Weekly thoughts from the edge where comfort ends and reality begins. Raw insights on pushing limits, facing fears, and moving forward when everything screams stop. No carefully curated inspiration or polished self-help - just honest truth from someone navigating both physical extremes and human potential. For those battling inner demons, chasing impossible dreams, or simply tired of playing safe. Because transformation isn't about motivation. It's about movement. Into the unknown, where hands shake and doubts whisper, but you keep moving anyway.
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A Slightly Different Newsletter
Published about 2 months ago • 6 min read
A Slightly Different Newsletter
Time means nothing right now.
My body exists somewhere between Johannesburg and Las Vegas, stretched across time zones and stuffed into too many airplane seats. Sixteen hours to Newark. Three hours in a Starbucks and on my laptop in the terminal, ignoring the fluorescent buzz overhead. Another six hours west to Las Vegas.
I don't know what day it is. My watch says Sunday. My body says "screw you for moving me across the planet again." But underneath the jet lag and caffeine, there's excitement. I'm meeting a client in two days, and we're heading out on a pretty amazing PVT photo tour!
This newsletter isn't what you're used to. There's no deep-dive article from me this week - just couldn't make it happen somewhere between continent-hopping and existing on airplane food. What I've been thinking about a lot lately is this concept of aggressive patience. The contradiction of fiercely, relentlessly pursuing something while accepting that true growth refuses to be rushed.
For quite some time now, I've been working on something on the side. But now, pieces are suddenly clicking into place. Kim's arrival is the first visible step in a direction I've been quietly working on. There's a larger vision emerging - one I couldn't fully see until recently - and I'm pouring a lot into it behind the scenes. The future is taking shape faster than expected, yet still demands that maddening patience that drives me insane and keeps me sane simultaneously.
Gotta love it, right?
In this newsletter, you'll find four new blog posts that explore the psychological blind spots we rarely talk about. That disorienting Arctic white moment when your mind can't separate external emptiness from internal void. The strange, terrifying space between outgrowing your world and finding your new orbit. How your brain frantically fills gaps with whatever demons it expects to find. And that moment of tasting success, when you're most likely to burn everything to the ground. These aren't comfortable reads, but they're honest maps of the territory between where we've been and what we're becoming.
And then, I'd like to introduce you to Kim Lindsell. This new collaboration isn't just another business move. The work we're building is deeper than strategy or plans.
It's real, it matters, and I'm super excited about where we're taking this.
Meet Kim Kim Lindsell
I'm excited to introduce Kim Lindsell, a psychology-trained coach who's now part of my website and coaching services. Her work centers on creating space for authentic transformation - helping you hear the voice that's been drowned out by the noise.
She offers Mindset & Performance Coaching and specializes in Student & Young Adult Coaching, and Authenticity Coaching - services that complement what I've been building. This new partnership isn't just business - it's the beginning of something I've envisioned for a while now and that I am working on hard behind the scenes. More on this in due course.
Kim specializes in guiding younger people through life's messy transitions - those moments when everything feels simultaneously possible and impossible. If you know a student or young adult who's searching for direction, feeling stuck, or simply needs someone who actually sees them, Kim is ready to add value to their journey.
Below Kim shares some of her own thoughts and you can also click on the image below to read more about Kim's journey so far.
You’re Not Lost - You’re Becoming
There’s something quietly powerful about choosing to start.
Whether it’s reaching out for support, questioning what really matters, or simply admitting to yourself that something feels off—that moment of awareness is where transformation begins.
I created this space because I know what it’s like to appear capable on the outside while navigating self-doubt, burnout, or feeling stuck on the inside.
If you’re here, chances are - you do too.
Who am I?
I’m Kim. A coach with a background in psychology, education, and lived experience. I help students, young adults, and anyone feeling adrift reconnect with purpose, clarity and authenticity.
But more than that - I hold space.
Space for growth. Space for the questions you’re tired of asking. Space for truth without judgment.
Transformation doesn’t have to be loud. Sometimes it starts by softening your inner critic, setting a boundary, or simply choosing you – for the first time in a long time.
