Less thought, more action the key to success
There’s no other way to put this: I’m a chicken. I tend to overthink things rather than jump straight in. See, even the way I’ve said ‘‘tend to’’ shows how much I’ve overthought that sentence and become mired in caution.
I admire people who see an opportunity and jump straight in. I’m usually standing on the bank going, ‘‘wait, do you think it’s a good idea to dive in? What if...’’
Which is why I admire the brave among us, people like my friend Tom who dreams up big,
hairy ideas and then just does them. I’m good at the dreamingup ideas but then I dream up a million reasons not to do them.
Meanwhile, Tom is out there adventuring his way around. A few weekends back, he led a wintry journey around National Park. At the end of last year, he embarked on a 24-hour mission to get down to Fiordland, run the Kepler Track, and be back in Auckland. Another time it was an overnight, there-and-back run over the Routeburn Track.
I wish I could be like Tom or Hollie Woodhouse.
Woodhouse was raised on a farm in Mid-Canterbury, which she describes as ‘‘a good, honest Kiwi upbringing’’.
‘‘I was lucky to be brought up ingrained with adventure, without even really realising. I suppose childhood was just freedom and we were always, always outdoors and so adventure, without even realising it, was just sort of who I was.’’
So, OK, plenty of Kiwi kids are lucky enough to get to run around carefree and being adventurous.
I did – plenty of running barefoot, cricket and rugby in the backyard, riding hand-medown bikes around the streets, making dams out of mud, exploring the creeks up the road.
But then, you know, adulthood hits and for most of us, life becomes more comfortable than adventurous.
Not for Woodhouse. At 28, she went on an Outward Bound course. That in itself is adventurous enough. But it’s what happened next that blows me away.
‘‘It was the moment I realised I needed a lot more of that in my life and it was what made me happy,’’ Woodhouse said. ‘‘I wrote myself a letter and one of the goals I wrote was to do an adventure every year that challenged me.’’ She got home and entered the Coast to Coast, even though she had no experience in multi-sport racing.
After a year of training, she lined up, terrified. ‘‘I just absolutely loved it. You could not wipe the smile off my face during that entire race. It made me so happy.’’
Woodhouse returned and did the Coast to Coast in one day and since then has run 260 kilometres through the Sahara Desert in the Marathon des Sables.
‘‘It seemed like something pretty awesome, I had no idea about Morocco, I just said yes and away we went.’’
Other adventures have included running 240km through the Amazon jungle in Peru and trekking across the Greenland ice cap on a 560km, 29-day mission (pulling a 60kg sledge) as part of the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s Inspiring Explorers programme.
‘‘I never would have thought I would have walked across Greenland, but that opportunity came up and I was fortunate to have the right experience behind me. An opportunity like that
does not come up very often and it was an absolute game-changer in my life.’’
Woodhouse thinks it’s part of her nature to take on these challenges without much hesitation.
‘‘I don’t overthink stuff too much. When an opportunity comes before me and I have no reason to say no, why wouldn’t I do it?’’
That’s what I most admire about her – saying yes, getting on and doing things. Life is too short to miss out on adventure. Eugene Bingham and Matt Rayment are hosts of a trail running podcast Dirt Church Radio. Learn more at dirtchurch radio.com or get in touch via email dirtchurchradio@ gmail.com