Adventure. It’s always been part of who I really am. It’s the life I’m creating, it’s what this blog is all about. Though truth is some days feel far from adventurous. Especially at the moment as I navigate days, weeks and months where it feels like there is more being thrown at me than I can handle.
I was questioning myself recently. Wondering how it is that I can keep showing up for this adventurous life I’m creating and building this blog about being Always Adventure Ready, when there are days where the level of adventure in my life feels like a -10 out of 10. How do I create more adventure when my life is often in an adventure deficit?
It was on a day a few weeks ago when my morning had gone to crap (which isn’t unusual at the moment). I was stuck in traffic I wasn’t supposed to be in, with a mountain of work to do at home
That I had a momentary whim, to throw it all in the fucket bucket, get off the freeway, get a coffee and the most unhealthy muffin I could find and head down to the river to sit and enjoy them for 10 mins or so. I mean is an extra hour “lost” today really going to make that much difference, I’ve already got more to do today then I can handle anyway?
So I did, and while I sat with my coffee and my muffin, with this incredible view of the river and the rain just gently falling on me, I felt that little sense of adventure start rising up in me. I felt my energy rising out of the bucket of crap I felt like I was in before.
I found my self casting my mind back a few months ago to a time when I was sitting at the traffic lights on a major intersection in Perth. You know the ones where they let one car through with each green light (ahhhhhhh).
There was a huge double advertising billboard for a large insurance company up ahead. It had a women and a man with their boy and girl, around 2 years apart in age, their big four wheel drive and huge caravan, smiling and obviously camping or road tripping and living their best life. The perfect sterotypical family, living the perfect adventure life.
Thanks to the traffic management situation I sat staring at this billboard for some time and I remember feeling that my life was so far removed from this billboard. In that moment my life didn’t feel very adventurous and on that day the feeling of adventure felt so far away.
And as I recalled this billboard and that feeling, it hit me. Is this how I’ve defined adventure? According to what was on that billboard?
“What if I defined adventure as not just snorkelling with the Whale Sharks, hiking to waterfalls and riding my bike on the beach or even just sitting by the river with a coffee and a muffin in the rain”
“What if that all still got to be adventure and those things still got to be things that I want more of, but what if I also redefined what’s going on in my everyday life as adventure too?”
“Would that build a sense of adventure that I could use to create more adventure, each and every day?” YEEESSS! And it has. Nothing about my circumstance has changed,
It was the missing piece for Always Adventure Ready, this is what it also gets to be about. Building a more adventurous life, from where my feet are, and where your feet are now. To grow an adventure mindset that taps into the energy of my big dream adventure life, by creating connections between my now life and my dream adventure life through simple shifts of perspective.
This is not about bypassing my current circumstance. It’s about being present in it. Feeling it. Using those feelings as my guide towards the actions I can take and making those actions feel adventurous. Simply because I said so. I decided they got to be adventurous and so now they FEEL adventurous!
This is not about reducing my dreams to something that’s more realistic. It’s about EXPANDING! By holding onto those big adventurous dreams while also multiplying the little adventurous things that are already present in my life. The little things I can only see when I take responsiblity for redefining what adventure looks and feels like for me.
Since that day I’ve been redefining adventure and I have found that I have more energy. I’ve been more present in what’s happening and really cool things have happened, that I know wouldn’t have happened had I otherwise continued to be in resistance to my circumstance. My energy has been more directed to creation mode than survival mode.
So I encourage you. Whatever your life looks like, wherever you are at. No matter how stuck in the mud you feel. Think about what you currently define as adventure, happiness, success… and ask yourself how you can expand on that to include what’s currently in your everyday as well as what you want more of.
Don’t lower your wants, goals and dreams whatever you do! But begin to practice shifting your perspective and redefining what these things can look like. Don’t dismiss anything.
For me redefining adventure still looks like all things snorkelling, riding, hiking, fancy hotels, swim up pool bars, delicious meals, my stylish oceanside apartment… and it also looks like (and this is more what my last month has looked like) –
- asking for help and reaching out to help others
- learning new things particularly in the area of my challenges and growing greater understanding and ability for compassion
- reaching out and connecting with new people who are familiar with my current challenges and in turn supporting each other
- connecting with old friends and having real conversations we never had before and having a good old laugh about life too
- vulnerable conversations about my current circumstance
- not resisting my current circumstance and allowing myself to be open to what it has to teach me
- not reacting, not unpacking my bags in what’s going on. Allowing space to then respond or often finding the solutions to the problems find me
- trying something new and doing things outside my comfort zone
- questioning my limiting beliefs and choosing more empowering beliefs
- not trying to be everything and allowing those, who are good at and love what they do, to support me
- self care – movement, nutritious food, drinking plenty of water, taking 10 mins to sit outside in the sunshine when I feel myself just trying to push through
- and well pretty much anything else I decide gets to be and feel adventurous
Extraordinary things can happen in everday life and everyday things can happen while living an extraordinary life too. Making it feel adventurous, is simply a state of mind and a shift in perspective away. What you then do with the energy you have now created is all up to you.
More adventure awaits each and everyone of you. It starts where your feet are now. So much more life and adventure is found outside the stereotypes and that white picket fence… I can’t wait for you to come and see!
Lauren x
Lauren Angove is an adventurous Perth (Western Australia) Mum of two boys who loves to blog about her experiences to inspire other mid-lifers to choose their most adventurous lives now. Keep up to date with her latest adventure inspiration and advice at Always Adventure Ready on facebook.