Every day is an adventure

Also, I'm kind of done with resolutions, are you with me?

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

There’s something weird about New Year’s resolutions that for many of us, those resolutions imply that we’re just not good enough.

We want to eat less, exercise more. We want to be kinder, stronger, richer, work harder or smarter.

That’s okay, obviously. But it’s also okay to make changes in your life, make those resolutions, without the shame spiral of not being good enough. If you’re into shame spirals, go for it, right? But most of us find them not the healthiest spirals to be in.

There’s nothing wrong with working to be better, obviously, but for me, there’s something not cool with feeling like I’m not good enough or smart enough, when my desire for change is rooted in insecurity or shame rather than joy and possibility.

The Daily Stoic has a passage in its weekly newsletter, which is pretty intriguing to me. It writes,

“Marcus would later talk about how the philosopher is one with their weapon—more like a boxer than a swordsman. Because while a fencer can be caught without their sword, a boxer just clenches their fist, ready to go, anytime, anywhere. That’s what we’re trying to do as we study, we’re trying to create a practice that fuses us with our philosophy. That makes us one with it. That inserts it into our DNA so that we are forever changed by it.”

When I was a kid, taking my first philosophy class at Bates College, right before I got sick, my professor had us write out our own personal credo, a list of our beliefs. I sat outside, away from the noisiness of my quad, under a large oak tree by the brick dorm, opened my tiny hard-bound notebook emblazoned with ruby hearts (so scholarly) and wrote:

I believe people can be good that despite everything there is potential for goodness in all of us, for light, for choices toward kindness.

It’s hard to believe this sometimes, but I still do.

There’s an interesting bit about resolutions here.

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ADVENTURES

The image at the top of this post, however, really speaks to me.

What if we think of the new start of the new year not as a moment to:

1. Find all our flaws;

2. Feel shame about them;

3. Worry about not being “enough;”

but as a moment to reorient ourselves, to think, “HOW CAN I ADVENTURE?” Or even “WHAT KIND OF ADVENTURE CAN THIS YEAR BRING?”

Yes, that’s in all caps like I’m a president tweeting. I did it on purpose because I think I’m going to need to come back here and reflect on how I’m greeting each day as an adventure rather than a chore, as something exciting rather than something to slog through, as something to be lived rather than something to be endured.

Adventures aren’t all positive, obviously. They have absolute highs and lows.

And adventures don’t have to be grand moments of living in a sailboat or climbing mountains or clubbing in Miami.

“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” ~George Elliot

So, maybe take a different path to work. Maybe do something unusual on your next day off. Maybe make a different type of food than you usually do or explore a museum or location online.

If you have any super cool (or even moderately okay) ideas, let me know. I need all the help I can get. :)