Can big and brave be small and slow?

A 2025 curious transition

Dear Big & Brave Family

I’ve just returned from my solo New Year ‘Review, Reflect & Refocus Retreat’ – in Luxembourg. I’m not sure I told you that I was going to Luxembourg to do it – my country number 54 for all you country-counters. I did a total of five new countries last year (2024). Monaco, Montenegro, Turkey, Taiwan and Luxembourg. I’m aiming for six in 2025. Time is running out to get to them all (or as many as is safe and possible) which is my life-long ambition. It’s not that I want to do it quickly or that I’m planning on dying anytime soon but there are circa 195 countries in the world so I’m only just over a quarter of the way through (aged 54). My challenge progress stalled for a few years when I had to keep returning to Nepal so I’ve got some catching up to do.

And I’ve got to press on now too because there’s so much I want to write about this week and that opening paragraph has already taken quite a few words. There’s so much I want to say about my retreat learning and plans for the year ahead. There also the results of my ‘Twixmas Substack Survey’ which I sent you last week – thank you to everyone who completed it - it made for fascinating reading. In fact, in truth, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of writing this post (as I’ve only started it this morning – it’s 4am here in London as I type and I really like to send you posts before 8am if I can). So what do I do when I’m feeling overwhelmed about writing? I write a list of love that’s what! So here’s goes: