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The Armchair Mountaineer

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Wilderness & Wellbeing BLOG

My name is Tom Smallwood and here you will find my posts and those of guests, on the positive effects of time spent outdoors.

Copy of Life Re-Design_ Monday Motivation.png

And the winner is... Me, whichever way I look at it!

October 27, 2017

I am nearing the end of a 12 day trip in which I have ignored my usual routines, including fresh air and exercise.  

Then again it is half term so these things are allowed. As a family, we have decamped to the city of Belgrade, to work, to see friends and family, and on a personal note to have some therapy on my knee in the hope of running again. 

In this maelstrom of activity; the catching up, the meetings, the blur of lights, the restaurants, lunch time beers and late nights, I have also largely ignored this blog. I plead forgiveness from myself for neglecting that which often keeps me happy and healthy. 

But a change is as good as a rest and this week I found out I have been shortlisted for the Go Outdoors Best Outdoor Blog, as voted by Go Outdoors Customers. I am delighted just to think that someone might enjoy and be inspired by reading my blog.

...if I thought my blog inspired even just a handful of people...

I have recently been doing some crowdsourcing, listening to the reasons why people don’t go out camping in the wild (article to follow soon) and most “excuses" tend to be around comfort or children.  

Over the last 12 months I have re-acquainted myself with wild places. I have also taken my 5/6 year old daughter out wild camping in summer and autumn, paddling on rivers and on short walks in the mountains. This is not because either of us is super human. Emma is a girl who never showed any propensity towards these things. She is no natural sportswoman, she has no particular love of discomfort, she has only recently started distancing herself from an unequivocal love of pink things. 

Like all children, however, she is curious. And curiosity is like a fire, the flames must be fanned..  

I sense that many people want to try things like camping in the wild - there are after all more and more communities springing up on Facebook aimed at emboldening the meek to go out and enjoy a simpler, more adventurous life, even if just for one night under the stars.  

Getting outside and existing in a slightly more analog way is not difficult, does not have to be particularly uncomfortable and it is possible with children. I would be delighted to win this Go Outdoors Best Blog Award, but if I thought that my blog had inspired even just a handful of people to get outside or to introduce the simplicity, beauty and health of nature to their kin it would surpass any award or prize. 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Check out the others for inspiration

Here, just for good measure, are links to the other nominees, all of whom, I am sure, are not blogging for awards (although they are nice) but for the joy, excitement and wellbeing that the outdoors offers them, their friends and family. 

Camping with Style

The Helpful Hiker

Get Out With The Kids

Views from an Urban Lake

Munro Moonwalker

Cairngorm Wanderer

The Outdoor Dad

Paul Kirtley's Blog

Splodz Blogz

Tags Wild Camping, Happiness
Comment
How to deal with self pity

Depression or Gratitude: How I Deal with Self-pity

August 28, 2017

But I dislike self-pity, I really, really hate it. And I think it is because deep down I know it is a fault I have always had in abundance. And one I have battled to eradicate in my own make-up for as long as I remember. But, like smoking and other dependencies, it is always there. Lurking. Self pity is always willing to prop you up like a crutch. Even when you are spent, self-pity always seems to have enough energy to enable you to spend time reflecting, reeling, recriminating, when you might be doing something positive. Self-pity is easy. Self-pity is shameful. It stops you drawing the curtains to reveal a spectacularly sunny day. 

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Tags Mental Health, Happiness, Running
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How to do less for success

Re-Designing Life: How to Do Less For Success

August 8, 2017

Someone put a request out on Twitter this week for some help with their WordPress site. Immediately I replied suggesting simply to get someone else to do the required work, and this is for two reasons; 

  • One, because I think it makes sense to outsource certain things to those who know better and will do them more quickly.  
  • Two, because your time can often be spent doing more “profitable” things. 
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Tags Happiness, Living Better
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Redesiging Life Daydreams and Diasporas

Re-designing Life: Daydreams and Diasporas.

