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In Walk Like a God I teach you how to plan an adventure and use it as a life-changing practice.
One of the most important parts of planning an adventure is to know that there will be times when it is terrible. Times when you want to quit and go home.
Will Peach, the gonzo traveler (extraordinaire) of My Spanish Adventure, just hit one of those times.
His blog is amazing, and I hope you check it out. I feel for him, because I’ve seen exciting, over-hyped plans fail in crushing ways. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
It’s not the every-moment that makes an adventure worth having, it’s the long arc. Easy activities can be fun when they’re happening but later on they seem like a waste. You wish you had the time back. Difficult projects are frustrating in the moment, but can become a happy memory that pays dividends for years.
If they succeed.
If you want to learn how to make an adventure succeed, it’s one of five strategies covered in detail in Walk Like a God. Take a look here.
Through May 3, 2012 I’m running a contest to give away a seat at the World Domination Summit. Enter now.
Drew Jacob, Rogue Priest
April 21st, 2012 at 9:45 am
I just read Will’s most recent blog entry. I feel for him, too.
And you know what I think is the most interesting – and honestly, the most useful – thing about what he’s going through? That I could have written almost the exact same words about the last 3 weeks of my life.
I’m not on some self-designed “adventure.” I’m working in the same job I’ve had for 7 years. And you know what? Until about 3 days ago, it sucked. It *really* sucked. I felt unappreciated, lonely, and both bored and stressed at the same time. I questioned all the decisions that led me to this point. I wondered what I should do – should I stay? Should I try to go? I wondered which road to take, and which one would make me happy…and snarled to myself about the studies that have shown that we as humans are actually pretty terrible at predicting what will make us happy, period.
Just like Will said, there’s no magic way out. I eventually figured out how to finagle my way into feeling about 300% better about my life – my job’s not perfect, I still don’t know what I want to do when I “grow up,” but I feel more in control, more satisfied, more appreciated, and most importantly more like I have a purpose.
To me, as someone whose biggest planned adventure is training for a 5K, learning guitar like I’ve wanted to for the last 20 years, and maybe someday actually figuring out a career path, this is the most important reality about adventures. Some of us, like your, have huge adventures on the docket. ENORMOUS. Your adventure will change you and your life in amazing ways. Some of us don’t have that plan, for whatever reason – our adventure is just to make a life that feels worth living. But there are some lessons that life will throw at you regardless of the road you choose. How to survive when your current road sucks is one of them. It’s a unifying human experience of frustration and loneliness…and while it sucks horribly, it’s comforting to know that no road would have spared you this agony. You are not alone, even when you feel like you are.
Now, turn your attention to how to wrest back control of your situation, and don’t stop until you’ve done it.
April 21st, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Awesome advice Beth. You should be a blogger :)