5 lessons from travelling the world by bike

It's been three years since I returned from traveling the world on a bicycle. That time feels like nothing in some respects, those three years have flown by. But it also feels like a very long time ago and the world has changed drastically over the last three years since I finished. I'd like to remind myself of some of the lessons I learned on that bike trip because it's quite easy to get stuck into the way of life that I have now built. I now have a job, I now live in an apartment and life kind of just gets away with you. But I want to think back to those days on the bike and really remember some of the lessons I learned. So here are five lessons I learned from my world bike trip. Lesson number one is to say yes to offers of kindness. We have a habit in the UK of saying no when somebody goes People just say no even though you mere want it. What I learned very early on my bike trip is very often people will offer you something and it's because it makes them happy. They're not often offering it to you because they see you as somebody that needs help. They're doing it for themselves because to give to people makes you happy. And for this I also would say offer kindness to other people. Be the person offering kindness. I was so fortunate to stay in countless people's homes and properties and sometimes I'd pitch my tent in their garden. Sometimes I'd sleep inside a stranger's house, someone that's never met me before and they'd cook food for me or buy me a drink or a meal. It was amazing. And since then I am on warm showers which allows people to host bike travellers. I've hosted a couple of people over the last few years but I'd love to host more people. I'd love to meet more bike travellers and give a bit back to the world. Lesson number two is that the news is not a true representation of what is happening in the world. There's a lot of fear in the world and I could feel it whenever I was getting close to a border. So, for example, when I was in Malaysia I'd be cycling up the coast and I'm getting close to Thailand. And as I was getting close to Thailand other people in Malaysia would say to me don't go to Thailand, it's too dangerous. There's people with guns in Thailand. I'd go to Thailand and it'd be fine. It'd be great and it'd be beautiful and the people were super friendly. And then when I got to Thailand close to Laos they'd be like be careful going to Laos. The people there have guns. And it just followed. Like whatever country you're in people are very scared of the people beyond their borders. People have naturally built a defence. And it's true there are definitely conflicts around the world and there are things but we have never lived in a safer time in history. I am clearly aware that there is war and there is famine and there is bad things happening in the world. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of bad things happening in the world. But that is not everywhere and it's not everything. And even in those places where bad things are happening there is good things happening in the same place. There are people that are offering kindness. And these places aren't evil and I really believe most people are good people. It's like 99% of people are good. So if you're in America and you're thinking oh Mexico, it's dangerous. Try to just think outside of your own protective bubble and go and see it. Some of Mexico will be dangerous but if you follow some precautions. If you go there and aren't flashing your money about and you're not just hanging around at night in dodgy places you're going to be fine. I'm pretty sure if you're from the US and you go to some of the biggest cities in the US and you're hanging around certain areas at night it's dangerous. It's the same in the UK. There's places where I wouldn't want to go at night time in particular late at night because there's more chance of something bad happening. So don't think the news is everything and try to just not watch the news. That's my advice. Lesson number three is how little I needed in the way of possessions. It's easy for us to buy stuff and collect things and think that that will make you happy and fix whatever sadness you've got going on in your life. Possessions absolutely do not make you happy. If anything they're a weight that make you sad and they make you feel burdened and they take away money that you've earned and they just don't make you happy. I survived for a year and a half with four bags basically. That was it attached to my bicycle and that was everything I owned in the world. I had a few photographs and very small things in a suitcase left at home but basically I had four bags to my name in the world and I wasn't surviving really. I was thriving at that time. I was able to travel freely. I was able to travel across borders on a bicycle with human power eating as much beautiful delicious food as I could and I've since moved into an apartment and I now have stuff. Like everybody has stuff. I have a desk and a chair that I'm sat in now. I have shelves and books and furniture and things and that's okay. You can buy things if it's got a purpose but don't just go on Amazon and buy some rubbish that you just don't need to make you happy. You most likely don't need it. Think about just go for a run. Go for a bike ride and you'll be much happier. You don't need six bikes. You don't need seven bikes. You probably just need one bike. Pretty much cycle anywhere with any bike in the world even if it's like a BMX. It'd be a bit weird but you could do it. Lesson number four is make a plan for the future but be so happy to break it and not to stick to it. It's so good to make plans. It's one of my favorite things is to get a big map to look at routes to get a big pen and go right we're going to