April 15th 2015 was definitely one of the most important day in my whole life. It was a Wednesday. I was 23 years old.

I had a bike, I had some bags, and a lot of equipment. I was ready. I couldn’t say that I was really well prepared though. But for sure I was gone. First step achieved.

During the past year, I cycled 10,500km from Bordeaux, France to NYC, USA from where I am writing this article today.

I crossed 16 countries, took 20 ferries, met 100 startup CEOs, met thousands of people and slept in places you couldn’t even imagine you can sleep in (for the best and the worst).

All of this started one year ago. And if I’m celebrating my first birthday on the road from New York City today, I can’t realize that this was only one year ago.

I lived 5 times more during the past 12 month than ever before.

I spent 5 times less money than when I lived in France in my small studio.

I wrote this article to connect the dots and share with you the 7 most important things I learned from this experience.

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

1. Letting Go

When you’re traveling on your own, by bike, and when you’re as few prepared as I was, you have to build the ability of letting things go.

I was the kind of guy who was easily obsessed with pointless things. I was obsessed with planning, having everything clean, and I was depreciating surprises and unexpected things.

I can’t help laughing today when I thing to my younger self being stuck in this mindset.

When you’re traveling this way, letting go is not an option.

Plans change all the time, rain can ruin your days and your nights, you never know who you’re gonna meet, you never know where you’re gonna sleep, and you never know what’s gonna happen on the road.

By the way, I didn’t learn how to let things go in purpose. It happened automatically after the first few days immersed in my new life.