Aventure! When you hear the word, what comes to mind? Search Google images and you’ll find mountains, lots of them, hiking, abled bodies conquering a steep climb.
Adventure has become synonymous with travel and physicality, but to undertake an adventure is more than just geography or physical strength. It’s an endeavor in which the outcomes are unknown and there is uncertainty in the process and results. Adventures are meant to challenge us, expose us to new things. To embark on an adventure entails a commitment, without guarantees. In this sense, adventures are beyond travel or seeing new places.
Can you have an adventure without leaving the comforts of home? Absolutely.
Why do we associate adventure with travel?
Travel offers us a change in our environment. Whether it’s conversing in a language that is foreign to us, unfamiliar territory, we are forced to navigate the new, figure things out, and come out of it feeling accomplished, refreshed, and alive. Think about how you tell travel stories to friends–which parts do you highlight? Leave out? Perhaps the shareability of travel is one of the reasons why it’s easy to default to it when we want a sense of adventure–successes are fairly immediate and engaging to share.
Adventures are meant to challenge us, expose us to new things. To embark on an adventure entails a commitment, without guarantees. In this sense, adventures are beyond travel or seeing new places.
The Future of Travel
There’s nothing wrong with resorting to travel for adventure, but the goal is to empower yourself to define your own adventures, one that doesn’t require a lot of money or for the Coronavirus threat to go away to lead a more adventurous life.
Analysts predict a 39% drop in global travel in 2020 compared to 2019. This means a loss of 577 million visitors globally. The US travel association forecasts a $910 billion loss because of the Coronavirus.
Even influencers that rely heavily on travel content are feeling the pinch. Followers are looking for inspiration that can be accomplished at home such as workouts and cooking.
But some of the most profound adventures don’t require a change in geography. Even at home, we can create adventures that are either grand or small, but unlike booking a travel package, it takes some creativity and a dash of soul-searching from us. The itinerary is for you to plan.
How can we challenge ourselves, take a risk, and feel a sense of accomplishment while staying put?
Learn
Learn a new skill, add a challenging yoga pose to your practice, improve on a particular sport, play an instrument. Whether you take a formal course online or just DIY, learning is always an adventure.
In psychology, the “oddball effect” shows that we perceive time slower when we are experiencing new things, self-growth, and learning. This is the reason why time passes by slower during childhood, when we are constantly excited and exploring the new.
Learning, in your own terms and as a personal choice can be exciting.
Start
Start a project, a business, a non-profit, embark on a new career, a journal…the point is to add a new goal and every time you work towards the goal, adventure happens.
Join
Join a new group or community online that’s of interest, a book club, a professional association and meet new people.
Little Things
For the daily adventures that keep us on our toes, try a tea flavor you’ve never tried before, choose a different dish next time you order out, switch to a different brand shampoo–it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and feel like we need a life overhaul, when it just might be the little things that will get you energized.