July 19, 2017

Almost nobody here lives in Serbia. Sitting close to our table are Australian Serbs, Swedish Serbs, American Serbs, French Serbs and us, I suppose. I guess we fit into this category although I never think of Zorica and Emma (my wife an daughter) in such terms. 

There are two aspects of this that intrigue me. The first is an obvious demonstration that only those who have moved abroad and done well are in a position to afford such a place. 

Secondly I cannot help but allow my mind to wander and to imagine what kind of lives they have "at home" or do they perhaps still call this land home - the one they abandoned in search of prosperity and security for their family?

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Tags Living Better, Happiness, Serbia
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The Ultimate Selfie [Video]

February 20, 2017

I am mixing work with family fun by the beach, but it seems to me that everyone else is so preoccupied with getting that Facebook profile selfie right that they can’t actually enjoy themselves.  

I look at my daughter, who is 5 years old, and she is having a whale of a time splashing in the pool, flicking sand over her legs or jumping over what she describes as “massive” waves, but are, in reality, the lightly frothing ripples of a calm and benevolent Andaman sea. I am 41 years old and happy doing pretty much the same as her. 

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Tags Travel, Happiness, Video
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This morning's view.

This morning's view.

What Makes You Happy? [video]

February 17, 2017

I decided a while back that this is a subject I would revisit on a regular basis in my own time and in my own thoughts and consequently in this blog.

This week I am in Thailand with my family enjoying some winter sun and fulfilling some of the travel ambitions of my youth. Last week, however, I was at a large trade show in London. I spent a couple of days in meetings, talking with people about the industry in which I have worked for 12 years. It was great to meet up with some people and talk shop for a while. Invariably I discussed my own availability as a consultant with some, and the single refrain that I found myself saying over and over was my willingness to work on time-limited projects.  

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Tags Happiness, Travel, Video
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Travel Planning

February 8, 2017

When I first met my wife I remember her telling me about the happiness she derives from planning travel. Believe it or not it is a simple pleasure I had long neglected, at least since the days of my late teens or early twenties when I still used up valuable hours imagining myself on classic Alpine routes… instead of actually being on classic Alpine routes. 

Now, in this year of transformation, I find myself in a position to plan a number of interesting travels which in turn I intend to intersperse with smaller adventures. Next weekend we travel to Thailand and with us shall go a few guidebooks of the countries that make up what was once Yugoslavia (Ex-Yu). 

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Tags Travel, Adventure, Happiness
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Trail Running

Matt Mullenweg & Motivation

October 14, 2016

On my run the other day I was listening to a recent Tim Ferriss podcast. This particular episode was a simple Q and A with Matt Mullenweg from Automatic (Wordpress et al). One thing he talks about (prompted by a listener question) is some of the reasons for success and specifically that there are no guarantees.

He mentions that one of the reasons he has been successful is resilience.

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Tags Living Better, Work, Happiness
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Antequera and La Peña de los Enamorados, Andalusia, where I first contemplated making wholesale changes to my life, back in the summer of 2015.

Antequera and La Peña de los Enamorados, Andalusia, where I first contemplated making wholesale changes to my life, back in the summer of 2015.

I quit the rat-race.

September 21, 2016

Last week my life changed. Today, instead of being in an office I find myself at 9:30 am drinking a coffee with my wife, having taken my daughter to school. Shortly I shall go for a run across some Cambridgeshire fields but first I feel I must write this.

When I started writing a blog a few months ago it was simply a way of finding a reason to write and to reconnect with my personal interests. It changed rapidly and grew into a website. The subject of it was always going to be based on my love of the outdoors and mountains in particular, but I did not envisage how it might evolve and grow into a project designed, one day, to make a living. Or perhaps I didn't dare to think this.

How will it make a living? Well I’m not entirely sure yet but I hope it will help others in Finding Inspiration in Mountains and Wilderness.

