It's just over 24 hours since my return from an epic adventure in Nepal.

Along with me, Wellteam members from across the globe embarked on an incredible expedition, mountain biking up over the 5416 metre Thorong La Pass, high in the Himalayas in Nepal. Crossing one of the worlds highest mountain passes was exhausting both mentally and physically.

Reaching the top was a surprisingly emotional experience that felt like a transition for me. Perhaps it represented a type of closure for the first 50 years of my life.

Upon returning back, I've felt the need to reflect upon the journey and some of my life lessons to date.

When I was a young man someone handed me a photocopied A4 sheet from a Santa Fe Newspaper titled 'Solutions to Everything' by Michael Ventura. It's simplicity stuck in my mind all these years and I often recall some of the passages.

In response to this trip, coupled together with my years of curiosity, study and focus on health, wellbeing and the plight of modern men, here’s my "Solutions to everything". (In the order with which they came out of my mind).

SOLUTIONS TO EVERYTHING

BY TROY FLOWER

1. Reduce focus on money/wealth. Money is simply a tool to facilitate transactions between the things you have and the things you need/want. It has no value in and of itself. Focus instead on the goal or objective you are trying to achieve. Focusing on the objective opens up more opportunities and solutions.
2. Reduce your desire for possessions and ownership - for none of those things can ever be permanent. Ownership is a false ideal built to inflate the market value for something and enable the fallacy of wealth creation. Ask anyone who’s dead if that’s true.
3. Increase your sense of gratitude for what you have - this is the absolute key to being truly happy.
4. Treat the health of your mind and body as your highest priority. Without either… nothing else matters.
5. Embrace death. Know it will come. Have no fear of it. Accept it may happen at any time. Doing so will sharpen your desire to live better today.
6. Build and cultivate relationships with those aligned to your values. Emotional connections and shared experiences are the greatest value exchange in life.
7. Know that every person has something to offer, but not every person knows what that is and how to unlock it.
8. Question why you are doing something. Don’t do anything big that consumes energy without an honest interrogation of why.
9. Understand that life is about energy. Life is not about time or money. Energy is circular, it is always transferred from one source to another. You don't create energy, you transfer it. It is give and take.
10. Be loyal to those you care about. Relationships are the fuel you need when things get tough.
11. Appreciate that while science can help us understand things… many things can’t be explained by science. Basing our knowledge on science is like assuming that all language can be captured within the English alphabet.
12. Commit to meaningful 'epic' shit. Seriously, big things that require courage, unlock energy and ensure that our actions engage us fully. Without purposeful, meaningful action… what else is there?
13. Eat simple food. Drink simple drinks. Don’t make it hard for your body systems. Simple is what your body needs. Complex is what others needs to ensure higher profit.
14. The happiest people are not those who have the most, but those who want the least. Be grateful and take a regular stock-take of what you already have/are.
15. Start that thing today. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
16. Recognise that the earth and universe has a time and space expanse that makes everything we do irrelevant. It was here billions of years before us and will be here billions of years after us. Nothing we do is permanent…ever so start living your life.
17. Appreciate that ‘societal rules’ are driven, governed and reinforced by self-interested people.
18. Understand that everyone is right and wrong. It is our perspective that governs our position and our perspective is neither right nor wrong.
19. Be inquisitive around the concept of ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ even though they are impossible to prove or disprove. Not being able to prove or disprove something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We can’t prove/disprove love as an example, but we think we know when we experience it. You don’t need to be religious to explore the idea of ‘soul’ or ‘mind’… just be curious.
20. Have rituals. No matter what they are. Rituals are a safe, reliable place to connect back to something that has value and meaning to us. Rituals ground us and remind us of things that are important.
21. Cultivate a calm mind. A state of calm is a rare, accessible and desirable state. Calm gives us access to the input from our senses. Our senses bring meaning into our lives. Without sight, sound, smell, taste, feeling, there is no value/joy. To enjoy our life… we must calm our minds.
22. Embrace challenges. Every challenge is a test, an opportunity to learn and grow. As with games, the longer you play, the harder the challenge. Without challenges, the game ceases to be interesting.
23. Get outside your comfort zone. Comfort is a modern-day killer. Discomfort triggers our senses to be on higher alert, we become more aware of our surroundings, adding more richness to our lives, and opening us up to more opportunities.
24. Be kind to everyone and everything. You never know what others are experiencing. Helping others with no expectation of reward is ironically, one of life's great rewards.
25. Appreciate that every living thing is significant in the life of another. All living things consume energy, produce energy and become energy for something, somewhere, sometime. Our stomach (technically outside our body) is like a galaxy to one hundred trillion living organisms (our micro-biome). Primarily bacteria, they breakdown what we eat. Without them… we’d be dead.
26. Forgive people. Anger, hurt, disappointment and frustration are emotions that eat away at us, not them. They close opportunities, trap us in the past. Forgive people and move on. You only have one life.
27. Don't take life too seriously. There is no rule book. There are no winners or losers. There are only those who enjoy and appreciate what they have and those who don't... that's all.

"One day of life lived fully... beats a lifetime of envy and regret."

Troy, Welteam Founder.