Episode 516 – Adventure lies in the unknown

• Welcome back my friends
• I am grateful you are here
  • Sharing my quest for you journey with me
• This podcast is part of my journey and I do it because I want to help and inspire others to begin their Quest for their best life
• This has a different meaning for everyone
• You might feel stuck, lost, without direction, lacking a sense of purpose, wanting to accomplish more but don’t know how, unhappy with your circumstances, some of your behaviors, emotions, and even thoughts, wishing and dreaming about more for your life
• I share what I learned when I went through some of my trying times
  • This doesn’t make me an expert but my lessons have helped me become a better person and live a more fulfilling life
  • And I want the same for you
• I also share my current journey
  • My reflections on every day life, my encounters with others, my lessons from challenging moments, my wins and my losses and everything I am dreaming about and still working on
• I share topics that fascinate me and that I believe will help us understand ourselves and each other better
• And most recently I have begun to share the journeys of others with you in my Quest Stories
  • These have been my Friday episodes, and if you have missed them, I encourage you to go back and check them out
  • I interviewed Curt, Bipin, Mark, Miguel and Laura
  • They all share wonderful lessons and gems – as Laura calls them – and I am certain you will find a takeaway or thought for consideration in each of their stories
• I share a lot on this podcast, 500 episodes worth, and going strong,
• And now I even share my friends with you
• And since it’s the season of sharing –
• I would like to ask of you that you share as well
  • My entire podcast
  • A specific episode that touched you
  • Or that you think a friend might like
• Please let someone know about my podcast – one or more of your close friends
• Even if you think they may not find useful – you simply never know
• By spreading the good word, we add to more good to this world
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• I want to talk about my recent trip to Utah today
• Its long overdue – the trip is already over 2 weeks ago
• but for some reason, this trip needed some settling in
• it was so breathtakingly beautiful where I was, which was mostly around Moab, that I am still at a loss of words
• I will tell you how this trip came about
• It’s a trip I have to thank IG for
• Because 2 years ago, I had never heard of Moab, UT
• But Social Media is not all bad
• I am greatly inspired by some of the people I follow, wanting to be just a bit more like them
• I have shared with you how I use IG to learn and become better
• I mostly follow people who post great gym workouts and who look like the way I would like to look
• I also follow climbers and some of them climb regularly in Moab –
• Moab UT is a mecca for a specific style of climbing called crack and off width
• The rock there is smooth red sandstone, and I am certain you have seen pictures
• Just take a closer look at a UT license plate next time
  • It pictures the Delicate Arch, which we hiked to on our last day
• Sandstone is not like granite which I am used to from Yosemite
  • Granite is has more features in the rock which can serve as hand and footholds
  • It also sticks better, allowing me to trust my feet more when I climb
• I found Sandstone harder to climb as it is smooth and slick
  • I slipped a few times actually
• the often large cracks in the rock, however, allow for good holds, but it does require special skills
• And for a long time now I have admired the people that can climb like that
• Making their way up a straight crack – often with most of their body shuffed inside
• To some people, it looks like a huge suffer fest, but to me it is highly fascinating
• And aside from the climbing – its beautiful
  • Yes, so is Tahoe and Yosemite,
• But I think a lot of things we don’t have around us regularly appear beautiful and exotic to us
• For me, the red sandstone towers do just that
• And I have been dreaming of going for a while now
• And, of course in my dreams, an agile Janine makes her way up these cracks that only advanced climbers master
• But one has to dream right?
• I am only in my second year of climbing and this summer I didn’t have much chance to practice this style
• So I knew I wouldn’t be flying up the walls, but I was hoping to at least try it out
• Well, we climbed very little
• Temperatures were in the freezing grades, we had rain and snow and it just wasn’t the best climbing weather
• This wasn’t to worrisome to me because at the same time, I really wanted to explore the area
• So this trip, that I hoped would be a climbing trip, turned out to be an exploration trip
• And – I am not disappointed
• I know my climbing skills would not have been sufficient to get me up any of the cracks I dream of climbing
• And – I have a feeling that this was not my last trip to Moab
• The exploring was important because now I can navigate the area and I know where everything is
• I realized about a week prior to the trip that the weather most likely wasn’t going to cooperate with my climbing plans
• But I decided to not let that be an obstacle
• I was excited just the same because I have never been to Utah and I just looked forward to going
• And this is how I approached every day
  • Lets explore
  • Lets make the best out of every day
  • No matter what the day looks like
• And this made this trip so significant for me
• We didn’t know what the next day would look like
  • Not just due to a lack of solid plans, but also because we just didn’t know the areas
• We spent most of the time in the middle of nowhere, and without cell phone signal
• On TG morning, for example, we stopped at the visitor center in canyonlands NP, one of the most beautiful national parks I have ever seen
• The visitor center was surprisingly open, and they had a printout of the weather forecast there
• that was the only weather information we had for a while
  • and when you are out living in nature, like we did, the weather is kind of important
  • the car is a good protection at night, but we didn’t want to spend the days inside the car
• The other unknown, and really, the best part of every day, was that we never quite knew what it looks like outside
• We spent the day in a certain place, hiking, climbing a little, and exploring,
• We would leave in the evening to spend the night near out next destination that we wanted to explore
• By the time we got there and made our beds – in the back of the car – it was dark
  • Pitch-black dark because we were out in nature
• So in the morning, my partner would often shake me awake, in amazement “You have to see this”
• The first morning – TG morning – we had just arrived the night before and parked at some campground near the green river
• In the morning we awoke to the huge red sandstone walls towering over us
• I was blown away
• Another morning we woke up to snow-covered fields, with cows grazing all around our car
• On those mornings, it didn’t matter how cold it was, I put my 20 layers of clothes on and we went out to explore,
• The beauty all around us couldn’t be resisted
• The surprise every morning was probably the best part of the trip
• on how many days of our life do we wake up to something we have never seen before?
