Lessons from Walking
🚶♂️Remembering The Camino 10 years later
Almost 10 years ago to the day, I completed the Camino de Santiago - an ~800 km hike that begins in the southern part of the French Pyrenees and zig-zags through the northern regions of Spain.
While I started for no particular reason, (in true Forrest Gump fashion) once I got going, I decided stopping anywhere short of the end was unacceptable, and so over the course of 28 days, heel-toe’d my way across the country.
I started the trip alone, but by nature of walking in the same direction as a bunch of strangers for a month, you end up seeing and spending time with a lot of the same people. One day you might push further and think someone is long behind you, only to have them catch up 3 days later where you laugh about it at dinner.
Many of the people I met had completed this trek countless times and often described as having three distinct sections.
The first ‘third’:
The first part of the journey, as you can imagine, is the physical challenge. Your body simply isn’t used to carrying all your belongings on your back and walking near-marathon distances on a daily basis. It didn’t help the first 20km of day 1 were straight uphill, before eventually descending 8km down into Spain.
Feet blister and backs ache, but you’re really only just getting started.
The second ‘third’:
Your body by now has (hopefully) adjusted to the daily physicality and lack of sufficient calories - or maybe you have begun self medicating with a bottle of red wine at the end of each day 🤷 - but the aches eventually take back seat to what the second leg of the journey has to offer:
The mental challenge.
It turns out, walking all day, every day can get quite boring…
…and awfully quiet too.
Some might say there is too much time alone in your head.
It’s no coincidence the ‘mental challenge’ coincides with some of the flattest farm land in Spain - which to put into Canadian context - is the equivalent of walking across the prairies of Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
Side effects of this part of the journey may or may not include:
thinking everything is stupid, including yourself for starting such a stupid journey.
wanting to quit and do almost anything else.
talking out loud to yourself a la Gollum.
Somewhere during this second leg of the trip, I hit a breaking point, and on a day where I was meant to complete a measly 12km, I could barely move forward after the first 5km.
Everything sucked and I was over it.
I hated where I was, and I hated walking.
I hated myself for thinking walking was a good idea.
It was the lowest point of the trip.
It took hours, but I finally got to my destination, only to discover the town I planned to stay in was completely abandoned, having closed down for the season. There wasn’t a single store, building or house open - just a lonely vending machine, like some strange Black Mirror-esque Coca-Cola ad.
With nowhere to stay, I could either go backwards 12km, or continue forward more than double the distance - a full 26km to the next town.
I chose to go forward, but as it was late in the day, needed to take on an almost military pace, to prevent getting in well after midnight.
I also decided, in order to keep going, I needed to use my Gollum “speak out loud to myself” habit for good rather than evil - I do not exaggerate when I tell you, I did nothing but repeat:
“I love walking…walking is great.” on loop out loud for the entire 26km.
The result?
The next 26km were not only easier, but I completed them FASTER than the first 12 that almost broke me.
The third ‘third’:
The final third of the journey is where everything sort of clicks and nothing seems to phase you anymore. By this point in the trip, walking was simply just what you did - and it was neither negative nor challenging, it was just the prescribed activity for the day.
It had successfully become a habit.
The low point I mentioned earlier showed me the challenge was all mental, and once I got over that, everything became easy.
How else was I able to do 26km faster than I was 12?
It’s well known that mindset matters, so while other people scoff at a character like David Goggins for being ‘too intense,’ I try to remember behind all his screaming (and excessive profanity), he’s basically repackaging ancient wisdom curtesy of Marcus Aurelius with a few lessons that are simple but important.
1. How you speak to yourself matters.
Additionally, and counterintuitively…
2. Doing hard things makes life easier.
By this point, every day had meaning and purpose - because my purpose was to walk.
There wasn’t a difficult day for the remainder of the trip.
Lessons Learned
I have amazing memories from that trip, but it’s far more impactful when I look at it not as a stand alone vacation, but a metaphor for all the things I try to accomplish in daily life.
Using this trip as a guide for life, a few trends become apparent:
The first ‘third’ of anything sucks…
We’re not used to putting in the reps.
The second ‘third’ of anything also sucks…
The novelty is gone - we’re sick and tired of putting in the reps.
The third ‘third’ of anything can be GREAT…
It’s a habit at this point.
A part of who we are, what we do and gives us meaning.
It’s no longer a painful challenge, but a practice that can be used for enjoyment.
The problem is, we often don’t make it to ‘Part 3’ of any journey.
The New Years resolutions don’t make it past the second week of January.
The plan to go to the gym gets sidetracked within the first few weeks.
The new language we’re learning falls off before we’re fluent.
The instrument we’re learning, becomes too hard, and “isn’t fun anymore.”
That new business idea loses momentum before it starts showing profit.
I try to remember this trip any time I’m taking on something difficult to remind myself not to give up.
In other news… a new initiative:
In early 2022, I was working on something called The Magic Newsletter. Unfortunately, for a few reasons, it wasn’t working and I had to let it go.
(Some might argue, I gave up in the first ‘third’ of the journey)
Luckily, I’ve pivoted the idea to something I’m calling The Come Up.
I launched the first issue a week ago with ‘The Peak’ CEO Brett Chang and it’s gotten great traction thus far.
My personal newsletter is 100% people I know personally - and while I love you all, after a year of writing, it shows nobody outside my personal network is really deep diving into my monthly musings.
Alternatively, 78% of the subscribers for The Come Up so far are people I don’t know at all - early proof people are interested in the idea, rather than just following it because they know me.
This is encouraging.
I’ll share the growth stats in next month’s year-end recap.
The state of healthcare in Toronto:
An ER visit a while back eclipsed the 13 hour mark. (everything is fine now)
Not sure what my American friends are facing, but this has unfortunately become the norm in Toronto - the level of care is poor and the wait times incomprehensible.
With all the events I’ve been hosting for the healthcare industry over the past few months, I’ve met multiple executives of at various major Toronto hospitals who have all independently commented how “the system needs to be torn down and rebuilt.”
Scary when those high enough up to be calling the shots think that’s the case, but while I’m hopeful our healthcare industry can catch up and heal itself, the main takeaway I have after visiting any hospital is don’t get sick.
That’s all for now - hope everyone has a great Holiday Season! 🎅