Have you been on an adventure lately?

Life tends to wear at you. A cut here, a cut there, and suddenly you’re bleeding out on the sidewalk. Without a change in pace, the wagon tracks you follow become ruts you can’t escape from. Humans were not made for routine. We require change and dynamism in our day to day, something I find to be sorely lacking for the average person. But wanting change and causing change are not as close as you might think. Just ask a smoker or gambler about it. People who dream of changing their whole lives often never end up changing simply because change is scary. We cling to our pattens like rats on a raft, only changing when forced by rising water.

So, what can we do? We must work, or at the very least fulfil our basic obligations. Fate forces us to keep to our routines against our deeper nature. Well, unless you want to role over and just accept it, you need an adventure. Adventure jailbreaks us from the neural pathways we inhibit. It forces us to think differently to feel differently, to be differently. When we do something crazy or new, the pathways we often travel are completely disregarded for new and exciting vistas. It’s hitting the power button on a computer.

“But Hemlock”, I can hear people whining, “I don’t have time for an adventure. I’m too busy, I’m too tired.” Hey, not everyone is meant to have an awesome life. No in all seriousness, I totally understand the complaint. I would love to spend 6 weeks in Greenland right now, but I’ve got stuff I need to do. The good news is that an adventure doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or long. When you get stuck into the same routine, even a quick deviation is a huge change for your brain. Going to a new restaurant is an adventure. Hiking for even an hour is an adventure. Heck, driving home on a new route is an adventure if you treat it as such. I wish everyone who reads this could take a year to do whatever they wanted to, and if you can that’s great. But you could take a weekend, or a day off. You don’t need money. The only thing you really need is a sense of adventure. Literally, start off by announcing that you are going on an adventure. Prepare your brain for the journey, no matter how short it is. Once you do this, all you have to do is actually take the adventure. Have fun! Take it easy!

Our lives are too regimented and segmented. You have to break that pattern if you want to stay sane. By choosing right now, as you’re reading, to go on an adventure, you change the routine. You break free. Like a prisoner seeing the sun for the first time in a hundred years, your brain will feel the difference. So let me ask you again, have you been on an adventure lately? You better say yes the next time I ask you!