Walk With Purpose
The reality-altering magic of walking with intention
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818
Welcome back to Quests, where we tackle a different challenge every Thursday.
This week we’re taking a leisurely stroll to The Fountain, our reservoir of health and wellness power-ups. Extra hearts await.
Here’s something you already know: walking is really, ridiculously good for you.
Few activities are as powerfully backed by solid research as walking.
There are—
Health benefits: Yes, movement is medicine. Walking improves cardio health, brain function, muscle strength, and mental well-being.
Social benefits: Walking connects neighbors, strengthens communities, and stimulates conversation.
Productivity benefits: Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey. The busiest CEOs walk constantly. Walking boosts creative thinking and increases productivity.
I want to give you (1) my own pitch for walking more than you do now, and (2) a reward for doing so, however small.
Everyone knows they should eat leafy greens, drink lots of water, wear sunscreen, floss daily…we’ve all heard the list. But good intentions don’t always cut through the endless doom-scrolling, the news and email refreshes, the late-night reel binges.
You need a new reward loop.
Lace up your Boots of Striding, and take in the scenery. Let’s get walking.
The Quarter
A few years ago I came across an experiment proposed by Robert Anton Wilson in Prometheus Rising. This is an absolutely bonkers book that I wholeheartedly recommend.
Published in 1983, Prometheus Rising came out well after the psychedelic highs of the 1960s and ’70s had faded. The book is packed with diatribes against figures like Newt Gingrich, imagined exchanges with extraterrestrials, doses of Freudian theory, and explorations of “reality tunnels.”
Like I said, bonkers—but smart and incisive in its own way.
Early in the book, Wilson proposes the following experiment (or “exercize,” as he calls it):
“1. Visualize a quarter vividly, and imagine vividly that you are going to find the quarter on the street. Then, look for the quarter every time you take a walk, meanwhile continuing to visualize it. See how long it takes you to find the quarter.
2. Explain the above experiment by the hypothesis of “selective attention” — that is, believe there are lots of lost quarters everywhere and you were bound to find one by continually looking. Go looking for a second quarter.
3. Explain the experiment by the alternative “mystical” hypothesis that “mind controls everything.” Believe that you made the quarter manifest in this universe. Go looking for [another] quarter.
4. Compare the time it takes to find the second quarter using the first hypothesis (attention) with the time it takes using the second hypothesis (mind-over-matter).”
from Prometheus Rising, p. 28-9
Living in New York City at the time, I figured it would take no time to find a lost quarter. I walked forty-five minutes to my office, eyes glued to the sidewalk. By the time I reached Park Avenue, I was almost convinced that I shouldn’t try “exercizes” suggested by drugged out mystics.
Then, at the last second, I saw the quarter, heads-up on the sidewalk in front of the building doors. I stooped down to pick it up, only to realize it was glued to the cement. I squeezed and pulled at George Washington’s face. The quarter wouldn’t budge.
Later, when I stepped out for lunch, it was gone.
Cue the Twilight Zone theme.
George Washington, traveler of time and space.
I realize this slightly psychedelic detour has an air of manifestation and new-age mysticism. But that’s not what I’m interested in here.
I want to focus on the quarter and what it did to my walk. For forty-five minutes I was completely absorbed, moving along the sidewalk in my own focused headspace.
My walk to work became a game.
The prize? A cosmic joke—but a satisfying one.
Of course, there’s something to be said for simply walking: no goal, no destination, just one step after another.
But, gratification addicts that we are, that’s often not enough.
So let’s gamify this. Here are three different approaches to fire you up about walking. Follow whichever path suits you.
Walking as Exercise
First, the headline: walking lowers your risk of death. Simple as that.
Again, you know this. Exercise good; sedentary lifestyle bad.
In Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding, Daniel Lieberman breaks down the strange tension here: we’re wired to conserve energy, not to exercise voluntarily.
We did evolve to walk, however. In his book In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration, Shane O’Mara digs into our bipedal roots. Unlike apes, our upright gait lets us cover twice the distance on the same calories, an adaptation that’s expanded our range across the globe:
“Humans are not especially fast runners – we can easily be outrun over short(ish) distances by lots of other species (think tigers and gazelles) – but we are exceptional walkers, possibly the best walkers of all species. And this has been the secret underlying our far-flung dispersion across the face of the earth. We humans are the most dispersed of all animal species, living in the northern and southern extremes of our planet, and at virtually every land point in between. Walking allowed us to probe and extend the edges of our world, and then undertake occasionally risky journeys by boat, traveling to the next island – which we then explored on foot.
from In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration, p. 42
Here’s the take-home point: walking is something humans are uniquely suited for; it’s in our bones.
It also happens to be exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise. Because it’s not. Even though it is. (Listen, I’m confused too).
In any case, walking as exercise is simple: keep the body in motion at a slightly elevated heart rate. If tracking helps, try AllTrails for hiking routes or Strava for metrics on heart rate, pace, and distance. We don’t have to be outdoor purists either: treadmills and walking pads count too.
Get quantitative with step counts, calories burned, elevation, and pace; whatever gets you walking.
The goal here is to count and compete with yourself.
