02 Jul How to Find Adventure Everyday (a Guest Post by Laura Stevenson)

I’m so excited to feature Laura Stevenson from Learning to Adventure today on the blog.  Laura is 28 and she lives in Northwest England (England, as in, the United Kingdom … not New England).  Laura initially caught my eye because she writes about two things that inspire me:  adventures and life.  Her entire blog and personal philosophy is centered around finding adventures and surprises, even small ones, in everyday life. 

After writing back and forth a few times, we decided to do a blog-post swap.  I wrote a post for her blog about my own mountain-inspired philosophy on life, and she did the same for me.  I am so excited to share her story and to continue to follow her journey and adventures. 

So, without further adieu, here is Laura’s post:

Laura in Yosemite.

Adventure doesn’t have to be big. It’s not the size of the adventure that matters, it’s the impact it has on the adventurer that really counts.

You might think that’s quite a controversial statement to open with when guest blogging for a mountain-loving, wilderness-seeking adventure woman… so let me explain.

I’m Laura and I’ve recently decided to make my quest for adventure public on my new blog – Learning to Adventure. Without delving too far into history, a few months back I found I was really struggling with life and I wasn’t allowing myself to be happy. I was letting things get me down too much, struggling with loneliness and in all honesty I felt lost. One evening I sat down and gave myself a talking to. I had to turn things around and start enjoying life again. I started to think about what it was that really made me happy, and the answer was obvious. Adventure. I’m at my happiest when I’m adventuring.

Adventure is defined as “an unusual and exciting or daring experience”. Adventure is a state of mind. It’s the excitement of trying something new, getting out of your comfort zone, opening your mind and embracing the world around you. Adventure can be found all around us, but we have to be willing to let it in. But then there’s the catch… I work 45 hours a week in a job I truly love. That doesn’t leave me a lot of time for travelling to far flung places in search of new experiences. I try to travel as much as I can but it’s just not enough to quench my thirst for adventure. Why should we hold ourselves back to only live an extraordinary life once in a while? Why can’t we just look for the extraordinary in the every day?

That’s where everyday adventures come in and that’s why I’m focusing my energy on finding that feeling of adventure in a short space of time, in a place that’s not a million miles away. It’s hard to define what an Everyday Adventure looks like – because if the very meaning of adventure is something unusual or exciting – then surely the reality of that will be different for every single person.

All I can do is speak from my own mind and explain how I can make my world a little bit more exciting every day. If you’re in a similar position to me, maybe my adventures will strike a chord with you. If not, don’t be afraid to define your own Everyday Adventures. It doesn’t matter what you do. It matters that you do something. Something you’ll remember. Something that excites you. Something that will make you feel alive.

The first step to adventuring is to open your mind. You won’t be able to embrace adventure if you always see the bad in things, if you’re a glass half empty kind of person. You must first learn to see the good in life. See a rainstorm and be excited about dancing in it. Look at a long journey as a way to see the world around you. Embrace everything as a new opportunity for adventure.

That sense of adventure you get when you head to the airport for the holiday you’ve been dreaming of. The feeling of adventure when you head out on the road to discover a new place. The adventure of stumbling across something that makes you smile. Oh, and of course, the adventure of heading out into the wilderness in search of mountains.

So that’s what Learning to Adventure is all about. I’m going to find adventure in the everyday. I’m going in search of those little moments of discovery and happiness that take us by surprise. It’s my journey of self discovery and the search for happiness. All I can do is hope that my journey will inspire others to do the same, to find adventure in their everyday lives.

If my words have started you dreaming or imagining how you can live a more adventurous life, or if you’re just intrigued to see what it is I’m rambling on about and how you too can learn to adventure, please follow my journey on my blog – www.learnigntoadventure.co.uk – or on Instagram @learning_to_adventure.