Adventure Is Hardship That We Enjoy

A few years back, my family and I were on holiday in Bali. One afternoon, my wife wanted to go to the local market to hunt for ethnic Knick Knacks to buy. My kids wanted to stay back at the hotel, but we insisted that they join us. They had no choice but to comply. We reached the street market, and within half an hour, my kids started whining, “Mom, my legs are hurting. I can’t walk anymore. Can we go back to the hotel?”

A couple of days later, we were booked for a summit trek to go up Mount Batur. We reached base camp by 3 am to start our hike in pitch darkness. After an arduous three-hour trek, with a few slips and falls, we got to the summit in time to see a beautiful sunrise. After resting for about half-hour, we started our journey back, which took a further 3 hours. In all, we were up and about for close to 6 hours, and strangely, no one complained. Least of all, my kids. They were both having fun !!. It was, after all, an adventure for them !!

Our mind is an amazing contraption. The physical activity of walking was the same, whether it was at the street market or the mountain trek. But one was tedious and painful. The other was an adventure full of fun.

Adventure of any sort is always hardship. But the moment we think of something as an adventure, we are willing to endure all the hardship without complaining.

For me, this leads to an interesting premise.

If we have to face any hardship or difficulty in our daily lives, we shy away and play it safe.

What if we thought of all these things that worry us as an adventure? If there is a way we can imagine them to be like an adventure, we can completely change the way we approach and do those things.

Good or bad. Pleasant or unpleasant- these feelings, these sensations- they are manufactured in our heads. The way we process the experience is entirely based on the way we frame it.

If someone imposes something on us, we will not enjoy it- The way my kids did not enjoy it when we forced them to join us for the street walk. But when we see something as a willing adventure, paradoxically, we begin to enjoy the discomfort, the pain.

You want to do something, but you are worried about it being difficult, unpleasant, or risky. Can you reimagine it as an adventure? Maybe, it will give you the energy to make a move.