Going into nature by yourself to think through the big challenges, goals and ideas is something I strongly believe in.
Bill Gates did this for a long time while he was running Microsoft. Lots of other founders (Michael Karnjanaprakorn) and ambitious individuals (Steve Schlafman) have integrated this into their yearly schedule.
When I moved to SF for my first job (Showpad), I was alone in a new city and had a lot of time on my hands outside of work. So I went into nature and explored. These trips became my think hours, days and weeks and they were very fulfilling. Nature is a great way to give you perspective. There are not a lot of impulses so it’s just you and your brain. In daily life, there’s a lot of input (notifications, conversations, images, content to review, moving parts, traffic,..) and when you step out into nature, there’s a lack of input and your mind goes in output mode. This output mode launches your brain into a state of very high level thinking.
This helped me to think through a lot of subjects I had been reading about or answer questions I asked myself.
This helped me so much I wanted to create something for others to launch them into higher level thinking bursts. That’s why I launched Campo.
Campo became a solution for people in dense cities, where the input levels are high, to get to nature and focus on high level thinking. Adventure outdoors to operate at a higher level when you get back to the city. We set up guides through IG and we launched a popup camp in the Catskills.
Helping people find their why matters. After seeing how people engage with nature, I’m confident a think hour, day or week can benefit many people. If you haven’t done it, try it. For me think week translates into small adventures. The past years I’ve summited the Salkantay in Peru, summited the Mont Blanc in France and went XC skiing in the Norwegian wilderness. There is no better way to plan the future or to process the past than a think week.