Do I need to start my journal on a certain day?

We had originally imagined this journey as a day-by-day exploration (like a daily multi-year journal). But we realized that these questions really should be your own. Do you have a free afternoon? Journey all in one day. Do you feel like answering 10 questions in one sitting? Go for it. Are you at a company retreat? Responding to the Mind Hike questions would be a great weekend activity.

Do I need to complete one question each day?

Do a question a day. 2 a day. 45 a day. Whatever. It’s your hike; so hike at your pace.

Can I use one word answers?

Yes. (See what I did there?) Mike tends to answer quickly in one word answers and Elissa prefers to pontificate (much to her children’s dismay). Answer in whatever way is helpful for you.

What if the questions don’t apply for/to me?

We’re sure you’ve all played the fortune-cookie game (you know the one….where you add “with a partner” to the end of each fortune - haha, endless amusement). Add or change these questions in any way that is helpful to you, in the same manner.

What if I don’t have an answer?

We think not having an answer is actually very instructive. If you don't have an answer, (especially on both rounds of answering) spend some time thinking about why you didn't have an answer. Is it just a question that is irrelevant to you? Or is it an area that you don’t think about enough? Is it something you avoid thinking about?

How many questions are there really?

365 if you do it once, 730 if you do it twice. And more if you do bonus questions (we didn’t feel like doing the math for the bonus questions but more than 730 for sure). The arrow pointing to the right is for the first round of answers. The arrow pointing to the left is for the second go around.

What should I do with my answers?

Our favorite part of these inner journeys is actually trying to get out of our own heads (occupational hazard for anyone who spends a lot of time by themselves at their computer). We like to think about it as blunt honesty: you peer inside, scoop it out, and then look at it all with clear eyes. "It" being all those dreams and all the angst that we all have clogging up our brains. Once you have it all out in the open, you may want to handle the next steps alone. Or you may want to enlist a friend. We urge you to look for patterns and "a-ha" moments. Has anything changed in your second go-around with the questions? What have you been focusing on? What is holding you back? (Ah, an answer with more questions.)Finally, we encourage you to join us on our Mind Hike blog (on the blog page of this website) and join other adventurers who are also on this journey. We hope we can all provide guidance and support for each other.

What should I do in the Free Space?

You can do anything you want with the Free Space space. Hence the name, Free Space. (Darn. We used legalese again. Sorry about that.) You can list gratitude points, draw doodles, further elaborate on the question... seriously. Anything you want. In our ideal world, you will have a life-changing epiphany that you might write down (inspired of course, by a brilliant question you've just answered). But you can use it to jot down your grocery list or just doodle, if that's your preference.

Tell me about the Bonus Questions.

This is not even a question. #FAQFAIL. The bonus questions are additional questions (bonus) that go deeper into a topic or take a question in a different direction. Feel free to answer them, ignore them or turn them into Free Space (see Free Space FAQ above).

What’s all this about a round-trip journey?

Glad you asked! We all want to go somewhere, but we’ve got to return home eventually. The idea behind Mind Hike is to take your journey by answering 365 questions, and revisiting those same questions to figure out what you’ve learned on your travels.