It started in the most ordinary of ways: the office slowly emptying, colleagues slipping away, the hum of computers powering down. I waited until the space had stilled, then quietly shouldered my rucksack and stepped out into the city night.
Within the hour, I was on a train heading out of Sheffield and into the dark heart of the Peak District. The transition was almost absurd: one moment fluorescent lights, commuter chatter and station platforms; the next, the rolling black silhouette of hills rushing past the window.
At Grindleford, the train doors slid open and released me into silence. My headtorch beam cut a narrow tunnel through the darkness as I followed the lane away from the station. The nights were drawing in, although autumn was yet to hit fully. I walked past Padley Manor Chapel, its stone walls whispering history in the night. In July 1588, two Catholic priests, Richard Ludlam and Nicholas Garlick, were arrested here and later executed for their faith. Tonight, the chapel stood quietly under the stars, a silent witness as I passed.
Further along, the woods closed in, bracken rising on either side of the path. I found a small clearing, pitched my bivvy, and settled in for the night. From the darkness all around came the sharp, eerie calls of deer barking as the rutting season was beginning. Wrapped in my sleeping bag, I let the sounds of the wild pull me into sleep.
On the way, I had been listening to Grant Cardone’s 10X Rule. His words stayed with me in the stillness: cut away the negative, lean into discomfort, invest in yourself. A night out like this isn’t just about fresh air or scenery. It is about saying yes to the small fears: walking alone through dark woods, stepping away from routine, sleeping under an open sky and discovering that courage is not the absence of fear but moving forward with it.
Grant’s thoughts about the company you keep shaping your trajectory, relationships as the true currency, discomfort as growth, courage as action despite fear and controlling your environment to control your future all resonated with me. I would definitely recommend reading Chapter 11 on Motivation in his book The 10X Mentor.
At dawn the landscaped was softened by mist, the air fresh with promise. I unzipped my bivvy midge net to a view no five-star hotel could match: first light breaking as the birds began to sing.
After a quick hot drink from my flask, I packed my bag and made my way back towards the station. On the way, I spotted a cluster of fly agaric mushrooms, bright red and white, like something from a fairytale. They seemed like nature’s reminder that magic is always waiting at the edge of ordinary life.
By 8 a.m. I was back in Sheffield, slipping into the office after a shower, my colleagues none the wiser. To them, it was just another Thursday. But I had fallen asleep surrounded by deer calls, woken to the glow of dawn, and carried back with me something more than just tired legs.
That is the beauty of a microadventure: it is both escape and investment. A reminder that the richest currency is not money but the relationships we build: with others, with nature and with ourselves when we dare to step beyond the comfortable.