Manifesto eh? That’s a bit of a posh word to be using in the first post of the new site don’t you think? Get us!
It is an apt word though for sure. If you look it up in the dictionary you’ll no doubt see something like the following:
Noun: A public declaration of policy and aims
And this is what this opening salvo on here is all about. This is a public declaration of our intentions and aims going forward.
Stating these publicly will hopefully give us the drive to carry them out, but I guess we’ll see if that works or not won’t we?
Oh For a Little Adventure
It’s funny how life tends to have a unique way of getting in the way of living. Far too many of us spend our time doing what we “have” to do and not doing the things we “need” to do. As Dolly Parton sang1:
“Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’
Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’ and no givin’
They just use you mind and they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it”
Ain’t that the truth?!
In today’s modern world there’s a madness of being connected 24/7, of being available for work all of the time because you get your email on your phone, or you can log on while at home because, well, you can, and what else is there to do? It’s nuts! And yes, I get the irony writing that on a blog!
So What is an Adventure?
One of the main reasons we don’t live adventurous lives is that our definition of what that actually means is all wrong.
I’ll be honest and admit that that was me too. Adventures were the big things: running marathons, walking the length of the country, climbing mountains etc.
Adventure is not simply the big, mad things, the over-the-top activities that seem to fill blogs and Facebook every day trying to inspire us to “get out there”.
While all of these things are most definitely adventurous, adventure can be an every day or every month occurrence. It’s all in how you perceive it.
Adventure is about the unknown, about not knowing how things will play out, but pushing forward regardless. It’s less about what you do and more about how you do it.
Looking at it this way, how much more of our lives could be reclassified as adventurous?
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about this as 2015 got closer and I’m hoping that this site will help us (our family and you, the reader) in the way we think about adventure so we can include it more in our everyday lives.
But I Don’t Have The Time or Money!
This comes back to what I was saying above, about our skewed definition of what an adventure actually is. Not only does this disqualify the everyday occurrences, it also stops us creating time for adventure. How can you when you think of adventures as being these big endeavours?
Thinking differently means it should be easier to set aside time for going out and having a mini adventure, whether that be walking through the woods or jumping in muddy puddles. Changing your attitude about what constitutes adventure is huge!
Finding adventure in the everyday is one of the best ways to create time for adventure.
As far as money goes, yes, having a little cash certainly helps if you want to go somewhere or do something specific. Outside of that your adventure is only limited by your own creativity.
So What Does All This Mean?
Looking back on my younger years I struggle to remember what we did as a family. I can vaguely remember holidays in Dorset – more the long drives suffering with car sickness to be honest – but I don’t remember any adventure.
I’m sure there was but it’s now lost in the mists of time. I don’t want our girls to look back and wish we’d made more of our time together.
Ultimately I want to be able to write a good story, the story of my life with Shelli and the girls. I want to be able to look back and see that we lived and not just existed. I want Shelli and I to have the most amazing life together.
I want to inspire our girls to be better people when they grow up, to find wonder and beauty in the simplest of things. I don’t want them to be dependent on 24/7 stimulation to make them feel fulfilled
I don’t know if we’ll succeed but I’m determined to do everything I can to make our lives as enjoyable and exciting as possible, and this is our manifesto, a commitment to get out there and do more with our time!
I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do to achieve this, ideas on things I think the girls would enjoy, things Shelli and I would enjoy, but I won’t list them here yet.
I’d like to come up with a short-list of what I’d like to do over the coming year and then see how well we do in achieving it.
Footnotes