I posted the other day, in a long rambling monologue about my insanity; and my trek.

It was a little bit like an instruction manual for climbing Mount Everest where on ever page it says “It will be really cold”. Strangely helpful in reminding us of the bleeding obvious (much like ‘contents hot’ embossed on the plastic lids of take away coffee cups!) yet practically as helpful as political election speeches.

So, my trek is not up Mount Everest which considering the latest photographs of the number of ‘adventure tourists’ lining up on the north face, it would be more pedestrian than lining up at the self serve checkout at your local supermarket (an argument for another day about self serve checkouts!).

My trek is arguably harder?

Firstly, I am setting out without a guide, no sherpas (I must carry my own baggage) and no map. These things sound very ‘Burke and Wills’ but I think the difference is:

• I will seek a guide
• I am happy to have help carrying my load
• I know which maps not to use (the ones I have been using all my life!)

I’ll tackle the last point first. A very smart man Bod Kearney once told me a story from his Army days which had this simple message:

If the map doesnt match the ground then the map is wrong.”

The maps I have been following most of my life did not match the ground; and I did everything to change the ground; I could not accept that my map was wrong.

I am now drawing my new map which matches my ground. My major landmarks are my values and marked on the map first. Then establishing my true north is based on my value, past experience and my destination. My major landmarks are my values and marked on the map first. These are my true values not the ones sold to me by others or established in power, greed or anger – they are from my heart – the true me.

In doing this north never changes, only the way I decide to navigate through my life, through hardships and joys. Never blaming the weather, the hills or bad travelling companions as I have said before.

It is a bit scary to be setting out on unchartered paths. It is the trek I need to take, the one I have been waiting all my life to start. The first step is the hardest and I have taken it.