Blog from Antarctica: Targets

On our expedition in Antarctica, we’re not reaching the South Pole. We’re not meeting our target. But we have reached our goal.

Our goal was drive across Antarctica in a car made from recycled plastic, completely on solar power, and in the process, inspire people to rethink waste. To see it as something valuable, and not worthless. We would aim to reach the South Pole, our target, in the process. Our goal was a journey, and our target a point on the map.

We didn't reach our target. But that doesn’t matter. Because it’s about the journey, not the destination. In our journey in Antarctica, through blizzards, storms, snowfall and amazing sunshine, we learned more and more that our target never really mattered. What matters is that we are living waste-free and surviving on nature’s powers in the harshest continent of the world. Our target, in the sense of the South Pole, was never of any real importance. What’s of importance is our way of approaching it, our journey and our means towards it. It’s about the means, and not the end.

It’s human nature to envision a target in mind that you are working up to. And so did we. We thought about that pole a lot, and really envisioned ourselves on it. That’s great, because in many ways it motivates to go on, to continue and to find a way to reach it. But it’s also limiting, because if you then don’t reach that target, you get disappointed. If you look at it differently though, you often see that that target didn’t really matter. Because you’ve come such a long way and changed so many things in your life. And isn’t that really the goal?

You get back up and continue. You set yourselves new targets and continue to fight for them. And you focus on the journey you’re taking. When you fail to reach a target, you take that disappointment, face it, turn it around, and continue. It might be uncomfortable, and it will take some courage, but you do it. One step at a time. You take small steps, and start now.

We were disappointed we didn’t reach the pole, but almost at the same time, felt incredible pride despite of it. Every second, we’re proudly looking at the vehicle and all it’s capabilities, of the journey it took from ‘trash’ to ‘truck’. We’re proudly looking at what changed in our own lives, at the people we have inspired to think differently, and at the changes we’ve made possible so far. All because we started, failed and got back up again. We started small, and are never looking back.

And really, in this expedition and what we will be doing afterwards, that feels like the only important target there is.