Why Hiking is a No Brainer for Life Planning

We love hearing our walkers' stories about how immersion in nature can work wonders on both body & mind.

Here, time management author Kate Christie shares how the Three Capes and Tasman Peninsula walk did just that for her. She shares how this inspirational walk enabled her to unwind, reflect and refresh with three other businesswomen so they could refocus and plan for the upcoming year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every October I meet up with 3 other businesswomen and we spend 2-4 days life and business planning for the following year. We each get a good 4 or 5 hours to dissect our business performance for the last 12 months and to plan out the new products or services, customer segmentation, marketing, forecasting and so on for each business. We also throw in something nice for us, like an afternoon spa or massage treatment.

But in 2022, after a few years of covid restrictions, we decided to do something different - we booked a 4-day self-guided hike of The Three Capes Track with Auswalk.

Here are my Top 5 reasons why the decision to combine hiking and being out in nature with life and business planning was a magnificent decision and why it will be a no-brainer for me from now on:

1. My business buddies / walking companions and I had a lot of time over approximately 54km in 4 days to discuss each of our unique businesses. I am a time management and goal setting expert, speaker and author. My 5th book - ‘The Life List: Master Every Moment and Live an Audacious Life’, will be launched on 29 March this year, and my focus was on building out my 12 months to market, sell and leverage my new book. One of my hiking buddies is a marketing expert and she generously shared her ideas with me. Another of my hiking buddies is a media strategist and she helped me craft a media plan. It was golden, uninterrupted, planning time.
2. Equally important for me was that I also had a lot of time in my own head as I walked to reflect and build a vision for the next year. Hiking for me is a mix of talking and not talking. I know this sounds trite, but there are big periods of this beautiful hike on the coast of Tasmania where I just didn’t talk at all and where I didn’t have to listen to other people talking. It was calming and restorative and often that’s when the best ideas have a chance to be born.
3. Hiking remotely has the significant added bonus of being wifi free - there was simply no coverage to interrupt what we had set out to do - walk and plan. I could not check my phone and it was liberating.
4. Because we chose to walk with Auswalk, we had the luxury of returning to the Stewarts Bay Lodge in Port Arthur each afternoon. Our accommodation was excellent as were the meals at the lodge. This removed the whole - erect the tent, squat in the bush for a wee, coddle together a meal and go to sleep as soon as the light fails - from the hike, and gave me a lot of time each afternoon to curl up in front of the fire and write up all of my thoughts from the day.
5. The stunning environment, the super crisp clean air, being immersed in rain forests, walking across barren bluffs being buffeted by the wind, being soaked in a Tassie downpour, climbing heights and descending hundreds of steps, crossing streams, walking along barren stretches of beach, and having a dip in the freezing waters of Fortescue Bay was simply good for my soul.

The whole experience was exciting and stimulating and exactly what it needed to be — four clear days out of the office and in nature to create a plan that will keep me focused, curious, energised, pushing to do better and be better, and to deliver amazing results for my clients. Kate Christie is a time management and goal setting expert. Her 5th book, ‘The Life List: Master Every Moment and Live an Audacious Life’ is available for pre-order now (booktopia.kh4ffx.net/Xxg6Ao)