The leaves are mostly down now, and what’s left feels stripped back… honest… ready to rest. 🍂
This month, don’t just walk through nature; walk with it. Pause. Notice. Breathe. Because the act of noticing itself calms the mind, lowers stress, and re-centres us in the here and now. Be present. Be Outspired.
“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” John Burroughs
THE LOST ART OF ROAMING
Once, roaming was second nature.
Our grandparents thought nothing of walking miles to school, to work, or simply to explore. Children wandered through rivers, woods, and lanes, free to discover the world on their own two feet. Today, that freedom has all but vanished. Walking has become structured: a tracked 20-minute burst of exercise. We rarely roam. And yet roaming - untethered, unhurried, unmeasured is a profoundly human act.
Hiking out of Okehampton onto Dartmoor
Children: A 90% Collapse in Freedom
Studies show that children’s roaming range has collapsed by around 90%. Today’s children are often confined to a few hundred metres from home. When children lose roaming, they lose more than play; they lose the early lessons in independence, resilience, and imagination that shape us as adults.
Adults: Less Than a Mile a Day
The picture isn’t brighter for grown-ups. According to the UK’s National Travel Survey, the average adult now walks c.225 miles a year, less than a mile a day.
Why It Matters
The science is clear: Walking lowers the risk of heart disease by 30%, type 2 diabetes by 40%, and some cancers by 20%. A 90-minute walk in nature reduces rumination, a known risk factor for depression. Even modest increases in daily walking sharpen focus, memory, and creativity.
But the loss of roaming is not just a health statistic. Without it, our minds narrow. We default to tunnel vision, problem-solving, and relentless doing. Stress builds. Creativity shrinks. Over time, the cost becomes clear: a loss of perspective, a diminished imagination, and a weakened connection with ourselves and the world around us.
Tips to Reclaim Roaming
Leave your watch behind. Silence the trackers; let the walk be unmeasured.
Choose curiosity over destination. If a path looks inviting, take it. If a birdsong catches your ear, pause.
Try “micro-roams.” Even 20 minutes with no agenda can reset your mind.
Roam solo, then share. Walking alone frees you from pace or conversation. Later, roaming together can become a connection, not a distraction.
An Invitation
Next time you step outside, resist the urge to track, time, or plan. Let yourself roam. Not to get anywhere, but to return to yourself.
At The Outspire, I often encourage leaders to take their thinking outdoors. Because when we roam, perspectives shift. The clearest way forward doesn’t come from forcing answers, but from giving ourselves space to wander, notice, and return with new clarity. 🌳
When the future is uncertain, teams don’t need more noise; they need presence, clarity, and meaning. Here are three things you as a leader can 'be and do' to help your team find direction and value when the path ahead feels unclear:
1. Be the calm in the weather. Hold emotional steadiness
When direction is foggy, people take their cues not from strategy decks, but from emotional tone. A leader’s steadiness becomes the team’s anchor. Presence over promises builds trust.
Be: Grounded, patient, and honest about what you know and what you don’t.
Do:
Name the uncertainty clearly; it removes the silent fear.
Create brief, regular check-ins (not just updates) so people feel held, not left waiting.
Use language of reassurance without false promises: “We’re in the fog right now, and that’s okay. Let’s keep walking together.”
2. Reconnect the work to meaning. Help people see why they matter
When outcomes feel distant, teams lose sight of the difference they make. A leader can help them reconnect to purpose, the “why” behind the tasks. Meaning restores motivation faster than metrics. This can also be anchored in their careers, beyond Neom.
Be: A storyteller and sense-maker.
Do:
Share examples of small wins or human impact.
Invite each person to name where they feel they’ve contributed most recently and celebrate it.
Revisit the core values/behaviours as a compass when goals feel blurred.
3. Focus on agency, not certainty. Create small steps of control
Uncertainty breeds paralysis when people feel powerless. Give them focus points they can influence, even within the unknown. Agency restores confidence. Momentum follows clarity.
Be: A guide, not a rescuer.
Do:
Break the future into near-term experiments: “Let’s test this for 30 days and see what we learn.”
Encourage reflection questions like: “Where can we add value right now, even in small ways?” “What’s one thing we can improve or simplify this week?”
Model curiosity and learning over perfection.
The Outspire perspective
Leadership in uncertainty isn’t about providing all the answers; it’s about creating the conditions for clarity to re-emerge. Be calm enough for others to steady, clear enough to reconnect them to meaning, and curious enough to help them find value, even when the path is still forming.
Downloadable resource- The art of chairing.
Chairing isn’t simply about running a meeting. It’s a living metaphor for how you lead.
The way you chair a room often mirrors the way you run your business, your team, even your own thoughts.
A community dedicated to improved wellbeing through physical movement, and we start every year with a campaign to make winter a positive and energising experience.
Get in touch if you are interested in joining Jon Salmon and me in team 'I like to move it' for January 2026. We have a motivation WhatsApp group to help the team get up and moving in the dark and grey month of January. 🥾
JOIN MY PLAYLIST
I've created a Spotify playlist, press play, let the music and the landscape meet within you, where stillness turns to feeling and thoughts drift into clarity.
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