Welcome to the first-ever Questful letter. I’ve set this to go out on my birthday, so cake is on me. And seeing as it’s my birthday, I’m pretty sure I get the power to declare a new holiday. Happy Questday! Take a moment to high-five yourself for any adventure you’ve braved this year, no matter the shape or size.

Now, let’s get Questy…

This is the place where I’ll be answering any of your questions about Quests. Let’s start with a recent and timely one:   

Do you set New Year’s Resolutions? Or do you just do Quests?

No, I don’t set New Year’s Resolutions, and haven’t done for many years.

One, because if there’s something I’m keen to do I wouldn’t want to wait until New Year. That’s just my personality. I’ve started Quests in March, July, and October.

Two, because I associate New Year’s Resolutions with a drudgey kind of discipline, based on how I used to set them. Not one shred of fun to be had! If you want to read more about my shift from hyper-discipline to adventure, I wrote about it here:

‘The most important thing about quests, he decided, was not in finding what you went looking for, but in finding what you never could have imagined before you ventured forth.’

— Lois McMaster Bujold

Those of you who have Quested with me might recognise this quote from your Quest kits. I do love the surprise and possibility that this holds. I think it has a VERY different flavour to most New Year’s Resolutions. One that fills me with more excitement.

BUT this is not to say that Quests are the answer to everything. They’re not.

For example, when I set the goal to deadlift 100kg I didn’t want adventure! I wanted my trainer there with his clipboard. (Thank you, Mike.)

And if I wanted to eat less chocolate, I’d be grateful for James Clear’s work on habits.

What I will say is, don’t settle for an approach to anything that you hate and won’t stick to. There is always a way to make things more doable and enjoyable. And don’t go it alone unnecessarily. I say this as someone who didn’t ask for help with anything for the longest time.

If you’re like me and are a last-minute gift buyer, with a 90% chance that it’s going to be a book, then I have a recommendation for you. One that works for a lot of different tastes and ages.

What does it have to do with Quests? One of my Quests (inspired by Ray Bradbury) was to spend 1000 nights reading a poem, a short story, and an essay a night. This is the essay collection that I’ve recommended countless times since then.

This is a message from one of the people I recommended it to:

You know what, it’s Questday! If you like the look of it, get is as a gift for yourself!

Some people pick a word for the year. (I have done this and repeatedly forgotten what I picked!)

A different version of this would be to pick one to three words to capture how you want your next goal to feel. I do this with all of my Questful participants. And myself. 

For my current Quest (100 places, 300 pages) I picked: eye-opening, light, unhurried. But for my next, I might pick: invigorating, surprising and collaborative.

You get to choose.

And if you’d like a fun A-Z of possible words you can find one here.

Here’s to a wonderful close to 2025, and opening of 2026. Any questions about anything Questful, you can find me right here…

Until next time,

PS: Thanks for reading my Questful World letter. If you know someone who might enjoy this, please feel free to forward it to them. They can hit subscribe and join us.