Adventures

Why have adventures? 

One of my main motivations in life is to have adventures.

Why have adventures? – Adventures tend to challenge you and generally makes life more interesting. They give you a chance to develop skill and push yourself beyond your comfort zone. More often than not, they test you, and force you to build resilience. A great thing about taking on challenges and having adventures are that they usually provide opportunities to make real connections with others, this can be through doing something with people, or even through conversations about the adventures you’ve had or are planning to have. They seem to open doors and forge links with others. Probably the number one reason to start having adventures though is that they help you to build your confidence. I think deep down, most people would like to feel better about themselves and feel more confident. Having adventures is a great way to do this.

How to have an adventure? – Get a plan and execute! Easier said than done, I hear you say. That’s a fair point, but when you break it down, that’s the crux of it. You have to decide what your challenge will be, create a plan, and then keep going until the end. This is the basic recipe for having a good adventure.

Adventures are great, adventures with other people are even better. If you can convince someone else to join you in your adventures, it adds and whole different dimension to your experience. There are some members of my family and some friends who quite often find themselves in rough/scary/painful/exhausting/embarrassing situations thinking ‘what the am I doing here?’, then remember that they agreed to come on a little adventure with me. At some point during it, I might get some abuse for the distress caused, but at the end of the day, everyone is glad they did it and have that experience, and the memories to go with it.

You can choose any random thing to make an adventure. I once tore out an article about Via Ferrata from an FHM magazine and decided I was going to do that at some point. Later that year I was hanging off a frozen waterfall in the Italian Dolomites thinking ‘this is amazing’. I knew absolutely nothing about climbing or Via Ferrata, but I used that three page article as a step-by-step guide to aid me on my adventure. I roped (pardon the pun) my girlfriend at the time (my wife now) into this adventure, we drove for days and because we had no money we slept in my car (a 3 door Ford Escort ‘Harrier’). Incidentally, when she was hanging off that frozen waterfall, I’m pretty sure she was thinking ‘what the … am I doing here?’.

If you don’t want to organise something or deal with the logistics, an easy way to get going with an adventure is to sign up for a charity fundraising event. I’ve done this many times and had some amazing experiences and gained some great memories from them. The advantage of doing things this way is that you usually have lots of structure and support. Pretty much, it’s a ready made plan, which is great for getting started. Because the event has been organised by someone else, you just have to focus on the challenge of completing the task. There is still lots of effort involved, but you don’t have the added work of the organisation, risk assessment, and logistics to worry about. You get to meet lots of folk who are in the same boat as you as participants, and lots of nice people just wanting to help you in any way they can as supporters. The atmosphere is always brilliant, and you feel like you are part of something really special.

Once you’ve chosen what you want to do, try not to be overwhelmed by the size of your challenge; remember, it’s an adventure. ‘Small steps’ are always key. ‘Progress, not perfection’, is the mantra to go by. These are the things that will help keep you going through the tough spots. No one is asking you to BE the best, just TRY your best.

The Adventurer Mindset

It doesn’t need to be a grand organised event that you participate in to be an adventure. If you change your way of thinking, anything that challenges you can constitute an adventure. The Adventurer Mindset allows you to look at things in a different light. If you’re anxious about something, imagine yourself as an adventurer, stepping forth into the challenge set before you; this definitely makes you see things through a different frame.

Fit for Adventure

One of the things that can make adventures more enjoyable is having a good level of fitness. Feeling fit and healthy gives us confidence in our abilities and belief in ourselves. Working on the Fundamentals of Fitness is an easy way of improving your fitness levels and preparing yourself for any adventure that life has to offer you.

If you are interested in receiving coaching on the Fundamentals of Fitness and would like to change your life, please get in touch.

Remember: if nothing changes, nothing changes.