This past week has been one big adventure in my life and after a week of numerous public speaking engagements, several board meetings, two black tie events, and hardly any sleep, I just got home. It’s near midnight and I still need to prepare a powerpoint presentation for another speech I am giving tomorrow morning at a University and I still need need to write my blog…yikes!\u00a0 So imagine my joy when I got a text as I came in the door from my 24 yr old son Dalton saying “Check your email” which led me to discover he’d written a blog post for me tonight because he knew I was totally and utterly exhausted… #blessed So enjoy tonight’s post courtesy of Dalton Anderson (aka the best son ever!):<\/p>\n
Adventure Is Out There<\/span><\/p>\n I present a challenge to all who are brave enough to accept. Next week, take a different route during your daily routine than you normally would. That\u2019s the challenge. Easy right? Here\u2019s why. It\u2019s common practice to create a daily ritual as we go about our routine business. I\u2019m no scientist, but I believe it\u2019s because we already experience a lot of foreign and challenging experiences on a regular basis that we need to create a feeling of normalcy in order to handle whatever life throws at us. Think about the route you take to get to work each day. I\u2019m guessing the same everyday, and that you can even predict where the traffic is, when the lights turn green, and you\u2019re probably convinced you\u2019ve found the \u201cfastest\u201d route. It\u2019s common to buy groceries from the same store, sit in the same spot for school or church, and even go to the same place for an annual vacation. These traditions and routines aren\u2019t a bad thing; I myself am known to eat at the same restaurant in Snowville, Utah every time I drive to Idaho to visit family, so I\u2019m not attacking or passing judgments about routines and traditions.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to incorporate some adventure into the days and weeks. I find myself in ruts too often, where it feels like nothing exciting is happening and I want life to shower me with adventure. I\u2019m young, but I know that\u2019s not how it works. I\u2019ve found that you can create your own mini-adventures by simply switching minor routines. It\u2019s less noticeable if the change is taking a right at the stop sign to get home rather than going straight, but it\u2019s still a change. I like to switch it up and rely completely on public transportation for a day. That\u2019s bound to provide some adventure. I\u2019ve missed trains, chased down buses, and even had to \u201ctram-hop\u201d my way to my destination by using junction points to make it to the right place. I\u2019ve also opted to walk a few miles home rather than find a ride, just for the experience of walking a route I\u2019d normally drive. Even though it\u2019s only small changes, I feel like I\u2019m having an entirely new experience and trying new things, and I get a nice dopamine boost.<\/p>\n The challenge is simple:\u00a0 Take an altered route in your daily routine, whether it\u2019s driving a different way, or using a varied transportation method, or even shopping somewhere else just to give it a try. Experiment until you feel like you\u2019re having a new experience. The goal is to be able to achieve the same objective through new means. Doing this will help you see in the world through a new lens, giving you fresh perspective. Maybe it won\u2019t change a thing and instead you should really consider something drastic like sky diving or deep sea spear fishing. But hopefully what this activity does is create an opportunity to get slightly out of your comfort zone, all the while getting a different taste of regular life. I apply this little game to a lot of my daily routines, like changing the way I get ready in the morning, the activities I do in my spare time\u2014 and my personal favorite\u2014 how I get to and from work each day. The point is, make an adventure of your life, and do it by creating opportunities wherever you can. In the words of Ellie Frederickson, \u201cAdventure is out there!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 (post by Dalton Anderson, filling in for his Mom \ud83d\ude42 ).<\/p>\n Have a great weekend everyone!<\/p>\n ~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past week has been one big adventure in my life and after a week of numerous public speaking engagements, several board meetings, two black tie events, and hardly any sleep, I just got home. It’s near midnight and I still need to prepare a powerpoint presentation for another speech I am giving tomorrow morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15559,15568,395,1819,3005,970,15570,15569,15572,15571,8527,179,3599,4078,15562,15560,15579,3728,15578,15573,15577,1820,15567,15576,692,6343,11868,15564,15563,15561,12673,15574,15575,25,2705,15566,15565],"class_list":["post-8609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adventure-is-out-there","tag-alternative","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-bored","tag-boring","tag-challenge","tag-change-in-routine","tag-consider-something-drastic","tag-create-adventure","tag-create-your-own-adventure","tag-daily-routine","tag-dalton","tag-dalton-anderson","tag-dalton-rollin-anderson","tag-deep-sea-spear-fishing","tag-disneys-up","tag-dopamine-boost","tag-habit","tag-just-for-the-experience","tag-make-things-interesting","tag-minor-routine","tag-mix-it-up","tag-mix-things-up","tag-normalcy","tag-opportunity","tag-predict","tag-predictable","tag-same-ol-same-ol","tag-same-ole-same-ole","tag-sky-diving","tag-stuck-in-a-rut","tag-switch-your-routine","tag-take-an-alternate-route","tag-tradition","tag-traditions","tag-variety","tag-variety-is-the-spice-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8609"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8615,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609\/revisions\/8615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}