podcast, sign up to his newsletter or read his other books.
@al_humphreys