Even before I retired early the first time I was Living Life as an Adventure. I believe it is another key to happiness. It all started in my first career as a Telecom Lead Engineer. On average I had to travel all over the USA for a week a month. It would have been easy to just check into the hotel room and watch TV, sleep, work, and repeat to get through it.

Business travel sounds great to many people but believe me the attraction soon fades. Especially after you miss a few connecting flights and spend a few nights sleeping in the airport terminal. In order to tolerate another week away from home and family on a business trip while my real work at the office piled up. I decided I would make these trips something more without spending a bunch of my money playing tourist. My goal was to treat each trip as an opportunity for adventure.

I would attempt to meet someone new beyond my work relationships. See something new and interesting, learn something totally new, or simply walk and be engaged in everything that was going on around me as if I am documenting in my mind a strange new world. And strange this world is if you pay attention. It provided me with habits that I now use in my early retirement to keep living life as an adventure in my own little way.

Living Life as an Adventure is Simple

Practice Daily

I try to practice Living Life as an Adventure every day. Yes being retired means I have more time to do things but I am not talking about exotic adventures like climbing Everest, canoeing the Amazon, or wing-suit base jumping from the Sears Tower.

What I am talking about is making myself step outside my comfort-zone and seek new experiences. It doesn’t happen every day but I constantly stay open to adventure because the most amazing things only happen when they happen. You cannot predict when your next chance for adventure will come along.

Just like with any exotic adventure, there will be down times. You do still have to take care of business. To me that is the easy part, the comfortable part, because it is the daily script we all live by. However if that is all I am about then things can get a little boring. I want there to be occasional excitement and surprise in my life. There is something energizing when you are tapped into the world, community, and people around you.

I know from my time working long hours in my first career what it feels like to feel powerless and stuck in a rut. Slogging through every day wishing for the day to end. I never want to feel like that again. Some down-time in life is unavoidable but when I have the chance for adventure I want to take it.

The Mini Adventure is about Discovery

What I am looking for in my mini adventures is learning something or discovering something new. Sometimes it is getting to know someone new, someone outside my circle and maybe even where we share absolutely no common interests. Someone I should have never met during my life because there is absolutely no reason to. I have met many interesting and some famous people. Some have turned into friendships. Others their face and the interaction are fresh in my memory but I can’t recall their name.

I am sure to the famous I have met I am remembered neither by name nor by our chance interaction. I am certain it wasn’t remembered as the adventure I took it as. And that is the flip side to this. Making sure that I am interesting enough to be remembered as part of someone else’s adventure. I want to make this a 2 way street even if they have never thought about living life as an adventure.

Living Life as an Adventure Habits

Here are some habits to practice that will allow living life as an adventure:

It starts by being approachable.

Crack a smile once in a while. Nobody wants to talk to someone who looks like they are planning their next murder.

Do not take yourself so seriously.

People are strange in one way or another. We are all freaks and weirdos in different ways.

Be in the moment.

There is no time like the present to focus on. You are not open to adventure if you are stuck dwelling on the past or contemplating the unknown future.

Talk to someone new.

They are called strangers for a reason and if you are lucky they will be interestingly strange. However this isn’t a call to engage with someone dangerously disturbed. Look to people who are definitely different than yourself and outside of your normal circle by way of attire, job, culture, etc.

Always be ready for and stay aware of danger.

Use caution when selecting new people to talk with and always make sure you are in a safe environment.

Learn something new and mind-blowing.

Learning new things is at the top of my list and the crazier, funnier, or more bizarre the better. I always go back to a Seinfeld episode where Kramer explains: “Have you ever met a proctologist? They usually have a very good sense of humor. You meet a proctologist at a party, don’t walk away. Plant yourself there because you will hear the funniest stories you’ve ever heard.”    

Speak to animals like Dr. Doolittle.

When I hike I talk to the prairie dogs and any other birds or animals I encounter along the trail. I do think some of the animals other than the snakes are starting to recognize me. It’s great practice in being totally open to another living creature and in accepting rejection when they don’t talk back or answer my questions. Some human beings will and do reject me so I have learned to not take it personally. 

Pay attention and see what is really going on.

I call it being more than just a spectator. Try to see what people are doing or anything that is occurring in a way outside your normal bias and thoughts. I try to set myself in the scene and feel what they are feeling or see what they are seeing. It’s especially good for when waiting in a line at some busy location. Time flies.

Recognize adventure and opportunities.

I have let a good adventure and some opportunities pass me by because I was too fatigued to recognize it at the time. I then kick myself later. Try real hard to catch the ride when it arrives.

If you feel like singing or dancing in public then sing, dance.

You can take this literally if you choose or just think of it as dropping your hang-ups and just have some fun.

To Conclude:

Living Life as an Adventure is a way to keep life interesting and always improve ourselves by learning new things and meeting new people. It is also a way for us to find a connection to this strange world, inject some fun into the everyday, and seek the happiness we all desire. It is all really about living a happy life.

Are you Living Life as an Adventure? Do you have some other adventure seeking habits to add to my list?