In the beginning...

The premise is simple…

... see if people want to give me their autograph and leave a message that they want to share with the world.

My message is “Leave the world a little better than you got it.”

I’m going to slowly travel around on foot or by bike, carrying a sign inviting people to leave their autograph and message. When walking, I’ll push the sign on a stroller.

My job is to carry their message with me, ponder it, share it, get people to tell me what they think and feel about what others have written, then write about these experiences for you.

When you read what people have said, maybe you’ll ponder their messages as well. I will give as much context as possible by asking for the meaning behind the words. Context matters because people may use the same words but mean different things.

Consider “Never give up.”

To one person, it can mean to keep working towards your dreams even when progress is slow or success seems impossible.

To another, it could mean leaving a job, a relationship or an ambition behind without giving up on yourself.

One is about persisting with a goal. The other is about recognising that changing your goals doesn’t mean giving up on yourself.

Same words, different meanings, and my job is to understand those differences and share them with you.

Another message I could put into the autograph book is “Face your fears.”

Easy to say, obviously.

Yet here I am, nice and comfortable in my chair, pondering how my 58-year-old body, which is overweight yet strong, will handle the challenges this project will give me.

The plan is simple to say… between October 2026 and February 2027, we’ll roam around Melbourne with a pushchair carrying a sign asking people to sign the book and leave their message.

Each walk will be about 10 to 15 km long. I can comfortably walk about 10 km, but I don’t want to push it too much. One 10 km walk does not equal being able to repeat it day after day.

Which is why we’ll do these walks once a week.

But the next phase, beginning in March 2027, is to walk to Adelaide with my two sons. One is 18 and better prepared physically than I am. The other is 13, so the journey needs to work for him as well. 

We’ll travel at the pace of the slowest person… but let’s face it, that will be me.

I love hiking. I did a lot of it in my youth, but I am not young now, and I am afraid I will break at some point. That is fear with reality mixed in.

But there are many other fears: long distances between towns, running out of water, heat, floods and a bunch of other things that could happen. My experience with such things is that the things you think will happen usually don’t. It will be something from left field that wasn’t even a thought.

Fear is a real thing. We need it.

It should not be the reason to not even try.

Easy to say.

So, here I am, in the chair and rebuilding my strength after a health scare and starting a project I truly believe in.

In the coming months I will build up my walking strength, buy the equipment we need for the first long walk, and make sure my youngest understands the basics. We’ll practise setting up tents, cooking on a fire and navigating, so we’re all better prepared for the journey.

In the meantime, I will ponder why I want to do this project, question myself endlessly on whether it matters, and hope it works well enough to take it global.

Yeah, it is so easy to say.