Newquay to Perranporth.

Last night we arrived in Newquay just before dinner time. It is an odd town, full of arcades, punks and surfers. Felt a little rough as we wandered around, and it must have been because Ric doesn’t usually take notice of that sort of thing. However, the coastline here is breathtaking so we got in a quite three miles before we called it an evening.

This morning our day began as we picked up the trail in Newquay. We started having to navigate a tricky bit around low tide, which was listed as a “river crossing.” In actuality, it was about a mile, walking down an estuary at low tide. If we missed it, we were told our walk would add another four miles. We didn’t miss it, but walking an estuary as the tide goes out is actually a bit stressful. Not as stressful as I actually felt at that moment, but still stressful enough. And it got me thinking again about mindset.

There has been a lot of talk in and around me about mindset recently. Healthy mindset. Wealthy mindset. Millionaire mindset. And how you have to have it to get what you want. As I walked today, I was thinking that all of it, the mindset game, is a bit of a trick.

Somehow having to navigate that first part of the trail at low tide, either reminded me of what I was taking on, or shook my confidence just enough. And it took another seven miles to settle back into a flow. Or maybe into a mindset, maybe a healthy one. Maybe just a different one than I had hours ago.

It was a magnificent seven miles, and then another three miles of beach walking barefoot, which was equally awesome, splashing in the North Atlantic.

Don’t get me wrong, if you have a shitty mindset, you’ll probably have to work a lot harder and enjoy it a lot less — to get whatever it is you want. But I have known a lot of people with negative mindset achieve quite a lot actually. Still, I do believe that mindset matters. It is just not the whole story.

What our mindset sits on is what really matters. The foundation we’ve built to have that mindset.

Today, as I walked in this spectacular place, with brilliant sun and perfect wind, I relied on a system I put in place to do this walk, a system of habits, that works for me even when I don’t want to do it. This system of habits kept me going. And at one point I thought, “it doesn’t even matter if you want to do this or not, your body is just doing it.” Brilliant! Basically shut up and just let your body do what you trained it to do.

So as we are walking, I keep going back to this — this system I created and practiced to keep me walking worked, even if I wasn’t in the healthiest of mindsets.

And then there’s the discipline to follow through. And this one, wow! I might let my body do what I have trained it to do, but it takes dedication and discipline to get that system toned and working.

I think I forgot the discipline part from last year’s walk to this year. And I feel so pleased and satisfied that I can cultivate such discipline in my life on the trail, and how that spills over into the rest of my life.

Discipline allows me to stand for as long as I want and take in the sheer beauty of this view.

So I know this is a little “work-ish” of a post. It does take a few days to work out the work thinking from my brain. At the same time, my walking habits and discipline are critical to my long walks. And I would say, radical appreciation of cultivating those things. Being so appreciative of myself for having the dedication, the perseverance.

So stop with all the mindset business. Cultivate some good habits and practice some discipline. Those two will take you far. Today’s lesson for me!

My gift at the end, was a three mile long Beach, Perran Beach. As the tide was coming back in, we walked, feet wet and cold. The North Atlantic is cold, but not quite as cold as we imagined it would be. It was a sweet surprise for our feet. A bit sunburned we wrapped it up in the town of Perranporth, where we enjoyed a well-deserved cider and burgers and prawns.

And so the day finishes. We’ve showered and napped and now we will share some conversation with our hosts. It was a beautiful start to our Southwest Coast Path adventure.

Total miles today: 13.3

Total elevation: 1,590

Total time: 6 hours, 15 minutes

Here’s a couple of other nice photos we took:

PS. I am writing this on my phone. So please, forgive the typos and other strangeness. Also I just hiked a shit-ton of miles and I’m laying flat on my back in bed while I write this. 🤪

Until tomorrow . . .