The Unbreakable Self (7 Life-Changing Truths from Walking Around the World)

Tom Turcich is the tenth person to walk around the world. At twenty-six, he stepped out his front door to walk 28,000 miles across thirty-eight countries and six continents. During his seven-year expedition, one question asserted itself with every step: what’s worth the weight?

At first, this question was aimed at the things Tom carried. He obsessed over what he could get rid of versus what was necessary, whittling down his possessions to only the most effective. After that, the question turned inward. Through years of solitude and exposure, Tom turned over every thought, emotion, and experience until understanding the weights of our existence: the unavoidable, the chosen, and the unnecessary. With the ability to parse between them, Tom rebuilt himself from the ground up—releasing the unnecessary, adding the chosen, and embracing the seven unavoidable truths:

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  A remarkable life exists in the realm of action.
  
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  You’re smaller than you realize.
  
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  You are and always will be human.
  
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  Life is change.
  
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  Not every thought is useful.
  
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  Happiness is the only measure.
  
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  This is your only draft.
  

This is not a book of hacks. There are no morning routines to add, no productivity systems to implement, no self to optimize, and no possessions to buy. Instead, The Unbreakable Self outlines the nature of our humanity and sets a path to a life of happiness and effectiveness by telling well-earned stories. For readers of Four Thousand Weeks and The Comfort Crisis, The Unbreakable Self is self-help with dirt on its boots—firsthand evidence that the smaller you understand yourself to be, the larger your life becomes.