On April the 9th, the morning after a very late flight in from a week walking in the Azores, I met Dave Cornthwaite. I imagine to quite a few who read this blog it will be a familiar name. Dave is an energetic man in his thirties, with sunny hair and an equally sunny disposition.

He is responsible for Say Yes More. It is difficult to succinctly define Say Yes More, other than by saying it is a movement, a global community that has spawned the Yes Tribe and Yestival, and has inspired and continues to support people in redesigning their life. Central to his, and the community's, ethos around doing and the benefits of saying yes to things, is Dave’s Expedition "1000 project"; a “career” plan to undertake twenty-five journeys, each one a minimum of 1000 miles long and each one using a different form of non-motorised transport.

We met on his long boat in the Limehouse Marina on a perfect, warm spring day. The reason I found myself in this idyllic patch of E14 is because I signed up for a workshop on Making a Living from your Passions, aimed at those looking to swap a “normal” working life for something more fulfilling.

The key difference between me and the other members of the group is that I am further down the line in terms of quitting the regular world of 9 to 5 work. Yet, despite my head start, it transpired during a very open and honest discussion that I am still a little way off finding the right path. Although my goal of "redesigning" my life in 2017 is certain, it is not clear to me how it should actually look.

It's time for a cull.

This year, in which I have embarked on the process of redesigning my life, I am looking for the money-earning side of it to balance more neatly with what I love and enjoy, whether it's my activities or my family life. Excitingly this has led me to jump into a number of interesting projects, short-term consultancy roles, start-ups, voluntary work, as well as this web site and blog which continues to be both the engine driving me forward and the rails that guide me.

All well and good whilst each of these potentially rewarding avenues gets the required attention, but this is not the case. Having been in Belgrade for a week over Easter, catching up with friends and family and I did not have a chance to slow down and fully evaluate the advice from Dave Cornthwaite;

“Pick the three things that would make for the better story and go at them with all your energy” were his precise words.

Now, back into the routine and peaceful thinking time of the school run (at least in one direction) I have had the chance to reflect on these words and I have made a list of all those projects, ideas and jobs vying for my mind's equity and I am grading them according to how interesting they are or could be.

It is time for a cull.

I am currently dividing my attention between at least eleven “projects” or potential leads and none of them is really getting the devotion it deserves. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to start chipping away at this marble mountain and being a little more restrained in what I do. One consequence of this pruning exercise is that I hope to have the time to post more often on this blog.

In the meantime I have written these words on a post-it note and stuck it to my laptop: “You don’t have to do everything at once”; this time a parting comment from Emma Taylor (an integral part of the SayYesMore team), who also took part in the session. Wise words indeed. Words that resound from the Kanban board of meeting room.

This is nothing other than the principle of limiting work in progress, a crucial element of successful production from the car assembly lines of 1950s Toyota to the agile development of a Silicon Valley tech giant.

A principle that I understand, that I have worked with. A principle that I struggled and often failed to get fully embraced by colleagues in previous professional roles. These words that are familiar to me.

“You don’t have to do everything at once”. I recently warned a friend of the dangers of taking on too much. I think I may have used these exact words. And yet... it's funny how hard it can be to rationally analyse oneself. And its somewhat ironic that I need to say NO more.

IF you want to Say YES More follow these links:

Visit the SayYesMore web site and make your life more memorable.
Check out Dave Cornthwaite's workshops.
Join the YesTribe on Facebook.

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Cleveland Way - Scarborough to High Hawsker

In October 2020, my friend Dave and I walked a section of the Cleveland Way in Yorkshire over a couple of days. We started from Scarborough and walked to Ravenscar (18 km). The next day we walked to High Hawsker (15 km).

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Packrafting the River Tamiš

In July 2020, in a brief respite from the worries of the covid pandemic, I had the good fortune to be able to escape for a little adventure, spending 3 days paddling down the Tamiš river in northern Serbia, in my packraft.

Interview with Emily Woodhouse - Founder of Intrepid Magazine

I recently had the pleasure to interview Emily Woodhouse, someone who is well known and someone who has been somewhat of a pioneer in giving a voice to many women in the adventure / outdoor sports world.

