Lessons from Hiking the Camino de Santiago

I spent most of July and August hiking the Northern Route of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. After reflecting a bit I wanted to share some lessons that I think you can use for your life and your business.

1. You can accomplish amazing things when you simplify what you do.

As part of the Camino, your life gets simplified to eat, sleep, walk, repeat nothing else becomes part of your day to day. It takes a little adjusting but within a few days you realize most things you do are really noise and you don't miss doing them or have any negative affect because you haven't done them. Freeing yourself from these things opens up energy and attention for the things you want to achieve in this case walk roughly 830 km in 5 weeks. Periodically, aggressively pruning unnecessary things from your life, business or product will help you achieve greater results.

2. The real power of small consistent action.

On the Camino, every day was the same you start by putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to do that for at least 6-8 hours. In the beginning of the day it doesn't feel like much but by the end of the day you can't believe you have gone between 25-40 km as if you magically teleported. Many things in life and business follow a similar path. They require small action that in a vacuum seem insignificant but when stacked on top of each other achieve great results.

3. The people you go on the adventure with are extremely important.

It's not hyperbole to say the Camino wouldn't have happened without my wife. She had the initial spark that got us to do it in the first place and numerous times throughout the trip her support gave me the energy that ultimately allowed me to finish. I have an abundance of gratitude for making this amazing experience happen. We had very different approaches to the Camino. I had a very if we are walking the Camino then let's walk the walk Camino and either we get to where we need to where we need to go or we walk our feet off trying. My wife on the other hand was more we are hiking but I also need to stop for my coffee, or check this beach out, or take this photo. Occasionally, these approaches clashed but they were necessary to create balance. My wife's approach helped put a check on mine to ensure that I didn't actually burn out and walk my feet off. I like to think my approach helped her in her moments of difficulty by helping her realize that she has another gear that is able to push through. Use this as a anecdote to make sure you find the right partners, colleagues, collaborators, friends to help push you in the right direction in spite of your own flaws.

4. You are remarkably adaptable.

We decided to do the Camino last minute which meant we weren't particularly prepared. And while it made the beginning a bit difficult within about a week we adapted to our new lifestyle. Humans are extremely adaptable creatures that can do so in a short amount of time. Whenever you start something new realize that the growing pains you have at the beginning will very quickly become a normal part of your life that you barely notice. So push through those initial stages and things will get much better and easy faster than you think.

Those are just some of the main takeaways. Happy to share more if you reach out to me.

Also, was mostly offline the whole time so I know a lot of people sent me messages that I missed and got buried. Please resend them so that it gets to the top of my inbox.