Walking to Get Stuff, Discover Places, and Join Together
Approaching walking purely as exercise—or as a numbers game—works for a lot of people, but it’s hard for me to get excited about. Maybe I’m easily bored.
I prefer to walk to somewhere, where small rewards beckon—a park, a coffee shop, a restaurant.
It sounds absurd to need to emphasize this, but here it goes anyway: walking is a wonderful way to acquire things and accomplish tasks. Who knew?
Unfortunately, many of our towns and cities aren’t designed for walking. They’re built around cars, with shopping centers and neighborhoods so spaced out that walking to anything meaningful is nearly impossible. I wrote about this a few weeks ago in Quest 1: Strengthen Your Town, which covers Charles Marohn and his work on urban development and walkability.
Jeff Speck dives into this idea even further in Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, where he argues that walkable city planning isn’t just nice to have; it’s critical for building vibrant neighborhoods, healthy local economies, and stronger social bonds.
According to Speck, a well-designed city places essential services, social hubs, and green spaces within a comfortable walking distance, encouraging residents to interact with their surroundings and each other.
If you’ve been to Italy, you know the feeling of stepping into a piazza that just works. Settle down with a bottle of wine, let the kids run around, and watch family and friends drift in. There’s something special about the way these ancient squares pull together social life.
If you’re looking for walkable travel destinations, Speck highlights some top international cities: Vancouver, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. For a deep dive into Speck’s work on urban design, Smart Cities posted a great review of his book.
There’s also the simple thrill of exploration. Think about how much of your own town remains a mystery. Sure, it’s all mapped out—but you haven’t mapped it. Walking is an opportunity to widen your lived world.
A man in need of a walk
In this framework, the goals are external, outward. Go fetch something. Talk to a stranger. Discover someplace new.
Walking as a Creative Act
Now we’re approaching walking nirvana. Enlightenment, step by step.
I’ll try to spare you my armchair (sidewalk?) philosophizing, but if you’ll allow me a quick Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance moment here, I’ll say this:
We are, for better or worse, creatures of habit, stuck in thought loops, inclined to split things into dualities—mind and body, self and world, me and you.
But of course everything is intertwined. And somehow walking breaks through our categories, nudging us “out there,” dissolving former ideas.
Artists, scientists, and thinkers have long known this. Darwin had his Sandwalk to flesh out theories on evolution; Dickens wrote his novels in his head while walking; Einstein took walks with philosopher Kurt Gödel; Kant’s daily strolls were so regular that villagers set their clocks by them. There’s something about walking that shakes thoughts loose, frees the mind, and opens new spaces.
In 2014, a Stanford study showed that walking boosted creative output among participants by an impressive 60%, with about 81% showing more creativity while on their feet. This boost persisted after people sat back down, suggesting that walking creates a lasting cognitive shift that primes us for better idea flow.
Interestingly, the effect held steady whether people walked indoors or outside (score one for the treadmill/walking pad gang), emphasizing that the movement itself, rather than the scenery, was the key driver. It wasn’t just quantity; quality improved too. When participants walked, they generated more novel, useful ideas, especially in tasks that required divergent thinking—generating lots of possible solutions. While walking didn’t improve convergent thinking (finding a single correct answer), it opened up associative, free-flowing thought.
Cliff Walk at Pourville, Claude Monet, 1882
Today, people are waiting for VR or AR to wow us with “immersion,” but a good walk with an open mind can be pure wonder, no enhancements required.
There’s a whole world of things for your mind to latch onto.
A few weeks ago I played a round of golf—“A good walk spoiled,” as Mark Twain supposedly said of the game—and my friend, ambling alongside, shouted in my ear: “Man, look at the f*@!ng alligator!”
And so, walking by the water’s edge, we did.
Well, we’ve arrived at The Fountain, where in future weeks we’ll touch on the latest trends and pursuits in health and wellness, including bio-monitoring, AI fitness trainers, and life extension.
For now, let’s appreciate the journey that led us here and prepare for your real-world walking challenge.
Here’s Quest 4:
Walk 10,000 steps (~5 miles) in a day
Key Details
I know what you’re thinking—sounds easy. But I’ll challenge you to walk intentionally (pick a goal; make it a game) and to submit a description or (better yet) a photo of something you encountered on the walk. An animal, a scene in nature, a public place, a quarter that a hippie intellectual from the 1980s made you manifest into existence. Anything goes.
I’ll collect submitted photos and make a Quests collage
Bonus points to whoever logs the most steps/miles in a day. Can you break 20,000 steps? 30,000?
Please comment here on Substack with thoughts, counterthoughts, suggestions, and disagreements.
To tumble further down the rabbit hole, head over to the Quests Community.
Upon completion:
It’s dangerous to go alone—find a quest partner, and party up.
Recommended Reading:
Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Quotes:
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” – Henry David Thoreau
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“I have walked myself into my best thoughts.” – Soren Kierkegaard
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
NEXT ON QUESTS
Grab your lute or lyre; we’re heading to the Arts District to dive into the music industry’s shifting landscape.
What’s become of musical genres? How does a band “make it” today? If you’re a young musician and dreaming of success in a world dominated by Spotify and Ticketmaster, what does that path really look like?
We’ll explore insights from industry insiders on the future of music.
In the meantime, quest on!