The Lessons Of 2020

Everyone should have a "long run" day, or, if running isn't your thing, have a "long walk" day. Something about spending a few hours running trails out in the bush is conducive not only to aerobic conditioning, but, perhaps more importantly, to clarity of thought.

Maybe Pollwombra was on my mind, after all, I rated it "best trail run" of 2020. So, I decided to see if I could run from Maulbrooks (near Mogo) to Pollwombra on single track. It is not that far, only 5 kilometres in a straight line, but much further as the winding single track flows.

As usual, I got side-tracked running along forgotten and overgrown tracks, finding old gold mines, bushwacking to granite crags, crossing streams, and scrambling up boulders. I did not make it Pollwombra, but I did see a whole lot of new things, and I had time to reflect on 2020 and all the things this unpredictable year has brought. Here is my top ten.

1. Realise that the modern world is designed to make you fat, sick, unhealthy and unhappy. Junk food, junk advice, junk media, junk consumables, all give us a brief spurt of dopamine, just enough to bring us back for more and more and more and...
2. Thriving in the modern world requires a generous dollop of contrarianism, and a willingness to swim upstream against extraordinarily strong social influences.
3. Unless you really need social media for your business - and I have questions about a business run solely on social media - you will be better off without it. If you want to know what your friends are doing use that mini-computer you carry everywhere to actually make a telephone call.
4. Take up a skill sport like rock climbing, mountain biking or sea kayaking. Humans thrive on mental and physical challenges.
5. Age is not an excuse, neither are most other things you are using as excuses.
6. Do not quit.
7. Find joy in the little things.
8. To paraphrase Alex Lowe ("The best climber is the one having the most fun."), the happiest person is the one who wants nothing.
9. Behave like an adult, eat your vegetables and skip dessert, do the work you need to do to thrive not because it is easy, but because it is right.
10. Motivate yourself.