Most days look the same… you wake up, you do what you need to do, you get through it, and then you wind down, ready to do it all again tomorrow. It’s not bad, necessarily – routine keeps life ticking – but after a while, it can make everything feel a bit flat and like you’re on autopilot.
Adding adventure to your day doesn’t have to mean booking a last-minute light or climbing something terrifying – adventure isn’t always about going big. It can be small and it can be subtle. It can fit around your life instead of you having to wait for a gap in your diary, and that’s the best part. So with that in mind, keep reading to find out more about how to add a little adventure to your everyday life.
Change Your Route
If you take the same route to work every day, why not try something different? It might take a few minutes longer (or it might not – perhaps you’ll find a shortcut), and it might not be the most efficient, but what you see and how you feel will be different because you’ll pass new places, see new things, and perhaps even find a hidden gem like a coffee shop or a park that you didn’t know was there before.
That’s the thing with small changes – they can show you that life doesn’t have to be the same all the time and they don’t take a lot to do, and knowing you’ve got choices and can make different ones every day is truly freeing.
If you don’t have to commute anywhere, just a walk around your neighbourhood can make the same kind of difference – you could walk through it at different times of day, or try it without headphones, or perhaps make a point of saying hello to people along your route, and you’ll see that things can be different if you want them to be.
Adventure Doesn’t Have To Be Dramatic
There’s this idea that adventure needs to be pretty extreme to really count, and that unless you’re trekking across a vast desert or sleeping under the stars, it doesn’t ‘qualify’ as being adventurous, but that’s not how real life works for most people, and not every day is going to be a big story to tell people about. And the thing is, that’s okay.
Real adventure – the kind that fits into a normal week – is more about how you look at things than what you do, and that means saying yes to more things and being curious enough to try something out because although you don’t know what it will be like, you know it’ll be interesting. Perhaps you’ve got a list of things you want to do but you keep putting them off… well, maybe it’s time to get started with them because that feeling of stepping into something slightly unfamiliar could be exactly what you’re looking for.
Go Outdoors
If you want to shake up your week, you can always go outside, and in fact, that’s the easiest way to have an adventure overall. And yes, you could just step outside your house, but what about going a little further and also getting outside your comfort zone?
You could go for a hike, try a path you’ve never walked down, eat your lunch outside (even if it’s a bit chilly), watch a sunrise, and so much more. True, these aren’t life-changing adventures, but they could very easily change the tone of your day for the better.
And if you’re someone who loves driving, there’s a lot to be said for heading off without a fixed destination in mind – you can pack snacks, take some water, pick a direction, and just see where you end up. It might be someone fantastic, or it might not, but it doesn’t really matter. If your vehicle is up to it, an off-road trail could be another way to have a great outdoor adventure – just make sure you’ve got the right gear, including capable tires like Super Swamper tires.
Try Doing Things Differently On Purpose
We build habits because they make life easier, but sometimes breaking your own patterns can feel so refreshing that it’s worth doing once in a while. And this only means small things as we’ve mentioned above, like sitting in a different seat, cooking something you’ve never made, turning your phone off for the evening, reading something outside your usual genre, and so on. All of these things – and pretty much anything else you can think of – can be mini-adventures if you think of them like that (and you should).
Even the simple act of choosing something unfamiliar to do can be its own little adventure, and it’s a bit like re-setting your brain because it brings you right into the present moment and you’ve got to pay attention.
Say Yes A Little More
It’s so easy to default to saying no when an opportunity to try something new (and have a little adventures) comes your way, and that’s because no is safe and you’ll be able to stick with what you know, which keeps things a lot simpler.
But you’ve got to remember that a lot of great memories start with saying yes, especially when you’re not sure what you’re saying yes to! So the next time someone invites you to do something that you haven’t done before, take a moment before you say no because saying yes, even if it’s just once, could change everything, and at the very least it would be good to see how it feels.
Capture The Moment If You Want To
Some people like to document everything, and others just want to be in the moment, and the good news is there’s no right or wrong with this, so do whatever it is you want to do that makes you happy.
Of course, if you’re someone who tends to forget things, then noting them down or capturing the moment in some way makes sense – you could start a journal on your phone and try to have a tiny adventure every day, for example, and taking some time to look back on what you’ve noted down would be a lovely way to re-live things.
