Adventure Redefined
Life is supposed to be a series of adventures.
I am a big fan of the proverb’s so let me begin with a proverb
“Adventure is not hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life.” by John Amatt
Life is supposed to be a series of adventures. It’s impossible to understand the meaning of life without understanding that. We’re all supposed to be Explorers, pioneers, and treasure hunters of the soul. We’re not supposed to be sleepwalking through the world, caught in a routine, heads down and eyes closed to the possibilities that lie waiting all around us. This world is a dramatic arena, and each of our lives is supposed to show that in the best possible way.
It’s more than just a journey that I have in mind, a process of traveling from point A to B. An adventure is an extended experience, fought with risk and reward, unpredictable twists, guaranteed obstacles, and surprising results. You can take a trip, launch out on a voyage, or undergo a journey fast asleep. But an adventure has to be experienced. Eyes wide open. In disbelief, terror, amazement, or bliss. It is an essentially existential endeavor, a foray of the heart, mind, and senses that calls into play every aspect of your existence.
The Buddha went on a quest. Mohammed lived an adventure. Moses, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Columbus, Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King — so many of the names that represent to us lives fully lived are those of adventurers, inventors, discoverers, liberators, creators, people who were not content to just measure out their days, but who threw themselves into a dynamic process of change for the sake of others as well as themselves.
Adventures of exploration and conquest, as well as adventures of the heart, have dominated the human imagination at all times. Deep down we’ve somehow always known that life is meant to encompass challenging adventures, We’ve even suspected that human existence reaches its pinnacle in a creative adventure, and yet this is an insight we too easily forget to apply to our careers in this world. We might dream of fabulous adventures in our innermost thoughts, but thrown into an actual one, we often react with anxiety, aversion, and fear.
We’re fascinated and inspired by mountain climbers, sailors on the open sea, serious rafters, hot air balloonists, scuba divers, spelunkers, astronauts, and pioneers of every kind. We admire those among us who can break out of their routines and take the risks involved in all discovery. And, in more subtle ways, we read with interest and satisfaction the stories to be found in great novels of character challenge, emotional learning, and personal growth.
We live in what could be the most adventure-filled time of change in all of human history, but we have not been sufficiently prepared for living that adventure well. We don’t deeply enough understand the necessity of personal adventure for the happiness and fulfillment that we all ultimately seek.
So go out and experience everything cause we have got one life live young live free and always stay adventurous explore this incredible universe and become the adventurer of this universe because at the end of the day experience is what matters.
