Do you have an everyday adventure spot? A place you can visit any time you need to recharge mentally or creatively? If not, you should, and here’s why. Plus, how you can find your little piece of heaven. Wherever you live.
Why You Need 10 Minute Adventures
When life gets busy — with work, kids, etc. — it’s only a matter of time before you start burning out if you don’t take the time to relax, recharge, and take a deep breath.
And when you burn out, your work quality suffers, your motivation goes in the tank, and you probably aren’t as fun to be around. In short, you’re not the best version of you.
But here’s the problem. The busier you are, the harder it becomes to find time for lots of experiences that recharge you and reset your mind.
So, what do you do? You need adventure. But you don’t have time to adventure. Enter, the 10 minute adventure.
What’s An Everyday Adventure?
When you hear the word adventure, what comes to mind? Big trips, epic scenery, mind-blowing experiences? Sure, those are big adventures. And they’re awesome. But, for most people, those are once-in-lifetime experiences. Or if you’re really lucky, maybe they happen a few times a year.
But what about Wednesday? A normal, random, boring Wednesday. You know, when you’ve got a big work deadline looming. Or Monday, when you’ve been hanging with your kid all weekend — which is super fun — but you also didn’t get to take any time for yourself to do something fun.
I don’t know about you, but that’s when I need an adventure the most.
The reality of life is that it’s long, full of work, and most days are pretty average. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t add a little seasoning to your day. Something that makes the ordinary day-to-day a little better. Like salt. Salt’s pretty simple. It’s in your pantry right now. But it makes just about any dish a heck of a lot tastier.
And that’s what the everyday adventure is. It’s a simple experience that makes the day you’re already having, better. And the easiest way to have an everyday adventure is to have an everyday adventure spot that’s as accessible to you as the salt in your pantry.
How To Find Your Everday Adventure Spot:
Here’s the cool thing. There are everyday adventure spots all around you. You just need to know how to look for them. So to get you started, here’s the system I use when I need to find a new scene for my everyday adventures.
Step #1: It needs to be within 15 minutes of your home or workplace.
Everyday adventures are meant to fit into and around your daily life. So you need to be able to visit this place regularly, just about any day of the week, without making big plans or drastically altering your existing schedule. It’s critical to find a way to have an adventure within the time you’ve got. That might be 10 minutes. It might be an hour.
So for those reasons, limit your options to places within a 5-15 minute walk or drive from home or work. Plus, you should avoid traffic and places with expensive/difficult parking or that require lots of walking from where you park.
Good: Walkable from your location or a short drive with no traffic and easy parking.
Bad: Too far to walk. Requires navigating traffic. Expensive or difficult parking. Lots of walking from where you park to the spot.
Step #2: It should be a place that can be enjoyed in 15 minutes or less.
Again, everyday adventures are meant to fit into your day-to-day life. So ideally, you’re looking for places that can be enjoyed in short bursts. Now, this doesn’t mean you need a place with only 15 minutes’ worth of things to do. For example, one of my everyday adventure spots is a place called Henry’s Woods. I could explore there for hours, but I can also enjoy a 10-minute walk and be very happy. Or, if your place is a coffee shop, 15 minutes is plenty of time to have a quick coffee.
Step #3: It should be a place that allows you to relax and take a deep breath.
This isn’t necessarily a literal requirement. I personally enjoy places that allow me to sit peacefully and take actual deep breaths. Nature is the obvious choice there. But, your definition of relaxing might be a place like a busy street in a cool neighborhood where you’re walking the whole time. Or, a spot you use to go running. Maybe you live in the city and you’ve got a favorite rooftop hideaway.
Get creative. The important thing is that when you’re visiting your adventure spot, you feel calm, stress-free, and leave feeling refreshed.
Step #4: It’s ok to have multiple everyday adventure spots.
In fact, I encourage this. This is just like having multiple spices in your pantry. Sometimes you need garlic powder. Sometimes you need pepper. By building up your library of everyday adventure spots, you’ll have more options to recharge, no matter where your day takes you.
I don’t use the chimichurri much, but when I do, I’m glad I’ve got it.
Similarly, it’s nice to know that I’ve got a place to go explore even if I only have 15 minutes, once a week. Or that when I’ve got an hour free and an itch to explore, I know exactly how to make the most of it.
Good Examples of Everyday Adventure Spots:
No matter where you live, I know you can find an everyday adventure spot or two close by. The three rules I mentioned earlier are principles. So be creative. Don’t be afraid to try a few spots. Because guess what? Finding the spot is one of the best everyday adventures you can have!
But to get you started, you can use this list of prompts to research spots close to where you live or work:
- A quiet park
- A bench with a pretty view
- A local coffee shop
- A local independent shop
- A hardware store
- A lake with a walking path
- Woods
- A creek
- A cool neighborhood
- Tourist spots near me
- Museums near you
- Anywhere with a bridge
- Nature reserves
- Greenways
- Bike paths
- Libraries
Don’t limit yourself to epic views. You might be surprised by how much cool stuff is around you that you’ve never thought to explore.
Here are a couple of examples of everyday adventure spots I’ve had in my life.
When I was working in an office in Madison, WI, I’d go for walks multiple times per week by Monona Bay. It was right next to a favorite coffee shop of mine and 5 minutes from the office. I usually ended up taking a quick photo or two and after a while, I even started a hashtag — #docksofmononabay to document a few of them.
Today, as a stay-at-home dad, my everyday adventure spots include our backyard, a nature reserve by our house, and a bike path around a lake.
When’s a good time to go on an everyday adventure?
Whenever you can! The whole idea of this is to find adventures you can fit into small pockets of time in your life. Ideally, everyday adventures become a habit you engage in regularly. To keep the spice metaphor going, they should be a tool in your life’s pantry.
But, if you need a reminder or are working on building the everyday adventure habit, these are all great cues that you need an everyday adventure.
- You’re feeling bored at work.
- You’re tired.
- You feel burnt out.
- You can’t remember the last time you enjoyed some nature.
- You feel like you need to escape.
- You feel like you need to be by yourself
- You feel stuck on a project.
- You need ideas.
- You feel sad.
- You feel anxious.
- You’re feeling creative.
- You’re itching to do something fun.
Then, pay attention to when you’ve got small pockets of time. Maybe 15 – 60 minutes. It could be before work. In the mid-morning when you need a creative boost. Lunchtime (my personal favorite). Mid-afternoon. On the way home. The weekend. With your kids. With your spouse, your friend, it doesn’t matter.
Summary:
Life gets busy. And you don’t always have time to go on big adventures. But you still need to find time to recharge and reset. So that’s why you need to have at least one everyday adventure spot close to your home or workplace.
Remember:
- Pay attention to when you need an adventure.
- Look for interesting places 10 minutes from your home or work.
- Then look for small openings of time in your day or week.
- Go out and explore. Often.
