Why Having An Adventure Might Be Easier Than You Think

If you are reading this then you have probably seen Bear Grylls on TV, read a book about climbing Everest, been to a talk on rowing the Atlantic ocean, signed up for a blog about cycling around the world… or something like that.

Something, somewhere, somehow has made you want to have an adventure and tempted you to click this link.

Excellent. You have come to the right place.

Those books, blogs, talks and TV programmes are great at getting people excited and inspired but they’re often less good at telling you how to go about doing something yourself.

And because, understandably, they want to make their stories interesting, they have a tendency to focus on the drama, hardship and near-death experiences of their trips. Unfortunately, that can also mean they’re quite off-putting. It makes their expeditions sound harder than they really are and gives the impression that only the most hard-core need apply.

That is not true.

This and subsequent articles are here to show you why.

My Mission

As well as helping you with the practicalities of actually planning an expedition, my mission with these articles is to demonstrate prove that:

• you do not need any expertise to go on an expedition
• you do not need to be a ‘hard-core adventurer type’ (whatever that is)
• you do not need money or sponsorship
• you do not need loads of free time / to quit your job / to not have a family

Adventure can be as simple as sleeping outside, swimming in a pond or running in the rain. And any of us can do any one of those things right now.

You may have bigger ideas – that’s great, we’ll get to those in due course – but never let yourself be duped into believing that you don’t have enough time, money or experience to have an adventure. You do.

Your Mission

Before you read the next article, I’d like to challenge you to do something adventurous. However big or small. If you want my help then I want you to show you’re committed.

Here are some ideas:

• Go for a wild swim
• Sleep outside without a tent
• See how far you can run/walk/cycle in a weekend/day/morning/evening
• Take a new route to work or do something different with your lunch hour

If you’ve already got a specific idea in mind (e.g. I am going to climb Mont Blanc!) then do something relevant that will bring you closer to your goal e.g. climb the highest mountain in your area, run up 200 flights of stairs or wear a heavy rucksack to work every day.

Any questions? Add a comment below!

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Some Relevant Links

• A Beginner’s Guide to Wild Swimming
• A Beginner’s Guide to Bivouacking (i.e. sleeping outside)
• How To Have An Everyday Adventure
• How To Cycle Around The World in 3 Easy Steps – by Tom Allen
• How To Get Started In Expeditions – by Alastair Humphreys (read the bit that starts ‘Do Something!’)
• If You Aim To Motivate Then Stop Exagerating

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How To Have An Adventure

This article is part of the ‘How To Have An Adventure’ series:

1. Why having an adventure might be easier than you think
2. How to have an adventure without spending any money
3. Where to get ideas and inspiration for an adventure
4. How to actually start planning the logistics of an expedition
5. How to get sponsorship for your expedition
6. The secret to making sure your expedition definitely happens