What is adventure? What does it mean? I think it means different things to different people. If you look up the definition in the dictionary: Adventure = “An unusual and exciting or daring experience”. Whatever you do in a day that you don’t normally do in the daily run of your life could be considered an adventure. Therefore if you go to work every day at the same time, eat the same food etc. then by making a change to just one of these regular happenings, it could be considered an adventure, for instance if you eat packed lunch every day then decide to have a pub lunch in a place you have never been to before, in the middle of the week, this could be seen as an adventure to some, but, to others they need something more exciting like bungee jumping or swimming with dolphins or any number of things which people might put on their “bucket list”.
I believe things you might put on your list are big adventures and other things you might do which are a change from your daily routine are small adventures and everything in between vary on the scale of adventureness!! (I know this isn’t a real word, just thought it sounded good lol)
Anyway I believe that everything in life can be an adventure if you decide it is going to be, the problem with a lot of people’s viewpoint is it’s negative, they go to work and feel like hamsters on a wheel while their life disappears before their eyes but I think they can try to experience an adventure regularly by doing things they might never have done before. For a start they can do what is mentioned above and go somewhere different for their lunch, they could do a meditation class in their lunch break, basically anything they do that is different can be an adventure and I believe we should all ensure we have at least a few every week if possible.
When I go on my great adventure I want to experience something new and different as often as I can so I am open to all sorts of things, already I have been offered the chance to work at a pop up restaurant, join an Irish choir, go sailing off the coast of Ireland, go snowboarding in France, learn about making yarn on a spindle from a sheep fleece in Wales, do crafts with local children in Thailand, feed chickens in Bali and these are just some of the fun things I will be doing over the next few months.
For some people these might seem mundane and for those people I would urge them to find something which they would find more interesting and just make adventures out of them. Life is very short and to go through it doing the same thing all the time means you will look back and wonder where it all went, but it has been proven scientifically that the more different things you do the more memorable your life is.
There are many things people want to do but they very often put it off saying that the time is not right so they will wait until that time is right but sometimes that time never comes and they regret not having done the things they wanted to do. Think about the things you want to do, like learn how to play an instrument, learn a language, learn to sing, travel the world, have a family, buy a house, all these adventures resonate with lots of people but their fear stops them from going for it, however, the time to go for it is now. All we really have is now, the past is gone, the future we plan may never come, and this is why we have to do it now.
If you are not a very adventurous person because of your fears, start with small adventures like going out for lunch in the middle of the week and gradually build up until you are ready for the big adventures like travelling, having children, moving house etc., you will feel more alive the more adventures you have. It has been mentioned to me by someone I know very well that they feel I am constantly looking for something that I will never find, because I am continually having adventures but this is not the case, I am happy with my life, I don’t believe in regrets because there is nothing we can do about what has gone, as mentioned before all we have is now and those moments while you are living in the now can be many and precious and exciting. I have believed for a very long time that I needed and wanted to cram as much adventure into my life as I could and I am still trying to achieve this. There is never too much adventure!
If you feel you can’t afford whatever your adventure might be, find a way to do it in another way, for instance, if you feel you can’t afford to visit a certain country because the hotel costs are too high, think about camping instead, I have always been a big believer in finding the cheapest way to do things, probably because when I was married there were seven of us living in the house and everything we did, everywhere we went could have been expensive but I became Mrs thrifty and always found a way to save money and still have our adventure.
If we went on holiday that involved hotels, we would make our lunch out of the buffet breakfast food, or if we were camping we always went to the supermarket and made our own meals instead of eating out at every opportunity which can be very expensive. These are just a couple of examples that probably a lot of people already do but it’s just to point out that you shouldn’t let money or the lack of it rule your life. Money really isn’t everything. After I took part in the London to Paris bike ride I realised that I wanted to do that trip more often, but couldn’t afford it, so I went to work for the company, there is always a way to do what you want when you really think about it and there is always plenty of ways to have adventures.