Why I love adventure
Welcome to my adventure blog!
Thanks for checking out my first post! To kick us off, I wanted to share my story so you understand why I love adventure.
The adventure life found me 11 years ago when my then coworkers kept coming back from their weekends bruised and cut up, but positively frothing with stories of their weekend adventures.
While I had spent my Saturday shopping or lying on the beach they had gone skydiving, hurtled down mountains at 40 mph on mountain bikes, dove with sharks, and got into all kinds of adrenaline-fueled craziness. It sounded awesome. And I wanted in.
It started with one skydive. But before you expect me to go all cliche and say that I just fell in love with skydiving right then and there…..know that I actually didn’t love the jump. To be honest, I got dizzy sick on the way down and the harness bruised my leg.
It wasn’t the activity that got me excited. It was the feeling.
The feeling of trying something new and not knowing how it was going to turn out. Of being really scared but also excited. Of pushing myself completely out of my comfort zone to be rewarded with an amazing experience.
Since I discovered that feeling I have given myself over to trying all sizes of adventurous activities, everything from micro to epic.
Parasailing, ziplining, paragliding, powered hang gliding, and bungee jumping are some of the adrenaline related activities. You could probably throw swimming with sharks and taking an alligator wrestling class into that category as well.
On the daily, I enjoy running and have done everything from a 5k race, to a Spartan obstacle course race (OCR), to an ultramarathon. SUP surfing and freediving round out the “norm” adventure list.
The crazy thing is that I’m not really “good” at any of these things. I am terrified of heights, an average runner, and fall off more waves than I catch.
The end of a wave on the west side of O’ahu
BUT I love it all. And I have learned so much about myself along the way because adventure can act as the exact opposite of the familiar. When I stepped out of the familiar to challenge myself that is when I grew by leaps and bounds as a person. I have also met cool people, saw amazing sights, and had unforgettable experiences.
And BONUS....the more I adventure the better I conquer at work.
If I have an exciting weekend, then I am completely refreshed for work on Monday. But if I get stuck running errands on Saturday & Sunday, watch out! Cranky pants Monday, here I come.
If you are already a lucky one who gets to adventure full-time - I raise my Dr Pepper to you. Keep livin’ that dream! But if you are like me and currently juggling the adventure life with your business world, stick around because we are also going to talk about that navigating that work/adventure balance.
Basically, you can look forward to lots of fun in Hawaiʻi coming to you soon.
Til next time…adventure on, my friends!
- Nicole