What Do I Offer?
Student & Young Adult Coaching: From overwhelm to empowerment – navigate academic and early adulthood with clarity and confidence.
Authenticity Coaching: Reconnect with your true self, align with your values, and stop living life on autopilot.
Mindset & Performance Coaching: Clear the mental blocks holding you back and step you’re your next level – personally or professionally.
No surface-level solutions. No forced positivity. Just deep, practical, transformational support.
Let’s Be Real
You don’t have to wait for things to fall apart before asking for help. Coaching isn’t about “fixing” you - it’s about helping you hear yourself more clearly, trust that voice, and take meaningful action.
If there’s even a whisper inside telling you it’s time for more - more alignment, more courage, more clarity - I’d be honored to walk beside you as you take that next step.
Your future self is already proud of you for being here.
If you’re curious about coaching or just want someone to listen - reach out, I’d love to hear from you.
Insights
This week on my blog, Insights, I explore the hidden mental landscapes we all navigate.
From the isolating white void of the Arctic that mirrors our deepest anxieties to the loneliness of outgrowing your familiar world, these posts examine the psychological terrain between where we've been and where we're going.
I look at how our brains fill in missing information with what they expect to find, and why that moment of success can paradoxically be when we're most vulnerable to failure.
Join me as we map the unseen challenges that shape our growth far more profoundly than the victories themselves.
Moving forward, I will include all Kim's new posts and insights in this weekly newsletter so make sure to keep an eye out. I really feel there is a lot of value in this week's posts and would, as always, love to hear from you if any of the posts resonate with you.
Mental Darkness In A World Of White
In the Arctic there's this moment when the world dissolves around you. Anxiety and depression create the same feeling in your head.
The Rocket Ship Effect: When Your Growth Leaves Other Behind
When you outgrow your world, there's a moment of terrifying isolation. That space between old and new where nobody can reach you. This is about surviving that void and finding your new orbit.
The technical term is "predictive coding." Your brain isn't waiting for complete information, it's making rapid predictions based on fragments, filling in gaps with what it expects to find.
As mentioned last week, Every Tuesday, I transform the main article from the latest newsletter into a podcast episode. Perfect for your commute, workout, or those moments when your eyes need a break but your mind doesn't.
You can find the latest two episodes below or my searching my name on your favorite podcasting platform.
I've slowly been piecing together a vlog from my Svalbard white whale expedition, and while revisiting the footage has been incredible, I'm feeling a deep longing for the Arctic. The video should be ready to share in the next few weeks—most of my editing happens during flights these days.
For now, here's a moment that still takes my breath away: after skiing under heavy clouds all day, the light suddenly broke through, creating this spectacular scene. My iPhone continues to impress me with how well it captures these fleeting, magical moments and the RAW files are really, really good!
Header image: My view of downtown Manhattan a few hours ago from my window seat on my United Airlines flight to Las Vegas.
And that's it for this week.
I'm ready to head out across some amazing American landscapes - Vegas to Grand Canyon to Sedona to Lake Powell. And then ending in New York!
Instagram might catch glimpses if I remember to post, but honestly, I'm trying to be more present in the actual moment than the digital one lately.
I am going to try and get next week's newsletter out. Until then, sit with those uncomfortable spaces. The ones between who you were and who you're becoming.
That's where all the good shit happens anyway.
If you know of anybody who might enjoy this newsletter, it would be amazing if you would forward it to them.
Have a great week and stay safe.
And as always, don't forget to be awesome.
Gerry van der Walt
Mindset & Performance Coach | International Expedition Leader Speaker & Presenter | Photographic Educator | Co founder of Wild Eye
Weekly thoughts from the edge where comfort ends and reality begins. Raw insights on pushing limits, facing fears, and moving forward when everything screams stop. No carefully curated inspiration or polished self-help - just honest truth from someone navigating both physical extremes and human potential. For those battling inner demons, chasing impossible dreams, or simply tired of playing safe. Because transformation isn't about motivation. It's about movement. Into the unknown, where hands shake and doubts whisper, but you keep moving anyway.
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