2011 is the time for adventure!

When I think of the word "adventurous," I think of people who I've known who will drop anything and everything to do what I consider highly dangerous things: go trekking in the Amazon, for example. Or bungee jump. Or go on a shark dive. Or parasail.
For the record, I am not one of these people.
But over time, I've come to believe that an adventurous spirit is good for the soul. That it keeps you young. That it makes you feel alive. And so, about ten years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would making an effort to try new things on a semi-periodic basis, just to push my limits and see what I was capable of doing.
Don't worry: I'm not likely to be strapping on a bungee cord anytime soon! But since simply changing my mindset to one which seeks out and embraces new opportunities and experiences, I'm now proud to be able to say:
• I sang for a year with a local Pop-Rock band
• I taught myself to paint (even sold a few paintings!)
• I learned to crochet
• I went scuba diving with dolphins.
Now, you might argue that none of these "skills" would necessarily be life-changing accomplishments. To be honest, when I decided to do each of these things, I certainly didn't have any grandiose plans. But really, the results were never important to me: I didn't care if I actually got good at using a crocheting, or even painting. The point, for me, was the trying. I think so often we get so caught up in the accomplishing, we forget what great merit and joy there is in just the trying. There's something to be said in claiming for you, "I'm the kind of person who would try eating a strange food/learning a new skill/experiencing a new thing." And if, in the process we actually succeed, well, baby, that's the cherry on top!
The other thing that I've found interesting is that adventure begets adventure -- it seems that the more I try something, the more I want to try other things. In fact, recently, I put together a life list of the 50 things I NEED to do before I die. I've had friends tell me that I'm crazy, there's no way that they could do anything like this for fear of not completing them all, but I think that mindset misses the point: The purpose of my list isn't to accomplish everything on it, it's merely a placeholder for things that I might want to try, you know?
In other words, I've come to strongly believe that life is about about living. As George Bernard Shaw said, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." And I think one of the ways we can create ourselves is to go out and see what it is in life that might bring us joy. What it is that we don't yet know might light us up. What it is we might want to experience.
I think we owe this to ourselves, you know?