go this way and then looking at other routes and getting a spreadsheet and thinking about where I should go and what time it's brilliant. It's part of the travel experience for me is the planning but don't be a slave to your plan. Don't think this is the way it is. This is the only thing I can do. Make a plan and let it change. Listen to what people say when you get somewhere if someone says oh I recommend you see this waterfall. Oh but it's not in my plan. It doesn't matter what your plan is. Scrap the plan. Go to the waterfall. Go see it. It could be the best thing you've ever done. I had a plan. I had so many plans that I broke but one of my biggest moments on my bike trip was cycling through Canada and I'd cycled from Alaska halfway through Canada at this point and somebody I met was going to a music festival on a remote island on the west coast of Canada on Haida Gwaii and it was happening in like two days time. It was about four or five hundred kilometers. There's no way I could have cycled that in that time to get to the festival so I asked for a lift to go to the festival that I'd been told it was on this wonderful island and it was the best best week I've ever had at a festival in my life. There's about 150 people at this festival. I got to know pretty much everybody there. I camped and saw the old growth forest and stayed with people and made friends and I wanted to stay there longer but I had to get going. If I hadn't have changed my plan I would never have done that brilliant thing and I would have met the people I met there and I wouldn't have had that experience. And lesson number five community equals belonging equals happiness. Whilst I was on the bike I had effectively disassociated myself and broke away from the the community I'd belonged to for well over a decade. I was in the British army. I wanted to leave that organization and do something by myself and it was completely the right decision for me at that time but by breaking away from that community, that group, it meant I really didn't feel this sense of belonging and there was something in me which kind of felt unsettled and it sat for a few months. I traveled through Southeast Asia and then eventually made my way to North America and seeing some of the communities that I went through and was invited into even it brought it home even more. That community is so important and some of us that have never traveled and have never gone anywhere or never or always lived in the same town you may have a community and you've never really thought about it. It's just your friends. It's just the people you hang out with but I didn't really have that. I didn't have a place which I could say that's my community. Whilst I was traveling through America I found it so hard saying goodbye to people. Every other day I'd be saying goodbye and I'd build these really good friendships. People would be kind but then I'd go and by seeing that community it really made me think I need to build that myself and very often we want what we don't have. I wanted freedom and wanted to have this unlimited purpose and travel. I had that but I didn't have this sense of belonging and community. So when I came back to England, came back to the UK, finished a bike trip, I went about trying to build community in the UK. Found it quite hard if I'm being really honest. Found it difficult to connect with people where I lived until really last summer when I moved to where I live now. Now I live on the south coast of England. I'm able to go cycling with a group that I've made friends with every week. I go sea dipping most days and just generally I'm in a better place because I have community. By making friends with people I make friends with their friends and you've sometimes got to put yourself out there and be consistent. So to build community is about turning up every week, meeting with the same people and being there for them. They're my five lessons from traveling the world on a bike. I need to remember these for myself because sometimes it's quite easy to forget all the things that I've experienced and learned. Particularly when I'm thinking about buying a new bike because it's new and shiny and it may be a bit lighter than the steel touring bike I've got but in all honesty the steel touring bike I would take all day long over a tiny gravel bike with no history because whenever I'm riding that bike it transports me back to Thailand, to Alaska, to South Korea and I remember being on this beautiful machine that allowed me to see the world. So I'm going to try and resist the urge of buying a new bike and enjoy what I've got. I'm going to enjoy the community I'm trying to build whilst I'm here. I'm going to give happiness and kindness to the world and I'm going to be making plans for the future but I almost certainly won't stick to them. And talking about plans, for the next year here's a plan I'm going to try and make. For this next 12 months, well 10 months of the year we've got left, I'm going to try and share 30 videos with you which are going to be on a more self-help basis. Things I've learned, lessons I've learned myself and I'm going to try and tell some stories along with them. They're going to be about leadership, they're going to be about self-development and really just focusing on making you happier, better and just generally more fulfilled in your life. It's something I'm really working hard on at the moment myself and over the last few years I've spent a lot of time really working on my own being a better person for me. So I hope to share some of that with you and that's a video every 10 days I've worked out if I make a video, 30 videos for the rest of the year. Hopefully I can do that. I've made a plan but if a better plan comes along I might break it. I'll see you on the next one.