But, as of today I am working almost full time on The Armchair Mountaineer. I have shelved my other full-time employment. I have left the rat-race and whilst I continue to do consultancy work and other entrepreneurial projects, I am choosing carefully. This web site is now my main "employer" in terms of time, albeit one that doesn't pay! I am sure that in due course I will write more about the reasons for my decision to drastically change tack and about the crucial support from my wife in taking this decision. 

I am looking at a future filled with new challenges, many of which I hope will not only be outside the office but actually in the great outdoors, from longer distance travel to weekend micro-adventures.

It's a long road but it is leading me where I want to go. 

Yesterday the traffic to the site was 15. After nearly 20 years working with online businesses I understand that this is not quite enough to monetise. However what the site is doing successfully is reconnecting me with the things I love; the wilderness, the outdoors and mountains.

For too long I have neglected these passions and it took a mixture of occupational burn-out, a dissatisfaction with the often inflexible formats of working life and some inspiring people to push me back to focus on what brings me pleasure. I can’t help feeling it is a point I could have arrived at sooner and with a clearer head but such is life. The important thing I feel is that I reached a fork in the road and I chose the less-trodden path. 

I would like to be clear that this does not mean I have lost my appetite for hard work. I have set up my own businesses in the past and been reasonably successful. The entrepreneurial spirit in me is still alive and well.

However, now I am looking at a future filled with new adventures and challenges for myself and my family, many of which I hope will not only be outside the office but actually in the great outdoors, from longer distance travel to weekend micro-adventures.

Right, time to get my trail running shoes on. For those interested below is a list and some notes on the people that inspired me to make a drastic life change.

Who has inspired me?

Escape the City - website - @escthecity

Escape the City describe their mission as being “To help 1,000,000 people find work that they love”. Their communities (tribes) give like minded people the chance to exchange ideas and garner support and learnings from each other. They also have a programme helping people engineer a career change all aimed at Escaping the City and doing something out of the desire and passion to do it. This may mean teaching English in Africa or launching some tech start up. Escape the City provides not just coaching to help the kind of transformation I have been looking to do but also effectively supplies a "safety net” of like-minded individuals to spur you on. 

Now, here’s the kicker; above is my understanding because in truth I never actually "used" Escape the City. I signed up. I thought long and hard about it and I decided it was worth the money, but in the end, unfortunately, the timing wasn't right. I apologise to the founders for not having supported them financially but, as daft as it may seem, the thought of such a thing as Escape the City existing fills me with confidence, as if a safety net were there. If I get something wrong in my new life I can go to them and give it another go with renewed encouragement to find that thing that I love. I am not alone. 

Tim Ferriss - 4-Hour Work Week - @tferriss

When a friend (and business partner) of mine gave me a copy of The 4-Hour Work Week I was very cynical. Like many people self-help of any sort was something of a con, in my mind. Ironically it was at a time in my life when I really needed it. Anyway when I eventually got around to reading this book, it caused me to change a few of my working ways and inspired me to concentrate on aspects of my life that were important to me. 

"Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan" 

Whilst I still think a lot of the ideas are out of reach for many I found by taking the elements from the book that fit my life and my aims I was able to streamline certain aspects of my work, personal life and to focus better on what really matters to me. What is particularly poignant to me is the principle of finding a way to do the things you enjoy. I have employed this in many small ways to avoid the "deferred-life plan" which so many of us tend to follow.

For more details on what I took from it you can read a blog post here. 

Sarah Williams - Tough Girl Challenges - @_TOUGH_GIRL

Sarah Williams is the host of the Tough Girl Podcast which is aimed at inspiring women to greater challenges through her interviews with… inspiring women of course. Now, it is not actually her interviews that have inspired me, although plenty have been interesting. Sarah used to work as banker in London but after eight years she left her job. like me she says she wasn’t either “happy or fulfilled”. 

I think I came across her podcast more than a year ago and it is the occasional mention of her own story as well as similar tales from some of her guests that actually helped inspire me to think about changing my own life.  

My friend Dan.

