Your Next Adventure Starts Here

This last week both my children embarked on new adventures. One has gone to Thailand and the other to Australia. My first inclination was to miss them terribly and worry about both of their safety, but upon further reflection, I have realized that my children have actually given me a wisdom gift. That gift is to never stop seeking adventures.

One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.

William Feather

It is easy to get so comfortable with your everyday routine that you don’t even realize that your life is in a rut. Work, family, schedules, responsibilities, all keep you on a track that goes round and round. Before you know it, a week, a month, even a year has past by. The spontaneous, fun loving, road tripping, curious person that once was you, has morphed into a safe, predictable, homebody.

How did this happen?

I believe that we are here on earth to have experiences and learn. Yes the reality of life requires us to seek food, shelter and comfort. The modern world is set up in such a way that in order for us to acquire the basics of life, we need to work. As a young adult, most are not yet weighed down by these responsibilities to the point where having adventures becomes a distant dream.

The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.

Saint Augustine

How can you gain new views of life if you keep looking out the same window? You have to expand your field of vision.

I am not suggesting selling it all to roam the world with a backpack, unless, of course that is a dream of yours. What I am suggesting is to start by getting out an explore the surrounding areas of where you live.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? Something that is completely out of your comfort zone like going to a ethnic restaurant that you have never considered eating at, or attending a festival of a different culture  , or even turning up a road that you have never been on before to see where it goes.

The online dictionary, dictionary.com states that, “an adventure is an exciting or unexpected event or course of events”. So to me, that means that trying something new, where you have no preconceived expectation could constitute as an adventure.

Small adventures fuels curiosity for bigger adventures. Either way you are experiencing and learning. That is what keeps us young at heart.

   Do not let fear chose your destiny.

   Unknown

Fear is another factor for not having adventures. Mostly it is the fear of not feeling in control of your surroundings. Being somewhere that you have never been before certainly counts as that.

Being afraid of looking stupid or silly is another reason for not being adventurous. Feeling vulnerable, asking for help, asking for direction, those can be hard for anyone who has mastered a level of comfort and success. We forget that we had to conquer our fear of failure to achieve this level of maturity in the first place.

In the case for being adventurous, ignorance is truly bliss. Not over analyzing the outcome but rather just taking that leap of faith is the way of the explorer.

So thanks to my children, I will be more aware of automatically closing myself to the new and different and chose a more open attitude in life because that is where adventures begin.

As for missing and worrying about my children while they are out having grand adventures, experiencing life and learning….. well, I am a mother after all!