The Attitude of Adventure

One of my favourite movie quotes is from the first Hobbit movie, when Bilbo is leaving the Shire and someone asks him where he is going. He responds with ‘I’m going on an adventure!’ I have often been heard quoting this when I am about to start a walk or when I am going out exploring. I just love the excitement that comes with it and the anticipation of new experiences and memories.

As you may have gathered, I am all about adventure! I will likely be referencing it a lot in future posts, and I wanted to explore this concept a bit more to give you a bit of an idea of how I see it.

Here are a few definitions for ‘adventure’ that came up in a quick google search:

– an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks (Merriam-Webster)

– an exciting or remarkable experience (Merriam-Webster)

– excitement and willingness to do new, unusual, or rather dangerous things (Collins Dictionary)

My definition of ‘adventure’ loosely holds to these, with some aspects being truer for me than others. While danger and unknown risks are certainly an aspect of adventures in my experience, I also choose to see smaller, safer things as adventures too. In my opinion, a lot of what makes an adventure is the mindset and attitude that I approach it with. I find that once I decide to view something as an adventure, it becomes more exciting and I get more out of it. Where I may have only seen the negative aspects, I find it easier to pick out the positive and see the good in a situation as well. 

I recently had to do a short time in isolation due to covid and I decided to approach the situation with an attitude of adventure instead of being frustrated and upset about all of the plans that I had previously made that didn’t happen. There were still times that I struggled with being in lockdown and isolation, but I was able to find fun things to keep me busy and for the most part I enjoyed myself and the unique opportunities that isolation provided that are harder to do in everyday life.

So while adventure certainly does include going to the far reaches of the world and seeing new and exciting things, I also experience it right here at home. It isn’t dependent on me being able to travel or being able to afford expensive, unique experiences. I believe that you can make anything an adventure if you embrace the opportunity that is presented.