Are you an adventurer?

Karak · Nov 1, 2012

Rel said:
This brings to mind a principle that I've come to employ a lot recently. It's summed up as "If it's not a 'HELL YES!' then it's 'No thanks'."

Time is really precious to me these days and I try to spend it doing things that fulfill and energize me. I've gotten rid of as much stuff as possible that I consider to be a drag.

Even so I get approached with lots of opportunities to get involved with projects or organizations or activities. I am a very positive and helpful person and I go through life with a pretty "say yes" attitude. But I've learned to step back and ask myself, "Is this thing really good for me to spend my time on?" And if my answer isn't "HELL YES!" then I tell them, "No thanks."

It's pretty liberating to think that way.

Identifying the impact something has on the 1 thing in life you really can't get back(time) is probably the most important things people can do.

What you wrote above is a very good plan for people who identify with the desire to use time wisely. Even if time is enjoying an amazing time with family and not some new awesome project.

Rel · Nov 1, 2012

Janx said:
Well, at the risk of being negative, but I'm not sure the world has room for all 7 billion of us to pursue our dreams and suceed.

I doubt anybody wants to be a garbage man, but somebody's got to do it. There's just not enough room on the beach for all of us to run surf shops.

I exagerate, but there's a limited band where some people can be free to ditch their crappy job for something truly better, and a much broader band where folks have to work with what they have and put up with it, because it's work.

I can appreciate the concept of "avoiding negative people", and in fact, when us normal folks hear somebody's "crazy idea" we should hold back from crapping on it with such "what's your plan B" comments.

but in turn, those folks who are taking the chance to pursue their dreams need to cut everybody else some slack. All these "negative people" did the same calculation on what to do with their life as you, and they got a different result that tells them to accept life as it is. to them, the likelyhood of failure is high and the consqequence is severe, as compared to accepting their status quo.

To a dreamer, I suppose that makes them look negative. But to those people, they are being pragmatic realists.

Thanks, Janx! (that even rhymes)

This actually has a huge bearing on how people perceive what I do and how I help others. Everybody is afraid that I'm going to tell them, "You need to quit that boring 9-5 and strike off on your big (seemingly impossible) dream on a whim!"

Most of what being adventurous and loving life is about to me is the methods we can employ to focus on the best parts of what we already do and then expand them, organically, into the rest our lives. Better time management and looking for ways to job-trade so that you can exchange bits of what you do for a living with others that you work with so that both of you are doing more of what you like best about the work. Sometimes it is even just about a change in perspective and saying, "I'm not working overtime right now. I'm funding my trip to GenCon!"

Again, I do this all the time in my gaming. I don't feel the need to describe every mile of the journey to Waterdeep. I purposefully highlight the parts that I know will be most important to my players and myself and leave out the boring parts as much as I can. I'm sure that some of it may still be boring now and then. But it's all about where I put most of the focus.

Dannyalcatraz · Nov 1, 2012

I'm a pragmatic dreamer: my castles in the sky have HUUUUUUGE foundations.

The dreamer in me is why I play instruments and design jewelry. The pragmatic side is a lawyer/mediator/MBA.

tuxgeo · Nov 1, 2012

Adventurer? Most people who know me would call me limited but fairly reliable. The phrase "stick in the mud" has been applied several times.

Risk-Taking: I've been known to take risks that others would describe as foolhardy - but mainly in peaceful activities such as driving, repairing my own car, or climbing rocks, trees, and buildings. ("Come down from there right now!")

My only mountain-climbing was a guided tenderfoot hike up the South Sister (10,000 feet elevation) and back, so that hardly counts. (No rope, just walking.)

Weapon Proficiencies: not now, though I did qualify as "Expert" on the M16 back in 1971. (My M14 badge was worse.) Present-day camping equipment: minimal and unused.

Maybe my real adventuring days are still ahead of me? (Or maybe not.)

paradox42 · Nov 2, 2012

I've never done any competitive athletics before in my life, aside from a brief stint on a high school track team as a sprinter when I was in 9th grade (I'm 39 now, so that was more than 20 years ago).

I have, however, been working out at a gym on my way home from work most nights, Monday-Friday, for the past (almost) six years, because it happens to be a 24-hour gym and also happens to be almost directly on the path I use to get home from work whether or not I go to the gym that night. So I'm in really good shape these days, better than I ever honestly thought I could be back in college.

