People often see the person chasing the goal.
They do not always see the person beside them who helped shape how they chase it.
When people see me preparing to run across Australia, they see the training, the kilometres and the size of the challenge. But the way I approach a goal like this did not come from running alone.
It has been shaped by my wife, Amy Sheppard.
Amy has taught me three important lessons. Not through lectures or advice, but through the way she has lived, pursued her career and loved the people around her.
These are my lessons from Amy. But as you read them, I want you to consider a different question:
What is your partner teaching you through the way they live?
1. If You Have a Passion, Chase It
Amy spent years chasing her dream of becoming a full-time musician.
Before Sheppard became successful, I saw the small audiences. I saw the uncertainty. I watched people question whether the band could become a real career.
Amy regularly heard the question:
"What's your real job?"
She kept going anyway.
Then "Geronimo" took off. The song became an international hit, and in 2026 it passed one billion streams across major platforms.
It is easy to look at that result and believe the journey was always heading there. It was not. There were years when the belief had to come before the evidence.
That is what Amy taught me.
The lesson is not that persistence guarantees a global hit. It does not. The lesson is that other people's uncertainty does not get to decide how seriously you take your passion.
Amy did not wait for everyone to understand the dream before she pursued it. She kept building while people doubted her.
For an ambitious person, that matters. There will always be someone asking whether your goal is sensible, realistic or worth the effort. You still have to decide whether it is worth chasing.
2. Put People Before Professions
When Sheppard toured with Justin Bieber, I genuinely thought Amy might go Hollywood and break up with me.
The opposite happened.
The bigger her career became, the more effort she made to bring me into that part of her life. She would FaceTime me from the road. She invited me to shows whenever she could. She invited me to visit her in Europe so I could experience the journey alongside her.
Her career was growing, but she never made me feel as though I was standing in its way.
That showed me what putting people first actually looks like.
It does not mean making yourself smaller or turning down every opportunity. It means refusing to treat the people you love as disposable when new opportunities arrive.
Ambition can easily become an excuse for absence. We tell ourselves that the people around us will understand. We promise we will make time when the project is finished, the business is stable or the next goal has been achieved.
Amy showed me another way. You can pursue something enormous and still make a deliberate effort to bring the people you love with you.
Professions matter. Goals matter. But neither matters more than the people you hope will still be standing beside you when the work is done.
3. Encourage the People You Love
Amy has supported plenty of ideas that most people would call crazy.
In 2022, I completed 30 marathon distances on a rowing machine in 30 days. In 2025, I ran 58 marathons in 58 consecutive days across all 50 US states and Australia's eight states and territories.
Now I am preparing to run across Australia.
Amy has encouraged me through all of it.
Not because she is excited about every idea or because she would choose to do them herself. She supports me because she knows what it feels like to believe in something while other people doubt you.
There is an important difference between encouragement and blind agreement.
Encouragement is not telling someone that every idea is perfect. It is helping them believe they are capable of finding out what is possible. It is asking questions, standing beside them and refusing to become another voice telling them not to try.
Sometimes the people we love do not need certainty from us. They need enough belief to take the next step.
Amy has given me that belief repeatedly.
What Is Your Partner Teaching You?
Ambitious people often look a long way from home for their next lesson.
We search for mentors, books, podcasts, coaches and people who have achieved what we want to achieve. Those sources can be valuable, but they can also make us overlook the person whose example we see every day.
Think about your partner, or the person closest to you.
- How do they respond when other people doubt them?
- What do they protect when work becomes demanding?
- How do they make people feel when pressure is high?
- What have they encouraged you to attempt before there was any proof you would succeed?
The lesson may not be something they have ever said aloud. It may be hidden in how they work, how they treat people, how they recover from disappointment or how they continue to believe in you.
Do not wait for a dramatic moment to recognise it.
Pay attention to how they live.
How Amy Has Shaped My Run Across Australia
I am 35 years old. I am a husband, a dad and a business owner preparing to run across Australia in March 2027.
The challenge is mine, but the way I want to undertake it has been shaped by Amy's example.
I do not want to simply chase another ambitious goal. I want to learn how to pursue it without sacrificing the people and responsibilities that matter most.
Ambition is not just chasing your dream. It is chasing it without leaving the people you love behind.
Amy, thank you for being the example and for helping shape the man I am today.
Who is the person who has backed you, brought you in and encouraged you?
Tell them.
And if you would like to follow my next challenge, join The Long Road Home email list for updates as I prepare to run across Australia in March 2027.
