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How to Find Adventure in Every Day

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Hi, I'm Erin!

I am a photographer passionate about the outdoors, meaningful travel, creativity and intention in all things. I hope to use my platform online to show the beauty and complexity of the world we live in, and to encourage genuine connection to the world and all the magic within it.

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SHOP PRINTS

I’m not writing this from a tricked out Sprinter van, or sitting in a hammock. I’m writing this from my kitchen table in Colorado. It’s 4pm, and I haven’t left the house yet today.

If you offered me a plane ticket to Mexico for later tonight, I’d probably take it. But it would be a hard choice. Because as much as I love to travel, to explore, to be waist-deep in water in some cave in New Zealand, to be somewhere that isn’t “home,” I also love sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee all day, writing, working.

I love my home life, my life with a routine, with brunch, just as much as I love my more adventurous pursuits. And it’s a completely different love, but an important one.

To love the adventure in your every day, you have to eat well. Stop eating fast food if you feel like crap the next day. Drink a lot of water. Limit the amount of alcohol you consume and how late you stay out partying. If that doesn’t speak to you, do whatever you want, but the message is that you have to stop treating your body like shit, it’s the only one you get. What you put in it affects how well you’re able to go out into the world and get stuff done.

Do something that raises your heart rate every day. Move your body. You don’t need to bend yourself into a pretzel, or be the most fit person in the gym. You don’t even have to go to a gym. Just move. Be gentle with yourself if you learn that you aren’t as strong or as flexible as you’d like to be– it just means you have a goal.

Read books, watch films, listen to interviews and learn about influential people (influential, that is, to you). Make it part of your routine, something you just do. Pick things you actually want to learn about. If you are having trouble getting through a book, read a different one. Stop judging yourself for not wanting to watch that documentary or for staring at that book you’ve been meaning to read, and fill your head with stuff you truly want to learn about instead.

Being in one place with a routine is an incredible opportunity to treat yourself really well. Recognize that opportunity and use it.

Stop being satisfied with circumstantial friends.

Pursue ambitious, insightful people who are seeking their own path to self-fulfillment and a purposeful life. Nobody with a mindset like that will think you are weird for wanting to grab a coffee with them. Surround yourself with people you are proud to know. Cherish the relationships you have with people who leave you feeling great about yourself after a phone conversation. Make them feel appreciated in return.

Find a community that likes what you like, whether it’s chess or mountain biking. There’s something for everyone, even if the community is based online.

Anyone who judges you, who makes you feel small and like you’re not enough, is someone who is not improving you. Re-allocate that person’s role in your life. Create space for what empowers you instead.

Make a list of things that scare you and a list of things you’ve been meaning to do for a while. Pick one thing from each list and do them. Maybe they are even the same. If something seems huge and far off, create steps and hold yourself accountable to do them.

Pick a project that doesn’t have to do with work. Your project can be writing. It can be building a shelf for your living room. It can be running a mile, or fifteen. It can be learning how to cook one recipe really, really well.

Make it fun, but make it challenging.

And yes, make plans for when you’re not at home. Make plans for when you want to travel, to get outside of your routine in a big way. Get excited for the things you’ll see, the people you’ll meet, the food you’ll taste and the moments that will seem to ring in your ears for years afterward. But don’t live in those moments right now. Plan them so that you can live in them fully, once you have arrived there.

Don’t give yourself the reason, “it was convenient.” Just because it fell into your lap does not mean it was ever right.

And if you are ever bored in this life, you have a huge opportunity to do something differently. Do not be satisfied with boredom, or with circumstance. Determine purpose. Determine happiness.

Nobody is happy all the time, but you are the only person who can decide what happiness means to you. Your path may not always take you there. There are times when you will feel so damn fulfilled, and times when you wish you could sleep through the pain of life. But this thing we get to experience– is incredibly short. It could be over tomorrow.

Show up for yourself, and make it worth living.

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  1. Andrea says:

    Loved every word.. Every meaning.. and really needed to hear it all right now. Much luv ~

  2. Laura says:

    I love it when adventure bloggers give a peek into a typical, non-adventure day. Thank you for sharing!

  3. Jannicke says:

    Thank you so much for sharing this Erin! Really helped boosting my spirits when pushing through the last term of my bachelor degree. I will print this off and put it on my wall <3

  4. Omar says:

    This is one of the best, well written pieces I really enjoyed to read start to finish and share with others!

    Thank you!

  5. Amy says:

    Thank you for these amazing words. These are the types of words that are giving me motivation right now. What you said has pretty much been what I’ve been giving pep talks to myself about. Maybe just not so eloquently. haha

  6. Tyla says:

    Couldn’t agree more! Thank you for this, I’d love to save it and re-read it often.

  7. Beatrice says:

    Wow, this is absolutely amazing. Summarizes a lot of the feelings and questions I’ve been having about life so far. Thank you so much <3

  8. Sage says:

    Great advice and well written. Thanks!

  9. Brianne says:

    I just stumbled across your blog and I am looking for this kind of adventure in my life! Thank you for being such an inspiration! I will follow you to inspire me and help me push through the trials of life and to experience it fully ! Thanks, Brianne

  10. carissa says:

    Love this! Awesome job!!

  11. Ralph says:

    thank you

  12. Stefania says:

    I am so happy to have found you! Finally someone who shows that adventure is a lifestyle experience that isn’t always about travelling and jumping cliffs.

  13. Susan says:

    Yes, sometimes staying home is the best.
    You don’t have to BE on an adventure to MAKE life an adventure!
    BTW love the photo of your “workspace”!

    http://a-woman-of-a-certain-age.com/

  14. I absolutely love this. I love being at home as much as I love to travel. Finding adventure in everyday is absolutely critical to living a fulfilling life. We should be constantly learning and opening our minds to what is out there every single day. Being mindful about the people that you spend time with is so important. Jim Rohn said it perfectly; “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” It could not be more true.
    Thank you so much for sharing. xx

  15. kristin says:

    VERY well written, Erin! I had goosebumps by the time I was done. Like you, I love my every day routine and am a CO creative who followed her adventure to Nashville a year ago. Loving every day, hard or not. Thank you for inspiring and reaffirming with this article.

  16. Jessie Leigh says:

    Absolutely love this article! I’m always searching for my next adventure, but sometimes the best ones are when I just let myself live life and relax at home.

    I thought your words were so great, I featured a link to your post on my blog for my followers to see it: http://Jessie-Leigh.com/Friday-Five-37/

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