How to Infuse Your Life with More Adventure

Lessons Learned from Tom Sawyer

Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash

This month’s article on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer included a call to infuse our lives with more adventure, because part of Twain’s aim in writing the novel was to remind his readers of what they once were as children, adventurous and troublesome, in the hopes that some of that spirit might be revived within them.

For that reason, I’d like to share some of my own thoughts on how you can infuse your life with more adventure.

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1 - Define the Tension

In Chris Vogler’s classic work, The Writer’s Journey, he outlines the basic steps involved in every hero’s journey, or in every adventure.

Broadly speaking, every adventure involves a movement from the ordinary world, to the special world, and then a return back to the ordinary world.

For Luke Skywalker, his home on Tatooine is the ordinary world. When he leaves, he enters into the fight against The Empire, the special world (btw, in the current series, leaving Tatooine represents the same threshold for Obi-Wan). I won’t spoil what his return to the ordinary world consists of, but fundamentally, the beginning of every adventure involves crossing this threshold—from what’s ordinary into what’s unknown.

As Vogler also states, the only reason to embark upon such a journey is because some tension exists in the ordinary world. Things aren’t perfect there; otherwise, there would be no reason to leave.

Therefore, in our own lives, the first step to infusing your life with more adventure is to define the tension in your life. Define the tension in your ordinary world.

Why are you interested in an adventure in the first place? Maybe you’re unhappy with your work. Maybe it’s financial, a desire to better provide for your family, or to overcome debt. Maybe it’s been years since you’ve really challenged yourself, and you want to model doing hard things for your kids. Or, you might just be bored.

Whatever the underlying tension is, define it, in as clear and simple terms as you can.

Because it will serve as a reminder to you, an anchoring motivation that continues to propel you forward beyond any barriers, pressures, or constraints that would seek to end your journey before it even begins.

So, define the tension, and write it down.

2 - Identify the Adventures You’re Already On

When most people think about adventure, their minds are flooded with images of mountains and exotic destinations. Because most people equate adventure with travel and the outdoors.

I’m more of the opinion that those are things included within the concept, but they are far from the most significant adventures available to us.

Here’s my line of thought.

1. Adventure includes the notions of risk and a commitment to the unknown.

2. Signing up for responsibility always includes committing to risk and a venture into the unknown.

3. Therefore, responsibility is an important aspect of adventure.

So, the primary adventures of life aren’t the ones that involve tossing responsibility aside for exotic travels and remote activities. Instead, the primary adventures of life are the ones involving responsibility itself.

In this regard, our greatest adventures include marriage, parenting, caring for our friends and family members, and navigating our work and careers well. Because each of these endeavors are filled with risk, danger, and the potential for great reward.

So often, we see adventure as an escape from these things. But I’d argue, these are the most significant adventures we’ll ever have.

That recognition is important because sometimes the tension in our lives isn’t due to a lack of adventure; instead, it often comes down to being in the midst of remarkably difficult ones.

When that’s the case, the proper remedy might not be finding ways to insert more frequent but less meaningful adventures into your life. Instead, it’s just identifying and remembering the adventures you’re already on, and learning to see your life regularly as such.

So, to that end, the second step to infusing your life with more adventure is to identify the adventures you’re already on.

3 - Choose an Adventure That Will Meet the Tension You’re Feeling

Finally, once you’ve defined your tension and identified the adventures you’re already on, you can decide whether or not a further adventure is needed. If so, my recommendation would involve selecting an adventure that is meaningful, and that matches the tension you feel.

For example, if your tension is wanting more involvement with your kids, then sign up to coach their sports team (even if you know nothing about their sport).

If it’s about a general lack of purpose or direction, try attending a church.

Or, if it really is boredom, then maybe sign up for something more typical, like a new sport or hobby.

But whatever you choose, try and align it with the defined tension you’re feeling. That way you’ll have an anchored motivation to propel you forward through your chosen adventure.

Here are some ideas.

• Start a side hustle

• Ask for more responsibility at work

• Apply for a promotion

• Go back to school

• Coach your kid’s sports team

• Go on a date

• Propose to your significant other

• Have children

• Take your children on your own favorite adventures, hikes, bikes, etc.

• Do a local road trip

• Take a kid-free vacation

• Learn a new sport, like tennis or rowing

• Try a new hobby, like hiking, camping, trail running, fishing, sailing, etc.

• Try a micro-adventure, like sleeping outside in your backyard

• Buy a bike and start riding it

• Sign up for a speech competition

• Throw a dinner party

• Fly, and visit a foreign city over the weekend

In truth, there are so many options out there for adventure. Far more than any one person can experience in this life. The trick isn’t to do all of them; the trick is to commit yourself to the ones that deliver the most.

Life has a way of sapping our thirst for adventure. Thankfully, that’s why Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is so helpful. Because it reminds us of what we once were as children, adventurous and troublesome, in the hopes of reviving some of that same spirit within us.

Because a life without adventure may be easily lived. But is it really a life worth living?

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