Five Reasons to Start an Adventure Quest
With five adventures behind me, I’m now 1/12th of the way through my 60 adventures by my 60th birthday quest.
Having built a little wiggle room into the schedule, I decided to skip last week and focus on enjoying time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. But don’t worry, I’ll be back in a few days with a new adventure.
In the meantime, I thought I’d share some thoughts about this project. Here are five take-aways from my first five adventures - five reasons for you to consider starting one of your own:
1. Sometimes you just need an excuse. So make one.
Anyone could take a glassblowing class or decide to drive a couple of hours to climb through some caves. But most people won’t.
Instead, they’ll do what I do on a typical weekend: go grocery shopping, do the laundry, catch up on paperwork, maybe take a bike ride or a long walk with the dog. It takes some effort to do something unusual, or to gather a group of friends you don’t often see.
The structure of an adventure quest provides a great excuse. You have to make it happen.
Your quest will look different from mine. Maybe it involves trying every ice cream shop within a 40 mile radius of your house, or attending every home game of your local minor league baseball team. Choose something that interests you; it doesn’t matter what.
Create an excuse. You’ll be so glad you did.
2. No matter how exciting the adventure, the most fun happens with friends.
You can’t beat steering a helicopter and controlling it in a hover for excitement.
But the best time I’ve had in my first five adventures? Getting together with a group of friends I rarely see and touring the Connecticut Wine Trail.
We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and found the tastings fun and interesting. But really, we could have been anywhere, sharing good food and wine and catching up with each other, mulling over common concerns, and laughing.
It took some effort - but not all that much - to plan this adventure, get everyone on board, and work out the details.
What will it take for you to plan a get-together with old friends?
3. In the Boston area - and probably in your city or town - there’s WAY more to do than visiting the usual attractions.
When people visit from out of town, or when you’re searching for something to do, look beyond the usual tourist haunts.
Yes, go see the Freedom Trail - but do it by Segway. You’ll have so much more fun. Want to get a fabulous view of the city and the surrounding area? Forget the Hancock Tower and go take a helicopter ride instead.
Looking for a fun date night idea? How about a glassblowing class?
Think outside the “10 must-do’s” listed for your area, or a new place you’re visiting, and adventure awaits.
4. Be a beginner; it’s the only way to learn something new.
Your first time at something, you’ll never create art (or really drive a helicopter), so sit back, learn what you can, and enjoy the process.
Some adventure quests result in expertise (you’ll know a heck of a lot about ice cream if you’re visiting every ice cream parlor within 40 miles), but mine will make me an expert dilettante. I’m giving up any expectation of doing things well that I’ve never done before.
Along the way, something might fire me up to go back, dive in, and learn it more in depth. In the meantime, I’m bringing myself back, and back again, to beginner’s mind.
A sometimes uncomfortable, but rewarding, place to be.
5. You can have adventures on a budget.
Some of my first five adventures were expensive, and I probably wouldn’t have done them without the Groupon discount.
Moving forward, I’ll be interspersing some low and no-cost adventures as I save up for others (ever check the cost of dogsledding? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do - but very expensive).
It’s possible to do something new and exciting on a budget. Instead of one adventure a week, maybe do one a month. Or look for things that cost nothing but time, and maybe some embarrassment, like a local juggling meet-up or a drop-in improv class.
You can still have fun and do out-of-the-ordinary things without spending a lot of money. Stay tuned …
