Let Your New Adventure Begin.

Throughout the course of 2022, a startling number of clients came to me and expressed a longing for adventure.  It was as if everyone’s deeper, more adventurous spirits had atrophied or gone missing.  That longing showed up again and again.  It felt like a sticky fashion trend: once people started talking about adventure, everyone seemed to need one.  

Nevertheless, it seems a great many successful people crave adventure in their lives, but put if off, delay it, wait for a day when their to-do list is clear. Almost as though adventure is this lofty and precious effort that can only be enjoyed with significant planning and ceremony: that bottle of wine high up on a shelf, delicious and alluring, marked with a reserve tag: SOMEDAY.  That sort of rarified, bucket-list aura means adventure remains outsized in their minds.  Adventure defined as a trek across the Andes, a week in Nepal.  

For some it seems “adventurous” is the antonym of “responsible.”  You’re supposed to be sensible. You really should save up and put a new roof on the house. The adventurous spirit shares a common fate with self-care: no matter how soothing or necessary it actually is, it comes second to all other pressing tasks. Even for those of us who live the longest, life is short.  Being too responsible or too caught-up in minor snags sucks the everyday joy out of life, or leaves us wondering if life’s enjoyment only happens on vacation. Thrills being reserved for parasailing and paddleboarding. 

Just think how terribly that distorts our expectations of adventure, making them extra hard to achieve.  The reality is, that week in Nepal?  It turns out to be your same everyday life.  It’s filled with the highs and lows of everyday: something interesting and unexpected, coupled with something frustrating and somewhat mundane. (The wonder of turning down a street that reveals itself to be magical, and the dinner spot that your friend recommended that is having an off-day.) You’re all but guaranteed to confront that truth, no matter where you find yourself. 

And so the longing for adventure of 2022 comes with a hope for 2023: to find genuine opportunities every single day to be more engaged, more alive, and more empowered to take risks.  To make things count, to feel just a bit more, and to put your own unique spice back into life.  Adventure is a spirit, a lens on our lived experience.  The person who approaches each day, no matter how routine, through a lens of opportunity will ask themselves: What’s possible here? 

So as another year turns, my wish for all of you is to start finding those spots where you can infuse a spirit of adventure, a little bit of risk right here, right now. It’s a new year after all. 

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