EVERYDAY BUSHCRAFT

Sometimes life just doesn’t go our way. You make a plan. It falls apart. You try another way. That doesn’t work either. Then another problem lands on top of the first one, and suddenly you’re standing there thinking: “I honestly don’t know what to do next.” That’s when I try to come back to something we teach at Everyday Bushcraft: You don’t have to solve everything. You just have to work out the next thing you can do. In the bush, when things go wrong, running around trying

Have you ever started a fire with a magnifying glass? It seems almost like magic. You hold a simple piece of glass between the sun and a piece of tinder. At first, nothing happens. Sunlight is everywhere—on your hands, on the ground, on the trees, on the tinder—but nothing is burning. Then you adjust the lens. The scattered sunlight begins to concentrate into one tiny, intensely bright point. You hold it there. A little smoke appears. You resist the temptation to move it arou

Practice Makes Proficient: Stack the Wins We’ve all heard the saying: “Practice makes perfect.” It sounds good. It’s probably been said to every kid learning to kick a footy, shoot a basketball, play an instrument, tie a knot or light a fire. But there’s a problem with it. Perfect is a pretty unforgiving target. If practice is supposed to make us perfect, what does it mean when we miss the goal? When the knot slips? When the fire doesn’t catch? When we forget a step? When we

You Cannot Harvest What You Haven’t Grown There are some things in life you simply cannot cheat. You can find shortcuts. You can become more efficient. You can learn from people who have gone before you and avoid some of their mistakes. But some things still require time, effort and consistency. This is the Law of the Farm. And it is one of the simplest ways of understanding success, resilience and what we call The Everyday Way. Two Farmers Imagine two farmers. At the beginni

It Only Looks Like Magic Until You Know How The other day, AI accidentally renamed my business. I was researching some ideas and asked AI to consider how a particular concept aligned with things we’d previously discussed through Everyday Bushcraft, the Everyday Way and our Five Skills. The response came back referring to: “Everyday Witchcraft.” Obviously, it was a mistake. But it made me stop, and then it made me think. Maybe the mistake wasn’t as ridiculous as it first appea

Sometimes getting started is the hardestt part, but when we do, we develop momentum. Read more about the Everyday Way for some ideas on how to overcome the mental battle that hinders starting what you need to do, and achieve it.

Last night my wife and I watched the film Outback. It follows two young American tourists travelling through Australia on their way to Uluru. What begins as an exciting adventure quickly becomes a survival story—and a tragic reminder that the wilderness has no sympathy for poor preparation. They lose mobile phone coverage. Their GPS becomes unreliable. They drive off their intended route. Their vehicle breaks down. From there, almost every decision makes the situation worse.

“The greatest gift you can give someone isn’t your time. It’s your attention.” We live in a world that constantly competes for our attention. Notifications buzz. Emails arrive. Social media scrolls endlessly. Even when we’re sitting with our family, we can be thinking about work. When we’re at work, we’re thinking about home. When we’re studying, we’re checking our phones. When we’re out in nature, we’re taking photos instead of experiencing the moment. We’re everywhere… Exce

Every one of us has something that makes us hesitate. For some, it’s speaking in front of a group. For others, it’s applying for a new job, making a difficult phone call, sitting an exam, asking someone out for coffee, walking into a gym for the first time, or lighting a fire with a ferro rod instead of a lighter. Some fears are big. Most are surprisingly small. Yet those small fears have an incredible ability to shape the direction of our lives if we allow them to. The Every

“Think of a context.” There’s a powerful scene in Saving Private Ryan where Private James Ryan admits to Captain Miller that he can’t remember his brother Danny’s face. Captain Miller quietly replies: “Well… you gotta think of a context.” Ryan begins remembering moments from childhood—their porch, playing together, the sounds, the feelings. Suddenly, the memories return. That scene isn’t just about grief. It’s about how memory works. Our Brains Remember Stories Better Than Li

One of my favourite sayings is simple: Knowledge weighs nothing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re carrying a heavy backpack through the bush, sitting in a classroom, starting a new job, or trying to navigate one of life’s tougher seasons. The skills and knowledge you’ve earned don’t add a single gram to your load, yet they can make every challenge lighter. That’s the remarkable thing about learning. Nobody can steal it. Nobody can wear it out. And once it’s truly yours, it tr

Why the Challenges You Face Today Become the Foundation You Stand On Tomorrow Most people see failure as the opposite of success. It isn’t. Failure is one of the building materials of success. Every worthwhile achievement begins with uncertainty, awkwardness, mistakes, and moments where you wonder if you’re capable at all. The people we admire aren’t successful because they avoided those moments—they became successful because they learned from them. The challenge isn’t avoidi

When Survival Starts in the Mind: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Everyday Way We’ve all heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—that pyramid explaining the things humans require to thrive. But it’s much more than a theory taught in psychology classes. It’s a practical survival guide. Whether you’re lost in the bush, dealing with a family crisis, buried under homework, struggling at work, or facing uncertainty about your future, Maslow’s hierarchy helps explain one simple tr

There’s an old saying that has stood the test of time: “The only time you should ever look down on someone is when you’re helping them up.” It’s a simple sentence, but it contains a profound truth about the kind of person we should strive to become. Success isn’t measured by how high we climb if we leave everyone else behind. True success is measured by what we become along the journey—and whether we’re willing to extend a hand to someone who is struggling. At Everyday Bushcr

When most people hear the word bushcraft, they picture campfires, shelters, knots and survival skills. They’re right—but they’re also missing the point. Those skills are simply the tools. The real goal is transformation. Whether you’re a parent wanting the best for your child, a teenager trying to find your place in the world, or an adult feeling stuck and searching for a new direction, what you’re really looking for isn’t another hobby. You’re looking for growth. You’re look

Memento Mori and Carpe Diem: Build a Life Worth Living The ancient Romans left us two powerful ideas that have endured for thousands of years. Memento Mori. “Remember that you must die.” And: Carpe Diem. “Seize the day.” At first glance they seem like separate ideas, but they are deeply connected. Memento Mori reminds us that our time is limited. Carpe Diem reminds us what to do with the time we have. Together, they offer a simple challenge: Don’t waste your life. The Everyda

There is a tendency in modern life to focus on the big goal. We look at the mountain and forget that every mountain is climbed one step at a time. Whether it’s learning a new skill, reading a book, studying for an exam, improving your fitness, building a business, or simply getting through a difficult season of life, success is rarely achieved through one giant leap. More often, it is built through a series of small victories stacked on top of one another. A chapter read. A k

Growing up, I heard stories from my great uncle about life in pre WW2 Suva, Fiji, where he, my grandfather and their many siblings spent their childhood. Like many families of that era, books were treasured possessions. They weren’t just entertainment. They were teachers, companions, and guides to life. One book in particular stood out. My great uncle George often spoke about a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s poem If that sat in the family home. It was a poem that was read, discuss

When things go wrong, our natural instinct is often to react. We rush. We panic. We imagine the worst-case scenario. Our emotions take control and suddenly a manageable problem feels overwhelming. Whether you’re lost in the bush, dealing with a family crisis, facing challenges at work, or struggling with unexpected bad news, one principle remains constant: Keep your head. One of the most important survival skills you can ever develop has nothing to do with fire, shelter, wate

The Bushcraft Skill We Don’t Talk About Enough When people think about survival, they often imagine fire, shelter, water, and navigation. Those skills matter. But there is another skill that rarely gets discussed, yet it may be one of the most important of all. The ability to hang tough. To endure. To adapt. To keep moving forward when things aren’t going the way you planned. In survival circles, this is sometimes referred to as “stickability” or “survivability”—the ability t