Adventures on the Cheap

I used to travel the world. I've jumped off the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, gone SCUBA diving at the Great Barrier Reef, ridden on ox carts in India, white-water rafted over a 20-foot waterfall, gone cliff-diving in Namibia, kayaked with whales in Antarctica, went swimming in the Amazon river, and explored many a castle in Europe. I've had more than my share of misadventures too.



Since coming back to school full-time a couple years ago, I've had to reign in my adventure budget a bit, but have still managed to have a ton of fun. (Including driving across the US with dad, going to Alaska with my 90-year-old Aunt Ruth, visiting my 50th state, and traveling to Puerto Rico for the first time ever.)

Lifehack has a great post on how to have mini-adventures on a small budget:

Adventures don’t have to be African safari’s, base jumping or flying around the world. The best way to have more fun in life is to reframe what you feel an adventure is. My definition would be something enjoyable, unique and a departure from your routine.

With a simple definition like that, you can start having mini-adventures. They may not amazing tales you can tell over a campfire later, but they can make life a lot more interesting. Better yet it won’t break your bank (or your neck!) to go on them.

Here are a few of my favorite tips from their post:

1. Turn Off Expectations - Your routine is easy to calculate. It is familiar. Adventures are fun precisely because they are impossible to calculate and anything but familiar. If you start trying new things without looking for results you can have more fun.
2. Force Yourself to Try New Things - You aren’t designed to seek novelty. Fear of the unknown is usually a much stronger drive than curiosity. Suppress those fears and drag yourself to try new things. It won’t be easy, but once you cross the first threshold you may discover something you love.
3. Sign Up For Organizations - Organizations are an easy way to try something new. They are easy to seek out, offer new experiences and are usually filled with other uncertain people who can reassure you. Toastmasters, cooking classes, dancing, martial arts and workshops can all offer you a quick way to try something new.
4. Develop an Interest in People - I haven’t seen scientific research on this, but it seems to me that extroverts have more adventures than introverts. My guess would be that extroverts naturally meet more people and develop an interest in them. A side-effect of meeting new people is you get exposed to new opportunities.
5. Unknowledge is More Important - Nassim Nicholas Taleb makes the case in The Black Swan that what we don’t know plays a much bigger role in our lives than what we do. This means we tend to poor at judging events in the future and retroactively explain unusual events. All the more reason to expose yourself to new adventures. Be random, because you probably aren’t good at predicting which will turn out good anyhow.

Follow the link for many more and whatever you do, go out there and try having some new adventures! You just might surprise yourself by how easily (and cheaply) you can expand your horizons and have a ton of fun.

See my previous posts on The Black Swan here, here, and here and read how I've been having a ton of cheap fun just walking around DC.