We live in an age of comfort and convenience.
For most of us our basic needs are met, sometimes to excess and we are used to having things that we want available on demand via Amazon, Uber and the like.
We have instant entertainment via Netflix, Spotify and multi-channel TV and more information than our brains can absorb available 24/7 via Social Media.
But where is the sense of adventure and purpose?
Are you bored and looking for something more?
I can remember quite clearly that sense of boredom as a child in the long summer holidays. My mother didn’t drive and so, if we wanted to escape the confines of home and garden, we had to plan our own adventures.
We plotted journeys out into the countryside on green buses. Packed picnics and drinks and set off without Google Maps or mobile phones to track our routes or call home for instructions.
And we were gone for the whole day, to meet whatever challenges we might encounter and enjoy the sense of not knowing exactly what the day would bring or when we might get home again.
We might call those “The Good Old Days” but how can we recreate that sense of adventure and purpose today?
- Do something that takes you out of your comfort zone. Take a trip. Start a project. Say “Yes” even when it feels scary.
- Change your outlook. Go somewhere new even if it’s to work. A new coffee shop perhaps. A different route to walk or bike.
- Meet new people. Talk to strangers. Be curious about the journey others are on and their adventures.
- Start something new. Could be a new book or a hobby. A different form of exercise routine. Anything you haven’t tried before.
- Leave your phone at home!
The truth is that comfort and convenience do not build our dream life, they detract from it and if we want to find purpose and adventure, we have to create it ourselves.
So, find yourself an adventure buddy or two and start exploring now and experience the sheer joy and delight of being alive.
“The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort“
– Paul Coelho –
“What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. It’s the fun of seeing new things, of learning new names and faces. Of exploring strange places and above all the delight of being alive“
– Freya Stark –