It's been more than six years since I changed virtually every single thing about my life. I sold my home and quit my job and I left everything I knew and was familiar with - everything I was comfortable with - and I threw myself out into the world to began this open-armed and open-ended adventure into the complete unknown.
As time passed, this adventure became more of a journey for me. A journey is often considered to be something along the lines of a very long or a very arduous trip. But little did I know how much more things were going to change than I ever expected.
All of the traveling and talking with a diversity of people;
All of the various geography and climates I've explored and camped in;
All of the hardships, adversities, and challenges faced;
All of the unplanned and unexpected happenings;
All of the new and unique experiences I've had;
It has all shown me that it's as much about looking inside as it is seeing the outside.
It has all helped me find something I didn't know I was looking for -
Myself
And this is how an adventure became a journey.
Every day we wake up expecting to live.
Eventually that expectation becomes a demand.
Adventure = An exciting or an unusual undertaking, or an unexpected event, usually involving some sort of danger or unknown risks.
Journey = Travel or passage from one place to another.
An adventure is ordinarily thought of as engaging in a particular activity. It's envisioned as going to a particular place and exploring that place or engaging in a specific activity, and usually in a predetermined fashion - whether it's going to a city or country you've never been to before, to doing something that maybe you've never done before. Our ideas, expectations, and beliefs going into it, lend themselves to helping shape the adventure.
I like to think of an adventure as an outward experience, but I think of a journey as more of an inward experience. It's when our inner awareness is revealed to us - when what we do on the outside leads to us looking at what is happening on the inside.
It becomes a journey when we can let go of those same ideas, expectations, and beliefs - when we can let go of the idea of how we think things are supposed to be - and let life take us wherever it wants.
An adventure becomes a journey when we start exploring ourselves, and that exploration leads us to discover places we didn't know we'd find - to the unknown places inside of us.
Firstly, when you choose to take an adventure, no matter how big or small it is, you should not expect all of the familiar comforts of home.
You should also not expect everything - much less anything - to go as you planned or expected it to go.
No matter how much you try to foresee and plan accordingly for every possible scenario, things will happen on an adventure that you don't want to happen, or that you weren't ready for.
While on an adventure, it is very beneficial to be okay with change because things are going to change.
It is also very helpful to be able to create a feeling of stability where there sometimes just doesn't seem to be any.
An adventure can test your patience, your energy, your wit, and your ability to adjust to changing situations. The really big adventures - the best adventures - will take you well outside of what you're comfortable with. But a journey will test your heart and mind - the very core of your Self.
Things may happen on an adventure that you don't understand;
Things that just don't make sense.
You will see and/or hear things that won't fit neatly with your ideologies, expectations, and beliefs.
And this is when an adventure can become a journey.
But only if you want it to, and only if you let it.
When does an adventure become a journey, and how do you know when an adventure has become a journey?
How do you know when this passage from one place to another has taken place?
When it compels you to look inside yourself and to examine those ideas, expectations, and beliefs; from those that you've always taken for granted to those that you've been hanging on to for dear life.
How it begins, is when you approach everything with curiosity and don't expect the quick or easy answers.
When it begins, is when you notice the ordinary moments and experiences begin to seem a little bit more extraordinary.
At first, this part of the journey will teach you to improvise and be creative. It will teach you to embrace the unexpected.
The longer you are on this journey - the farther you are willing to go - it will begin to reveal yet another level of introspection, providing you are willing to look.
Yes, it's a journey. But it's not a journey to understand. This is what most people get wrong because they want to, or feel they need to, understand everything.
It will start with questions that have answers, but they are answers which you've always given yourself every excuse to ignore and every chance to avoid.
Then questions you never considered before will begin to emerge.
You will question things you never questioned before.
You will uncover answers to some of these questions that you didn't think were possible.
Then it moves to hard questions that have no clear answers.
At a certain point in the journey you come to see that the neat and tidy answers you were previously expecting or looking for are nowhere to be found and they're not even what matters any more, but the importance lies in the questions themselves.
Given more time, it will test you and draw things out of you that you didn't even know were there.
It will have you looking at things in ways you've never looked at them before.
This part of the journey can make you immensely more vulnerable because it will challenge your assumptions.
It will twist, tug, bend, push and pull, on every perspective.
It may challenge every belief that you hold.
It will reveal insecurities and inhibitions that you didn't know you had, that have been ignored, or that have been hidden for years just below the surface, and forgotten.
It will reveal fears and weaknesses you've avoided facing, and fears and weaknesses you never knew you had.
This type of journey can, and probably will, make you cry.
It can make you cry because you're nervous, worried, or downright terrified, while thinking, "This is not how it's supposed to be!"
OR
It can make you cry tears of joy and euphoria when you triumphantly shout "I did it!!" after fighting through the doubts and fears and achieving something that you didn't know you were capable of doing.
When your adventure becomes a journey, you may feel the pressure rising,
But it's an internal pressure.
Pressure to perform;
Pressure to succeed;
Pressure to achieve.
This pressure is a result of all of those ideas, expectations, and beliefs - from the ones you didn't even realize you were carrying, to the ones you boast about.
Your first instinct will be to overcome the situation, to conquer the situation, or to retreat to a place of comfort.
But that pressure is really an opportunity in disguise.
It's an opportunity to overcome adversity.
It's an opportunity to elevate your experience;
An opportunity to show yourself what you are capable of;
An opportunity to show the world, and more importantly yourself, what you're made of.
On this journey the countless layers of discomfort endured, and the myriad of doubts you overcome, will begin to expose the real you that has been hidden or buried within you all along.
It will bring you face to face with things you've always tried to forget and things you never wanted to confront.
Don't be afraid.
While it may appear difficult, uncomfortable, scary, or unpleasant when you begin, it's a journey to the most amazing and rewarding place in the world. It's a journey to where you meet yourself.
If you're not willing to pay the price, this journey can crush your hope.
If you accept the full experience, this journey can renew your hope.
An adventure is about being curious, stepping out into the world and experiencing what takes place outside of ourselves.
It takes us out of the ordinary.
A journey is about being curious, and stepping back into ourselves to experience, and learn about, what happens on the inside.
A journey takes us to the extraordinary.
When a peculiar event occurs, from the unexpected to the highly improbable to the impossible, it should open us up to seeing other possibilities. We can try to make this event fit into our existing beliefs, no matter how much we have to twist it and bend it and contort it to make it fit, or we can reconsider what we thought we knew.
Whatever your adventure is - from a weekend getaway, to visiting another country or continent - an adventure is about exploring and, yes, it can be transformative.
It can ignite something within you to keep going.
It can also reveal to you your own limitations.
It can put your ideas, expectations, and beliefs, to the test.
But at that point... what are you going to do about them?
It's not what we face, it's what we do with it and how we process it, that goes a long way in determining the outcome.
So lean into the journey.
Let it strip your heart and mind down to the bare bones.
Let it take you to another place.
Life is not a chore.
Life is not a game.
Life is not an endurance test.
Life is not a dress rehearsal.
Life certainly is an adventure,
But make it a journey, as well.
We always start out by expecting things to be a certain way.
It all changes when we stop demanding and when we learn to expect nothing.
This is not a highly sought after or glamorous journey, but this journey can begin at any time. This journey could even begin without you being aware of it.
This is a journey within. It is not one to be understood because it is about exploring yourself. It's one that many people think they take, but few actually do.
It's a journey that you, and you alone, can take. And it's the greatest journey worth taking.
Take the journey.
Pic by Grant Krasner
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