My name is Tom Smallwood and here you will find my posts and those of guests, on the positive effects of time spent outdoors.
Do you enjoy the great outdoors? Has it had an impact on your life? Perhaps you have just been wild camping for the first time, perhaps nature has helped you to cope with a difficult period in your life or maybe you have been on an epic travel adventure across several continents.
We would love for you to share your stories of success, failure, transformation and adventure with 3500 readers every month...
Read MoreIt turns out it is possible to spend a long weekend in Adelaide. But, no matter how many beers you drink or how many songs you sing, it is quite tiring.
Anyway, in going to great lengths (literally) to prove this fact I did of course ignore this blog. Now, somewhat unsure whether it is dinner time or breakfast, I present a mish mash of stuff that has happened recently. Normal business will be resumed next week (probably).
Read MoreThe time has come to announce the winners of the The Armchair Mountaineer 2017 Writing Competition.
Once again a huge thank you to everybody who took part. It is the first competition to have been run on the pages of this site and I think it was a great success. I sincerely hope there will be many more!
The competition has been judged by Sarah Lister, Alex Roddie, Chris Townsend and me. Each of us cast our votes blind. In fact there were some very differing opinions which really goes to show there wasn’t much between the top few!
Read MoreWhen I set up the writing competition I was thinking very much about my own story; how I have spent more time outdoors in the last year than in the previous 10 and how nature as been both a catalyst and a coping mechanism when re-designing my life...
Read MoreThat is after all, one thing I would like it to do.
It has been just over a year since I started to write this thing in earnest and any form of encouragement, from awards to a friendly comment from wife, is very welcome.
The other day on Twitter someone asked me if I make money from the Armchair Mountaineer. Although I have been asked to write a couple of articles and I make a little trickle of cash from affiliate links, any revenue this web site brings me is very much in the "beer money” category.
But I am ok with this. For now. It doesn't mean I am not serious about it but I recognise that I must earn my stripes, I must grow my following and I must build something that can be monetised through a receptive and engaged audience, gear reviews or perhaps simply volume of traffic.
I didn’t start out with a curated plan as to how I would earn from it, but I always had an idea to write a book about my love of the outdoors and its role in my life re-design. It is a blessing that I am not in a hurry. It is a blessing that I have other means of income and it is also a blessing that this blog is as much about inspiring myself, and others like me, as it might one day be about making money.
The outdoor industry; this "business sector”, for want of a better phrase, is not renowned for its millionaires. But I have been struck, in this year of re-designing my life, that I have seldom come across a fellowship of friendlier, more helpful people. The outdoor community is by far the richest I have known in terms of health and spirit.
Here's to another few months of blogging, for love, not money.
This is the kind of Ice Lolly I eat!
We have loads of goodies to give away, including a tent from Coleman, A year of Trail Magazine, Wildlife Trusts goodie bag, Inspirational Signed Books, from Alex Staniforth, Cathy O'Dowd, Ash Dykes, Chris Townsend and a £250 cash prize to be split between the winner and an Environmental Charity. Sweet!
The theme of the competition is: Wilderness & Wellbeing - How has an adventure or an experience in nature helped to change your life? And it doesn't have to be a world first, it just needs to be personal and important to you. I have changed the way I live my life to ensure I spend more time doing stuff in the outdoors precisely because it increases my happiness, and I have managed to do this without losing all my fingers and having to drink my own urine. Go figure!
Read MoreWhilst walking to the river the other day we came across the remnants of a goose. Presumably the majority of it was on the inside of a fox, but what remained was very useful; large feathers. We have been looking for large feathers for a while, with half a mind to make some large Native American headdress. However, inspired by last week's visit to Dove Cottage and the William Wordsworth Museum we decided to have a go at making a quill...
Read MoreVideo is already important and will continue to become more so, especially on mobile devices. Nobody with an online presence can deny this importance and all small business and brands should be looking at ways of engaging with their audience and customers through video.
Last week I had a conference call with small group of successful business people. We are discussing cooperating on a project (side project for me) where each of us will bring our own experience, expertise and contribute the skills that we have picked up along our professional journeys.
This sort of project is exciting and interesting; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Whilst there are never any guarantees, the putting together of a team that - at least on paper - looks as if it covers all the areas required to make it successful does give a certain confidence and a freedom to the individual. It doesn’t mean you can take a free ride, but knowing you can also rely on others within a team to help make a venture successful is undoubtedly a comfort that often brings added energy to the individual, allowing him or her, in turn, to perform better.
Read MoreIt is 3 months since I quit the rat race to live and work in a slightly less conventional manner. Last Thursday I was flying home from a work trip (something I have not done for some time) and it got me thinking about how I manage my time and what I fill my days with and perhaps most importantly where my priorities lie...
Read MoreThis week I had the pleasure of spending half a day with Aires Loutsaris (legend of SEO) and we discussed some new business ideas. As we spoke about some project we would like to cooperate on it struck me that I have learnt a few things from The Armchair Mountaineer, in the last 3 months.
Read MoreI decided to do this blog as a way of writing several times per week. A sort of excercise of the mind more than anything, with no real remit and no boundaries of subject.
All of this means I find myself late on a Thursday night feeling I should write but not knowing what to write.
I am forcing myself.
I could, at this juncture, point out that many of the greatest writers have shown extraordinary discipline and treated writing as a job and not simply, as the layman might imagine, a vague art fuelled by some mystical inspiration rather than hard work. Hemingway, I believe, woke up early to ”work” at his art, tapping out 500 words a day as a minimum.
However, if I were to say what I have just said, you might picture me couped up in my study imagining myself to be worthy of such company both intellectually and in terms of repute. Neither is the case. Indeed, I am in the TV room, watching the second test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka and aimlessly trickling thoughts onto the laptop.
I might have, when I was a good deal younger, liked to cast my forty year old self in the same mould as the great writers of the 20th century, those like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Kafka, Mann, Camus and Sartre who lit a fire inside me as I presumed rather naively I would do to later generations.
I wonder if my 20 year old self would be disappointed. I once won a prize for a short story, but I was already in my mid to late twenties when that happened and the boat had sailed. Nevertheless I enjoyed writing and that is what has caused me to take it up, again as a hobby, many years later. It pleases me, without any pretension. That is why I have quietly written these few lines in the company of Brendon McCullum et al.
And should there be any doubt as to whether I intend to challenge 'Papa' Hemingway, I might mention in closing that I have only managed 350 words. Goodnight.