Sadly you don’t all know my friend Dan. He is a singular-minded individual who has had the strength of character to follow certain dreams and aspirations that have led him to live an interesting and admirably unconventional life. I have not asked him if he is fulfilled. I don’t know if he has any regrets about the path he has taken but I do know that he has done things that many would not have the courage to do - me included.  From walking the length of the Pyrenees, the GR20 in Corsica, the Lycian Way in Turkey or travelling in India, living in the French Alps, sailing around Thailand or taking up open water swimming just because... the list of his adventures is long and, as he looks towards joining a sailing trip across the Atlantic later in the year, it doesn't look as if he has run out of ideas. 

As you can see from this brief summary some years ago he embarked on a life driven by an appetite for discovery, of the world and of the individual. The safety net of the world one knows can also be stifling. By removing himself from it he has been on many an outdoor and travel adventure that has made him grow into an inspirational person to me. He has run, jumped and plunged into life and in doing so I am sure he has challenged himself in ways he never imagined he would. Or perhaps I do him a disservice, perhaps he knew exactly how he wanted to challenge himself. Whatever the truth is he has set an example to me of what is possible and helped rekindle the smouldering embers of my own passion for outdoor adventure. 

Let the fire burn bright.  

 

Tags Living Better, Happiness, Work
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Dominican Republic

How to buy a little Happiness

February 10, 2016

Has there ever been a more stressful time than the present? There is so much vying for our attention in the modern world and there is so much peripheral “noise” and pressure weighing directly on individuals that it seems any small changes we can make that may, in their turn, reap wider benefits to our psychological health should be considered. This is one small change I have adopted.

BOOK NOW!

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Tags Travel, Living Better, Happiness
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St Lucia Sunset

Have I achieved the 4 Hour Work Week?

January 25, 2016

This week I am posting about Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week, simply because I have recently got into his podcast and it took me back to re-reading one or two chapters from the book. There is in fact not a lot I can say that has not already been said about this book but I can illustrate briefly my experience.

It was given to me by a friend who recommended it highly. I said thank you, flicked through it and put it on a shelf.

For 3 years.

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Tags Work, Happiness, Living Better
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Immigration, Immigration, Immigration.

December 11, 2015

It wasn't the first and it won't be the last school I visit. At 13:45 this afternoon Mrs Lee, the headteacher was just showing me around the classroom in which my daughter would be integrated. My eyes drifted across the inevitable mess left by a horde of 4 year olds and I was only half listening to her earnest spiel when my phone rang again. It was the second time in as many minutes and I excused myself. I expected to cut off my wife telling her I would call back later.

I didn't have time. She answered with a smile in her voice that had been missing for the last couple of months.

Before I could speak she blurted out the words I had lost hope of hearing before Christmas; "I've got my visa".

"Thats great I'll call you back shortly, I'm at the school". As I spoke the words they seemed utterly weightless and insignificant. I ended the call, turned towards Mrs Lee, apologised again for the interruption, and burst into tears.

The last weeks, for a variety of reasons have been stressful. Our daughter has struggled with her moods being without her mother and as we have travelled between the UK and Vienna to see mummy each visit has become more painful. The whole marriage visa application process, apart from being mildly intrusive, also seems almost wilfully complex and unfair - designed to turn people away.

So Mrs Lee, an acquaintance of less than half an hour, was left to pick up the pieces of my emotions as they spilled out. Perhaps more used to blubbing 4 year olds, the sight of a 40 year old man wiping tears of relief and repeatedly apologising after receiving a 20 second phone call probably did nothing to enhance my reputation as a stable parent of a prospective pupil at her school.

So my thoughts turn to all those families of lesser means split up by thousands of miles and a system that questions, ad nauseum, the motives of those looking for a better life. In the grand scheme of things my family is fortunate and, whilst I understand certain reasoning behind the visa process, I can't help but feel pity for the husbands, wives and children left miserable and lonely, waiting, hoping to one day be re-united. 

Tags Travel, Happiness
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