Earlier this year I did something crazy: I signed up for a Spartan Race. And not a Sprint, one of the 3-mile races they advise beginners to do; I signed up for a Super- one of the longer 8+ mile courses with 20 or more obstacles (mine was about 9 miles long). My goal wasn't to be competitive; this was just my first ONE after all. My goal was simply to finish. My dad, upon hearing I'd signed up for one (and checking out the website and watching a few videos), didn't even think I could do that.

Last Saturday, I proved him wrong by crossing the finish line about 3 1/2 hours after I started. I may have been poorly prepared by wearing the wrong clothes (do not wear cotton; it's guaranteed to get wet and weigh you down), not eating a large enough breakfast, and a few other factors, but by Goddess I finished the thing.

And really, just going through the course was an adventure in itself. They even had a few obstacles that made me think of D&D adventures: the prime example was one mud-pit which had a bunch of posts pounded down into the bottom vertically, with metal mesh on top of the posts so you could gain traction- and you had to leap from post to post to get across. How many DMs and players out there recognize that old saw, eh?

I'm already planning to do more next year, though given my finances I probably won't be able to do very many. Even so: it was crazy, nobody in my family or close circle of friends thought I'd really be able to do it, but I tried anyway- and now victory and glory are mine (with a medal to prove it)!

Mathew_Freeman · Nov 2, 2012

Rel, it's funny you should have replied to my post earlier. Today I'm about to sit down and do the Strength Finder exercise that you recommended for me. I've been putting it off a bit, but this is the time.

I've also got my appointment to get new actors headshot photos next week.

Karak · Nov 2, 2012

paradox42 said:
I've never done any competitive athletics before in my life, aside from a brief stint on a high school track team as a sprinter when I was in 9th grade (I'm 39 now, so that was more than 20 years ago).

I have, however, been working out at a gym on my way home from work most nights, Monday-Friday, for the past (almost) six years, because it happens to be a 24-hour gym and also happens to be almost directly on the path I use to get home from work whether or not I go to the gym that night. So I'm in really good shape these days, better than I ever honestly thought I could be back in college.

Earlier this year I did something crazy: I signed up for a Spartan Race. And not a Sprint, one of the 3-mile races they advise beginners to do; I signed up for a Super- one of the longer 8+ mile courses with 20 or more obstacles (mine was about 9 miles long). My goal wasn't to be competitive; this was just my first ONE after all. My goal was simply to finish. My dad, upon hearing I'd signed up for one (and checking out the website and watching a few videos), didn't even think I could do that.

Last Saturday, I proved him wrong by crossing the finish line about 3 1/2 hours after I started. I may have been poorly prepared by wearing the wrong clothes (do not wear cotton; it's guaranteed to get wet and weigh you down), not eating a large enough breakfast, and a few other factors, but by Goddess I finished the thing.

And really, just going through the course was an adventure in itself. They even had a few obstacles that made me think of D&D adventures: the prime example was one mud-pit which had a bunch of posts pounded down into the bottom vertically, with metal mesh on top of the posts so you could gain traction- and you had to leap from post to post to get across. How many DMs and players out there recognize that old saw, eh?

I'm already planning to do more next year, though given my finances I probably won't be able to do very many. Even so: it was crazy, nobody in my family or close circle of friends thought I'd really be able to do it, but I tried anyway- and now victory and glory are mine (with a medal to prove it)!

This is the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed and awesome.

Dannyalcatraz · Nov 2, 2012

For me, my newest "adventure" is getting away from my practice space and out of my comfort zone to join a guitar circle. It's a small step in some ways, but its in the right direction, and its a tough one for me personally.

(I hate performance- less stage fright than just a profound dislike of the spotlight in any form.)

Scott DeWar · Nov 2, 2012

Until I get A lot stronger, Adventure would be to push the distance I walk, Or a Permanent move to live with my brother and his family, an act that may happen any where from December 2012 to May of 2013. I count this as adventure as I have lived here for 25 years now.

DM Howard · Nov 2, 2012

My adventure at the moment is getting ready to get married while finishing college and trying to find a job.

In terms of finding adventure, sadly many places in the real world don't interest me for some reason because of the fact that places like The Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Airdhe are so much more interesting to me.