I’ve been thinking a lot lately about dissatisfaction in life, and wishing I could do more than I already am. But I’m 42, have 4 kids, and I work 45+ hours a week at a (mostly) desk job. I don’t have a lot of time for adventure or excitement.
I’m always looking for something exciting to do, whether it be tinkering with electronics, or bike commuting, or writing a novel, or producing podcasts… whatever sounds exciting, I want to do it.
But I can’t do everything I want to. I just don’t have the time and energy. (This is kind of a recurring theme on my blog…)
As a dreamer, I’m always trying to balance the reality of modern life with my heart’s desire to be an adventurer. Really, I love a good adventure. In fact, you could say I live for those moments, when I’m going down a road I’ve never seen before, or learning something new. There’s a cloud of mystery, a rush of endorphins that comes from doing something exciting and new.
Eventually, I stumbled across an article on Vocations from Art Of Manliness (which seems to be a recurring theme for me). And there were questions there, about how to discover your passions.
For me, passions were something that I’ve had stamped out of my life repeatedly. I’m passionate about a lot of things… but only things that are monetarily useful are allowed in today’s society. As you might imagine, this isn’t a great environment in which to find your Passion.
Brett defines your “Calling” as where your passions and skills intersect. My problem is that I’m passionate about a lot of things, and I’m good at a lot of things. There’s a lot of Venn diagram overlap, which makes things difficult to choose. Don’t laugh: I’m being honest.
So how do you find adventure when you can do anything you want? What is adventure? Alastair Humphries has some thoughts on it:
“Adventure is an attitude. Adventure is doing something that is new. Something difficult. Exciting. Daunting. Something with a significant chance of failure and an enticing sense of satisfaction upon completion.”
I couldn’t agree more. So where does that leave me, the Adventurous Man, in today’s plastic wrapped safety bubble society? What’s something I could do that’s adventurous, and yet still of some use?
I suppose I could start off small. A “microadventure” would be something short, inexpensive, and still exciting and challenging, but without the enormous time commitment.
So we’ll give it a shot and see how it goes… I’ve got a few ideas.