About the author

Tim Moss

Tim Moss has supported over 100 expeditions across all seven continents. He has climbed new mountains, crossed a desert on foot and recently cycled 13,000 miles around the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society London and a Guinness World Record Holder. He aims to encourage more people to live adventurously. Read more...

5 Comments

  1. 1

    Saadia Sharjeel

    I am a mother of two and I love mountains. Before kids I have done some adventures but now that I am done with child bearing, I am ready to start taking my baby steps again. This time I am even going solo. People of course say that I can’t do it now that I have kids. But I mean to show them. I want my cake and eat it too….and eat I will.

    Reply
    1. 1.1

      Tim Moss

      Excellent. You can definitely keep doing adventures after kids.

      Reply
  2. 3

    Tom Allen (@tom_r_allen)

    An advocate of the devil would argue that all four examples here fit the description of “2. Stay at work, do little adventures”. But I think your point (which I couldn’t agree more with) is that there’s nothing wrong with that.

    There is, I think, a valid parallel perspective that quitting your job is sometimes the only way to free yourself to do something that requires unlimited time and complete dedication. Cycling round the world, for example. You could spread it over the course of your life, 20 days’ annual leave at a time. But for many people who dream of cycling round the world, the choice really does boil down to quitting your job or not doing it at all.

    Reply
    1. 3.1

      Tim Moss

      Thanks for your satanic input Mr Allen. In response, I would make three points:

      1. Although defining and ranking expeditions is silly, the devil’s description of six-weeks’ Himalayan mountaineering as a ‘little adventure’ is quite dismissive. Such a definition might include the first ascent of Everest.

      I think you might be suggesting time as a metric such that cycling around is the big adventure. That’s fine but each to their own. Others will prefer shorter, tougher, more remote expeditions and consider them to be the bigger adventures.

      2. Quitting your job may indeed be the only way for some people to free themselves. But my own experience is that, in many ways, being work-free is far more restrictive and often felt like a prison. I rarely had the money to buy a drink with my friends, let alone go on interesting expeditions.

      I think there’s a real danger of treating ‘having a job’ as some kind of compromise of ideals. It isn’t. Nor does it necessarily restrict freedoms more than not having one (and thus not having a wage/purpose/sense of worth or any of the other benefits that someone might derive from their job).

      Reply

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