Straight Walking — Live Better Coaching
There’s something that happens when you get out on the hills.
The noise doesn’t stop straight away — your head’s still full of it for the first mile or two. But somewhere around the third mile, on a decent climb, with nothing in front of you but track and sky, things start to settle. The mental clutter thins out and you start to think more clearly than you have in weeks.
I’ve been walking in the British countryside for forty years. I’ve lugged a pack across the Beacons, camped under stars in the Lakes, navigated bog in the dark in Wales, and had some of the most clarifying hours of my life on a ridge with nothing but wind and a flask of tea for company.
Somewhere in all that time outdoors, I noticed something. The things that make a good walk — having a clear direction, managing your energy properly, knowing what you’re carrying and what you could do without, being honest about where you actually are before you can work out how to get somewhere better — those aren’t just principles for the hills. They’re principles for a life.
Two sides of the same coin.
This site has two halves, and they’re more connected than they might first appear.
The hiking and wildcamping side is exactly what it sounds like — forty years of knowledge, honestly shared. Kit talk, route write-ups, wildcamping stories, and the occasional opinion you might not agree with. If you’re new to the hills, you’ll find your feet here, and if you’re an old hand, you might recognise a few of the places I mention and the experiences I’ve had along the way.
The Live Better coaching side is for men who’ve been running hard for a long time and have started to wonder what for. Men who’ve built the career, provided for the family, and shown up reliably for everyone around them — and somewhere along the way, quietly lost themselves in the process. I know that feeling because I’ve been there, and I know that the outdoors has a way of cutting through it faster than almost anything else.
The Live Better 12-Week Program
This isn’t a self-help course full of motivational quotes and homework you’ll never do. It’s a structured, honest twelve weeks that helps you see where you actually are, build the systems that support what actually matters, and start becoming the person you intended to be — rather than just the person everyone else needs you to be.
We work through four phases:
Weeks 1–3: Reclaiming Clarity — establishing a morning routine, doing an honest audit of where your time and energy actually goes, and building a planning system that reflects your values rather than your inbox.
Weeks 4–6: Building Structure — getting clear on what genuinely matters, setting boundaries that protect it, and learning to work with your energy rather than constantly fighting against it.
Weeks 7–8: Taking Action — reconnecting with your family in concrete, specific ways, and rediscovering the things that make you feel like yourself rather than just a provider and a problem-solver.
Weeks 9–12: Making it Stick — having the conversations you’ve been putting off, building resilience for when life pushes back, putting proper accountability in place, and creating a clear path forward once the program ends.
What it takes is sixty to ninety minutes a week on the exercises, a daily morning routine, and the honesty to actually tell yourself the truth about where things are. If you want to know more, have a look at the program page — or just get in touch, because I’m happy to have a straight conversation about whether it’s the right thing for you.
Why I do this.
I’m not a life coach in a suit who’s read the right books. I’m someone who spent a long time getting this wrong before I started getting it right, and the hills taught me a good deal of it, along with a fair few bruises along the way.
I have a straightforward and honest approach to most things, and if I feel strongly about something I generally don’t mince my words. That runs through everything here — the hiking content, the coaching, and every conversation I have.
If any of this sounds like what you’ve been looking for, have a look around, and if you’ve got something to say or something to ask, the contact button is right there.
The Live Better Program
Read the Blog
Get in Touch
“Hiking is just a metaphor for life. You put one foot in front of the other, you keep moving forward, and you figure out most of the important stuff along the way.”