• Not many
• This really made me think:
• Sure – I wish every day could be like this but that’s probably not a reasonable dream
• But I began to ask myself:
• How can I add more surprise and adventure to my days?
• many of which seem to be the same day over and over again, based on my schedule
• and how will these seemingly monotonous days, which I often approach just as something I need to get through, how can I bring them more to life?
  • treat them as something new
• which they are
• every day is new and while we think we know what awaits us based on past knowledge, we never really know
• we can wake up to surprises that we cannot even imagine, good and bad
• because here is what I noticed when I was in UTAH
  • Waking up in awe and wonder gave me a ton more energy, more curiosity, and more motivation to go beyond the planned and the scheduled
  • Like I said, we would put our clothes on and immediately venture out to see what is around us
  • On one of those mornings, we parked next to a climbing area, a huge rock called looking glass
  • It was amazing by itself, but only when we hiked all the way around it did we discover a huge arch that is not visible from the front side
  • Had we just stayed in the car, afraid of the cold,
  • Checked off the day as to cold to climb and moved on
  • We would have missed the amazing arch which we were actually able to climb up to, because the backside received the morning sun and was dry, even though it was only 7am
  • We approached every day with this sense of adventure
  • We had a rough plan on what we wanted to do but we often modified that slightly based on what the day looked like
  • One morning we awoke to major winds and snow
  • The car was shaking
  • So we slept – a well deserved rest
  • And then we cooked a really good breakfast and then we started the day
• Every day has adventure and surprises waiting for us
• But I believe, we miss most of them because we think we already know what awaits us
• We have our days planned
• We follow our routines
• And we miss opportunities for discovery and adventure
• I get it
• Its not a feasible approach to take on every day as if we have nothing to do
  • There are days when a major traffic delay puts us behind and we struggle all day getting our things done
  • There are says we need to stick to our schedule so we can make it home in time
• We need to get our stuff done, but we don’t need to get lost in the predictability of each day
• We can insert some adventure, even if small, only a few minutes, into every day
  • Maybe we stop by at someone else’s desk at work, someone we dont normally work with and therefore not know
  • Maybe we accept a last minute invite, even though it disrupts our plans
  • Maybe we get up an hour earlier and stop to watch the sunrise on the way to work or go to a coffee shop and read for a little bit
• The girl I mentor couldn’t meet me today so I had suddenly all Saturday open
  • So I went for an 8 mile hike, one I have never done before
• Adventure doesn’t have to mean we book a flight to an island in the middle of the ocean
• Adventure happens every time we do something different and new
• Because it opens us up to the chance of a different outcome
  • One we don’t yet know
• On my way out the ocean today, the temptation was high to stop at my normal coffee shop and fill up before I go
• But I decided I would find a different coffee shop, one I had never been to
• The first one I went to was a breakfast place, but the second one was a success
  • Excellent coffee and a local brand I had never tried before but seen on shelves at the grocery store
• That wasn’t a huge adventure, but it still was something different where I didn’t know what the coffee would be like
• I do this often and have been disappointed before
• But that’s the price we pay
• We try and sometimes we fail
• We make the wrong decision, pick the wrong coffee place, the wrong trail, the wrong day, and sometimes we pick the wrong person
• But if we keep trying
  • If we infuse newness more often into our days
• We will learn more, meet more people, have more ideas, and get to know ourselves better
• The reason we so love vacations is because they take us out of our routines, our sameness, our predictability
• Find a little vacation in your every day life
• Take a detour once in a while
• It makes life more interesting and it increases the chances of new and better outcomes/

Much love