Our post today comes from guest blogger Suzanne Zoglio, PhD. She is the author of Create a Life that Tickles Your Soul and Recharge in Minutes.
When I talk with people who seem younger than their years, I usually find that what keeps them young is a healthy sense of adventure. Doing something new takes courage and a certain amount of creativity. What we get in return is more confidence for having survived the challenge and renewed energy from having realized a dream.
Not long ago I was talking with friends about peak experiences- adventures that had moved us so much that even talking about them today still made us feel suddenly more alive. I recalled an Outward Bound experience where I had explored caves (without lights), climbed rocks, and hung off a cliff by my toes. Although the experience was both emotionally and physically demanding (lots of bruises), it was also enlivening. Other adventures on my list were equally memorable and stimulating, but in very different ways: attending an opera at La Scala with Ricardo Muti conducting; writing my first book; going to cooking school in Tuscany; water-skiing on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. Even today, these past adventures raise my energy and make me want to do something new.
Certainly most of us find comfort in routine. Bosses we know how to please, jobs we know inside and out, and friends and family we can now read flawlessly. Comfortable? Indeed. But, energizing? Not likely…unless something new gets thrown into the mix. When we are challenged to stretch, learn, create, or passionately enjoy, most of us feel more alive. And when we succeed, we feel unstoppable. Years later, as we visualize the adventure, we experience that unstoppable feeling all over again.
Recently a friend announced that he was going to spend his vacation swimming with the dolphins. First, he had to take a three-day course. That kind of preparation would have turned many people off. For him, it just added to the value of the adventure. He became even more motivated knowing that a bonus to doing something he'd always wanted to do was learning something new.
What's on your list of things you'd like to do someday? Just having the dream can raise your energy level. Maybe you've always wanted to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity, take a photographic safari in Africa, learn to speak French, go sky diving, build a unique birdhouse, rock infants at a hospital, or take a walking tour in another country.
Perhaps, like some of my friends, you'd count starting a business, going back to school, running a marathon, learning to paint, seeing the Grand Canyon, joining a theater group, raising money for charity, or caring for a grandchild as a peak experience that lifts your energy just thinking about it.
Imagine bounding out of bed each morning with charged anticipation and retiring each night feeling usefully spent. Imagine at each year's end, checking off another adventure from your "someday" list. Suppose all you have to do when your energy wanes, is recall one of your great
adventures. Talk about living!