Sunday 29 September 2013

Alastair Humphreys' 20 questions worth answering

About two weeks ago I read adventurer Alastair Humphreys' blog post "20 QUESTIONS WORTH ANSWERING HONESTLY – ONE YEAR ON…". They're good questions so I thought I'd take a bash at answering them.


  1. Do you earn enough money?
    Being freelance, earnings can be up and down. On the whole, I'd say no. Money offers freedom and stability. More money means more travel, more freedom to work on ideas that I have for things without worrying about today, more for savings and investments. How much is enough? Hahahaha - that's the question! All depends what I want to do at that time...
  2. Do you enjoy your job?
    Yes. I love organising events, writing for clients and magz and the orienteering projects. And then there are the websites and AR Club... they're not my job but they're my responsibility and obligation. The only thing I'm finding increasingly challenging is the juggling. While each aspect of the many things I'm involved in delights me, it's them all together that can be tough. If organising an event has 100 components to worry about; and I'm keeping on top of another 100 things for other projects as they come up... Most of the time I feel as if I'm doing everything at less than 100%. While my 100% may be someone else's 200%, the issue is that I am driven to want to do better and better
  3. Do you prefer Saturday or Monday?
    Being freelance there's often not much difference between a Saturday and a Monday for me... But I probably like Mondays more because they're energising - a new week, new day.
  4. What would you like to be doing one year from now?
    I've never been much good at planning what I want to be doing in a year from now - too far in advance, except where event planning is concerned. With my current Argentina/Spanish obsession, I'm aiming to spend the winter months in Argentina teaching English and learning Spanish. That's what I'd like to be doing. I'd also like to get back into foreign AR event reporting - I do love it.
  5. What would you like to be doing five years from now?
    Oh goodness! I have no idea. And I'm not too concerned about it either. Life offers up so many interesting opportunities. Five years ago I would never have guessed that I'd created FEAT nor that I'd be working on the projects I am and nor that I'd be doing PR writing for clients. And yet I enjoy doing all of these.
  6. What would you do with your life if you were a billionaire?
    I'd probably be doing many of the same things. But, I'd be able to hire people to assist on some elements so that I don't have to do it all by myself and I could let go of things I have no further interest in, when I have no more interest in them. I've got a dozen ideas for things and while I'm a hands-on 'control freak', I'd like to think that with the means I'd be able to have people that I trust onboard to take the weight off so that I could get other initiatives off the ground.
  7. Do you have enough spare time to do the things you really enjoy?
    Nope. But then being a person interested in a wide variety of things and who loves to do things, even if I lived on Venus, which has a day length of 225 Earth days, I still wouldn't have enough time; because I'd keep adding more things to do! As they say, give tasks to busy people 'cos they'll get them done. Even with all the things I have on the go at any one time, I do watch a few tv shows on DVD every week - and I crochet at the same time; I do see friends (but definitely not as often as I like). I rarely (scratch that - never) just sit around and soak up the sun. That would be nice here and there.
  8. What takes up a lot of your time but is neither unavoidable, rewarding nor enjoyable?
    There are a bunch of things and I'm working slowly towards being able to let go. Some days these things are enjoyable, other days they're just tasks that have to be done. Self-inflicted obligations - hahahaha
  9. What mildly pleasant, but pretty pointless things do you fritter too much time doing?
    Facebook, for sure. I use Facebook to keep up with sporty stuff, hobbies and odds and ends. I hide people who post too much or are distant / old connections, so that cuts down. I've recently spent less time on FB, which helps; but I also use it for FEAT, AR, Forest Run, content creator for a client... I also spend too much time answering emails. Working on getting this volume down.
  10. How much TV do you watch?
    Not enough! I do enjoy watching telly - but not just random stuff. I prefer boxsets of shows or DVDs of movies because then I can watch what I want to watch. My new favourites are 'Game of Thrones' and 'Suits'. I'm on Season 2 (DVDs) of both. Most nights, not every night, I'll watch an episode. Sometimes of just one or both.
  11. What would you like to do more of?
    Run, crochet, see friends, put more time into learning Spanish. I don't get out nearly enough, especially over the past two months; and this isn't going to let up until the end of October.
  12. What motivates you to do something well?
    Luckily this is an inherent quality, passed down from grandmother to mother to me. If you're going to something, do it properly. Anything less is a waste of time. The flipside is that some things don't need to be done as well or with as much attention and time spent; but not doing this is probably not going to happen.
  13. Who do you envy, and why?
    I've been thinking about this daily since I read Alastair's blog. At the moment I envy people who have lived in different countries and speak multiple languages.
  14. If you were 100 and looking back on your life, would you be happy with a life well-lived?
    Yip, I think so. Although I'd probably look back and berate myself for not having enough fun. To much planning, organising, working, advising and doing with far too little play and fun.
  15. What makes you proud, satisfied, and content?
    Doing and creating. Seeing ideas become tangible things.
  16. What makes you frustrated, bored, and unfulfilled?
    Not getting to ideas and projects. I sometimes sit on an idea for years until I can get around to pulling it off. Took me eight years to get Forest Run off the ground and I've been sitting on another - already scouted route - for four years... Immensely frustrating! And I've got such a nice idea for a community project thing... been sitting on this one for almost three years...
  17. What would you do if you had more talent?
    This is one thing I don't need more of!
  18. What would you do if you had more guts?
    I like to think I have guts - so not really needing more. But, I'm not a big risk taker - more calculated. 
  19. What would you do with your life if nobody was watching, judging or commenting?
    The same as what I'm doing now.
  20. What are you going to do about all this? Don't let things just sit and stagnate. I know what I want to do, at least for the next year, and I've got lists of ideas and cunning plans - it's about letting go of some stuff to make space for new. I've been itching for change for a few years and I'm steadily working towards it.
A year ago when Alastair initially wrote these questions, he answered them. Here are his answers from a year ago.

It should be interesting to read my answers in a year from now...

1 comment:

Alastair said...

I definitely recommend making a note in your diary to revisit them in a year's time...