What are your symptoms of flabbiness that are an early warning of a deeper malaise? • Physical Flabbiness. • Mental Flabbiness. • Moral Flabbiness.

Am I a runner? But do I actually run? Often and far and fast? Or do I just trot around the park a couple of times a week at the same pace as last year? • Am I a cyclist? But do I actually put in the miles? Or do I just own a nice bike or three? When did I last go for a long bike ride that made me proud? • Am I a photographer? When was the last time

• I’m always torn between what society says someone my age should be doing, the fear of not knowing what my future self might need and living in the present.

For the first few days, the experience was hideous. I was, in so many ways, out of my depth. Between the hours at the oars, the snatched scraps of sleep, the damp loneliness and the endless puking, something monumental began to sink into my thoughts. No matter how much I willed it, there was no way off this boat. A bag stuffed with a million

How do you define ‘failure’? • Is this definition sufficient cause to not attempt something bold?

• Write a letter of advice from your 80-year-old self to you today.

Mark up this table with how you use the 168 hours in a typical week. Each square represents one hour. Things to add might include work, sleep, travel, exercise, learning, chores, childcare, hobbies, social life/hanging out with friends and family, and weekend loafing.

Sonder is ‘the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.’

Write down a bunch of gut feeling, top-of-the-head parameters and see where they lead. Use them to draw up a list of plausible projects. • Rank these by preference. • Select one specific project that you will take into the rest of this book and turn into action. • Slash a rejection line through all the other ideas on your list. You can return to