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The 12-hour walk was something coined by the endurance athlete and multiple world records holder Colin O’Brady. It’s another one of those self-help books to help you get rid of your limiting beliefs and I quote “live a life of limitless possibilities.” I was intrigued because I know he has done some really incredible things and I have my own goals that are going to be really hard, so I kind of saw this as a jumping off point. It was a challenge, but one that didn’t really have a lot of risk involved and that I was likely to succeed at, even though it wouldn’t be easy. It was meant to open the door to more.
What is the 12-hour walk?
The idea behind the walk is to place your phone in airplane mode, set an intention and head out your door for 12 hours. You can walk as much or as little as you want, though it is called a “walk” so you should do some, but it’s more about discovering what your limiting beliefs are about yourself, maybe discover some life lessons, and just get yourself out of a life of comfortable complacency. And, like me, it’s kind of a jumpstart to living our best lives. Or at least that is how I saw it.
Before you head out you will also take a short video of yourself, just talking about your intention and what you hope to get out of the walk and then when you finish you take another video to talk about what you discovered about yourself.
There is an app you can download for free that will provide a map and timer and let you know how far you have gone. It worked really well for me and you can save your walk so you can revisit it at any time down the road. Or you can do the walk again if you like.
Many people have said this was a transformative one-day journey, so I was interested to see what I discovered about myself in a single day of walking.
How my walk went
When I did my walk I was working as a relief veterinarian at the Omaha Zoo and had the day off. So as I set out for my day it kind of felt like I was just setting out for a day of exploring the area. It didn’t feel any different in the beginning than any other day off I had spent there. The first couple of hours I was in a great mood, it was a beautiful day and I just promised myself I was going to take my time and enjoy it, regardless of what came up.
It took me about an hour to get downtown and I was pleasantly surprised to find it was the first day of their farmers market for the summer season, so I took some time wandering the market, buying a few things before I headed towards the walkway along the Missouri River. I got in some good miles during the morning, though my mind did not stop. It was like having 20 windows open on my computer and music coming from some unknown place. I couldn’t stop it. Which is pretty typical for me. They weren’t negative thoughts. Just lots of thoughts. No life-changing wisdom either.
I stopped three different times for any length of time during the day, once for lunch, once for a caffeine boost and once for dinner at a fantastic French restaurant called Le Bouillon. The rest of the time I was either walking or taking a moment to sit on a bench and rest my feet, which were slowly getting more sore. My monkey mind continued for a long time during the day. And I felt like I was just out for a long day of touring around, seeing the area. I never felt like I was really pondering life’s biggest questions, though not for lack of trying.
I often ask myself, “what do I want? How do I want to live my life?” And I have worked really hard to try and live my best life over the past couple years, chasing my own life-changing journey (which is probably what led me to doing this). I have an idea of where I want to go in my life, so I wasn’t using this as a way to get unstuck. Again, I saw this as a jumping off point to truly seeing what was possible. Colin calls it a possible mindset, so I guess that part was true in my walk.
The hardest part for me was the last 2 hours. My feet were incredibly sore and I had managed to get pretty sunburnt (totally my own fault). I was practically crawling at the end I was moving so slowly, but it does give you an idea of what the human potential is and what you are capable of. When I finished, though I didn’t really feel very different overall, I was pretty proud of myself for having done it and I am glad I did, because now I have that what’s next feeling, which is always fun. What other hard thing can I do next to reach my own full potential.
In the end, I walked 15.37 miles and took 48,810 steps.
Concluding Thoughts
The 12-hour walk gives you enough time to spend with yourself and opens you up to the possibilities. If you are looking to life a more fulfilling life, this is a great starting point. It may not give you any earth shattering epiphanies (or maybe it will), but it will show you that you are capable of more.
