Dr. Lachlan Soper is a Sydney-based general practitioner, father of three, and passionate cyclist. With a love for both medicine and the outdoors, he balances his professional life with an active lifestyle, often found exploring Sydney’s scenic bike paths with his children.
Lachlan’s passion for cycling began in childhood, when he would borrow bikes from friends and spend hours riding through local streets, captivated by the freedom and joy of cycling. Decades later, that love remains as strong as ever. Today, he rides an average of four to five times per week, covering approximately 13,000 kilometers per year. His cycling adventures have taken him through the Victorian Alps, the New South Wales Snowy Mountains, and even twice from Melbourne to Sydney. Beyond personal enjoyment, he has also participated in multiple charity rides, using his passion to support meaningful causes.
For Lachlan, cycling is more than just a sport—it’s a way to connect with others and create lasting memories with his children. As a father to three energetic kids (ages 11,13 and 15), he takes great joy in introducing them to Sydney’s stunning cycling routes. Together, they explore bike paths around Sydney Harbour, the Parramatta River, Botany Bay, and beyond. His website serves as a resource for other families, sharing kid-friendly cycling routes that feature breathtaking views, great playgrounds, and relaxing picnic spots.
Family is at the heart of everything Lachlan does. He believes in parenting with firmness, fairness, and fun, ensuring that his children grow up with strong values and a love for the outdoors. As a devoted Christian, he incorporates faith into his parenting, teaching his children to navigate life’s challenges with kindness and integrity.
Professionally, Dr. Soper has been practicing medicine since earning his degree in 2000. Currently working at Avenue Road Medical Practice, he has also served as a Visiting Medical Officer in emergency medicine, general medicine, and pediatrics in rural hospitals. With a deep commitment to his patients, he cherishes the privilege of being called “my family’s GP.”
Whether in the clinic or on the bike, Lachlan Soper is dedicated to living a life of purpose, health, and adventure.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
In my typical day, I’m awake sometime between 4:50 AM and 5:30 AM. It starts with a bike ride or a run or a swim, and often followed up by a walk or a kayak. On weekdays, I walk to work, usually starting at 8 AM. In my lunch break I usually walk to the gym and do weights and then go through my emails as I walk back to the surgery. After my afternoon session, I walk home and have dinner with my wife. We usually watch a show in the evening and I like to be in bed just before 9pm if possible. Weekends are usually family time and Sundays have a Balmoral Beach Club swim, followed by our church service. Often we have chill time in the afternoon on Sunday.
How do you bring ideas to life?
The best way to bring ideas to life is to brainstorm and run them by people with a discerning mind.
What’s one trend that excites you?
One trend that excites me is more and more older people exercising deep into their 80s. I do 1500+ metre swims with people over the age of 80, I have a patient who is 99 who is still playing lawn bowls, and I have another patient who is also 99 who still sails competitively and plays croquet.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
To be productive, I write my diary and pre-plan everything.
What advice would you give your younger self?
The advice I would give to my younger self would be to try more things out. To push the boundaries. For example, to try new sports, go in musicals, take up debating etc.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
Unlike most of society, I feel that tomato sauce tastes terrible and smells terrible.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
To the current date, I have done 980 days consecutively of exercise without a break. I recommend to everyone else to never stop moving – no matter what it is: walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, dancing, playing ball, sports, lifting weights…. whatever it is, never stop moving, exercising, lifting, and challenging your body. In all facets of life if you are not going forwards, you are going backwards.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
When I feel overwhelmed or unfocused, I lie down and rest.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
One practice that has helped me grow my career is a commitment to continuous upskilling – actively seeking out new knowledge and evidence-based best practices and applying them to deliver better patient care.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One failure in my career was when I was doing my first Honours thesis. The PET scanner that I was using to image people’s brains went offline for 6 months. I had to overcome this by changing the topic of the thesis late in the year and working 16 to 17 hour days for a month and a half to submit by the deadline.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
One business idea to give away is to care about the person in front of you, rather than the income. If you are good at what you do, people will discover that, and the income will take care of itself.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
One piece of software that keeps me productive is my Google Calendar. I use it for everything, every day of every week. It both helps me plan my day, and also helps me review my day – if there were things that I intended to do, but could not, I then reschedule them later.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
The best $100 I spent recently was taking the children to the Royal Sydney Easter Show (it was a little bit more expensive than that).
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
I enjoy learning from the entrepreneurs on the All In Podcast. They are all highly successful at what they do, and think well about a diverse range of issues.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I recently re-watched The Hobbit and the Lord of The Rings series with my children. The Hobbit’s subtitle “An Unexpected Journey” is a fantastic metaphor for life. Life is about unexpected journeys and how we overcome them and grow through the process. The life lesson from these books and movies that I give to my children is – life is about overcoming unexpected journeys.
Key learnings:
Lachlan Soper has a very structured life, with about three hours of exercise every day – exercise that includes walking, cycling, running, swimming, weights, tennis and kayaking, among other things. He diarises everything for every day, so as to enhance productivity. He has done 980 days of continuous, uninterrupted exercise, and encourages other people to never stop moving. While exercising, he listens to his emails and educational podcasts so as to be productive and keep learning new things.