If I Just Keep Pedaling Things Will Come to Me

“If I just keep pedaling, things will come to me,” says Martijn Doolaard, author of One Year on a Bike and Two Years on a Bike, both of which I’m a huge fan of. Martijn biked all the way across Europe. On a second journey, he biked from Vancouver to the southern tip of South America.

He also has a YouTube channel, where he shows himself painstakingly renovating two cabins in the Italian Alps. Watching him is like watching poetry in motion. Some might think it’s like watching paint dry—as it’s a very slow process. Yet, his channel has over 600,000 people watching his videos every week. Why is Martijn so popular? He can keep people’s attention even though the work he’s doing moves very slowly. This is part of a trend over the last couple years, where YouTube channels showing people living “off the grid” have blown up like crazy.

In today’s episode I discuss:

• 2 things we can learn from Martijn Doolaard—why “doing what you love” is beautiful, and why it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks

• How Martijn is clearly taking a “soul path”—while demonstrating extraordinary consistency in what he’s doing (this consistency is allowing him to master things)

• His brilliant composition in photography and video, and how he brings beauty to his YouTube page

• A video technique that’s working well with the human mind right now—switching camera angles every few seconds in order to give the brain a dopamine hit

• How Martijn starts off knowing nothing, learns one step at a time, and in doing so, he’s mastering things

• The ritual he uses to prepare his mind to work in the dark, including changing what he’s wearing, putting his head light on, having something quick to eat, and getting his mindset in a different place

• How Martijn finds beauty in everything he’s doing—from building an outhouse, to his chicken coops, and even the tragedy that happens while he’s up on the mountain

I think everyone should do what they love. Martijn isn’t concerned with the cost of anything. What’s more important to him is the journey, the adventure he’s taking himself on. He focuses on “one day at a time.” If we just keep moving forward one day at a time, everything will come to us.