And so it begins...

I've never written a blog before. I've read many. I would hate to think how much time of my life that has taken up but I'm sure it's far more than is healthy. That's really what started this whole idea - procrastination. I'm sure I'm not the only one that spends far too much time sat in this spot, or one similar, aimlessly skimming websites while the hours tick away. At some point it has to stop, surely?

I'm sure everyone has thoughts, once they've ticked off school, college, possibly university, managed to settle into a job with "good prospects" (if they're patient for a few years) and they begin to have visions of mortgage repayments, their friends pairing off and settling down and the biggest adrenaline rush of the day being that moment when you think your boss has caught you on the BBC News website again and you suddenly think - is this it?

I'm aware that that sounds like a big cliche and I expect most of this blog will read that way because whole idea is essentially a cliche.

This is The End of Excuses. A blog about my decision to stop telling myself I will change things tomorrow and actually get up and do it.

What am I going to do?

As the subtitle of the blog suggests - I am going to cycle the length of South America, approximately 5000 miles, in (approximately) a year's time with a guitar on my back.

Why not today, doesn't that undermine what I just wrote?

I wish I was able to! I've never been an "outdoorsy" person. I haven't ever been to scouts (or beavers or whatever they're known as), I didn't do Duke of Edinburgh at school because it looked like far too much hard work and unnecessarily cold and wet. The only camping I've done in the last 5-10 years is at music festivals. The only cycling I've done in the last few years has been on a pub crawl around the New Forest for a friend's birthday and I don't even own a bike at the moment. I go to the gym once or twice a week but generally just sit on the machines, taking far too long between lifting the bare minimum I will let myself get away with before spending 8-10 mins on a treadmill/bike, getting bored and leaving. I did manage to do 8 weeks of solid exercise and healthy eating last year but then I lost the motivation and gave up when Christmas came along.

Why cycling South America, can't I just eat less/move around more without sounding like I've finally lost it?

Probably but no. First of all I've never been. I've never been to lots of places but I've always wanted to go and I've realised that, having started living the 9-5 dream, I don't want to wait until I'm 40, bitter and look back wishing and regretting. I want to achieve something far beyond what I can achieve at the moment and I want a challenge.

Those that know me will confirm that I'm not a particularly patient person, I never read instructions (being male and naturally overconfident in my abilities to assemble Ikea furniture) and I tend to get bored with things very very quickly. A friend of mine recently said I should start a blog called "should-a, would-a, could-a" (I did try that but it was taken) because every time she sees me I have a new crazy idea.

[As an aside, in the past year, in no particular order I've wanted to - write a book, finally write that album, become a documentary filmmaker, become a computer scientist and web entrepreneur, become a social media analyst (that was an odd one...), become a journalist, become a circus performer, go to Thailand and tour with a fire diabolo, become a festival booker, be Lady Gaga's guitarist, become a photographer... I'm sure there are many others but aside from some moves in each of those directions I don't see any of them happening soon.]

Another friend, after hearing this idea, said that he thought I was having a mid-20s crisis (probably true but doesn't everybody?). However if I spend the next X years continuing in this fashion I'm sure I'll regret not doing something sooner and I can't think of a better way to kick myself up the arse and do something epic that 10 year old me would be proud of.

If I'm impatient and unwilling to read instructions I will probably die somewhere along the trip and the only way I can think of mitigating the risk that I give up this idea next week is to just commit to writing a blog and telling everyone I know. They are free to rip the piss out of me endlessly if I give this up.

So...

I'm going to spend the next year going from novice cyclist and an extremely averagely healthy 23 year old with slightly greying hair (is it alright to try Just for Men yet?) to a super-keen, healthy nutcase man living by the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or something like that without losing my friends, my mind and, of course most importantly of all, my job.

I know I'm not the first person to do that and many have similar done things far more impressive (Google: Mark Beaumont) but this is my goal. If it inspires others then that'd be amazing but I don't have delusions (yet).

I told myself I would write this and then triumphantly go outside and run around for a bit so I suppose I should go and do that now since this has already taken about 45 mins to bloody write.

Here's a link to a Nike advert to inspire the world, I'm sure you can embed these things easily but I've never spent enough time working out how...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxCUGhIqrMc&feature=related%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxCUGhIqrMc&feature=related


ps: I know the layout of this blog is absolutely shocking so I promise to update it soon.