In this interview Emily gives me some insight into her whirlwind entrepreneurial journey and how much there is to learn from diving into a (business) adventure.

Not only has Intrepid Magazine provided something that was missing in the outdoor space but it is doubly satisfying to know it was the vision of someone who cares passionately about the subject matter, saw the importance of it and had the courage to go through with it… although I am not sure Emily herself see it as “courage”. As she says in the interview: “I looked at the hole in the magazine world and thought: I can do that”.

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Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the wallaby)

The loch was like a mirror as we set off from Luss on Friday to explore. Having walked to the high point on Inchtavannach to admire the views, and paddled around Inchmoan, watching the deer come down to the water’s edge, we agreed to spend the night on Inchconnachan for no other reason than it appeared absolutely idyllic as the sun began to sink and the evening light bathed the lake in a silvery light.

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Weekend Adventure - From lying in the sun to crying on a plane

I have mentioned a few times that my daughter is neither naturally sporty, particularly active or indeed fearless. She is perhaps the opposite. So I was especially proud that she decided on the Saturday morning, as we dithered whether to have an hour in the water at Buzz Active Cuckmere, that this was indeed the ideal opportunity for her to go solo in a kayak for the first time.

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Canoeing the Wye: Happiness V Social Media [Video]

I had so much fun this weekend that I didn’t tell anyone about it. Imagine that! The moment was way more important to me than broadcasting about it. Yes, I know it should be, but if we are honest with ourselves, it isn’t alway, is it?

I spent Friday and Saturday canoeing down the Wye with my 7 year old daughter, from Hoarwithy to Symonds Yat. It is the first time either of us has done this kind of trip and to share this adventure together was the sort of experience that makes me go all mushy and emotional…

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Wild Night Out 2019: The Whining

Travelling in ultra lightweight style (we only carried four cricket stumps instead of the full compliment of six) Emma and I marched along the coast path, over the dunes and onto the vast sands of our beautiful coast for a perfect Wild Night Out 2019, until the high-pitched whining started…

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30 Days Wild: Suburban Springwatch

One thing I decided to do this year was leave one corner of the garden wild. I don’t know how long it will last as pressure builds from within the family to “do something” with that corner but while it does last it has had a positive effect in terms of wildlife.

Perhaps the best aspect of this experiment is the fact that every night around 9pm we have a fat hedgehog who comes through our front gate, wanders through the garden to this unkempt patch of land and roots around for a couple of hours before waddling off to check out what the neighbours have to offer.

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30 Days Wild: Freshwalks: Networking in the Outdoors

This filthy-wet month, I am trying to spend time outside in nature during my working day as part of the Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild. I cannot pretend it has been as easy as last year’s sun-drenched June when gently swaying flower meadows and deserted Norfolk beaches called out to me.

However, recently a client of mine drew my attention to an innovative and inspiring initiative getting business people into the outdoors, for Freshwalks. The benefits of which might surprise a few…

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30 days Wild: Welcome to my office

“Can you repeat that please sir?” I could hear a slightly exasperated tone on the other end of the line.

This morning, a few days into June and woefully short of what I hope to achieve during 30 Days Wild, I ventured out into the meadow to make a few phone calls. I took my office outdoors! The helpful assistant from Barclays Business Banking went off for a few minutes to find out some information, and probably to curse me as my microphone was buffeted by the breeze, that bent the tall flowers surrounding me and repeatedly flicked my hood over my head.

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30 Days Wild: Switch off with Nature

We are just a few days away from June and the start of 30 Days Wild; the Wildlife Trusts amazing initiative to get people outside, enjoying and appreciating nature.

This year, as part of 30 Days Wild I will be focussing on how nature can help alleviate the stresses and strains of work and how to get more of it into the working day.

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Do you want to live more adventurously?

The decision to change my life and live more adventurously was utterly instinctive, borne of exasperation, a last resort. I was burnt out, suffering from anxiety, depressed.

How I got to the point of changing the direction of my life was a couple of years of mental wrangling and torture, until I stumbled across some inspiration.