The Hardest Thing about Adventure

Climbing 10 miles to Hoosier Pass at 11,500 feet. That was hard, but not as hard as walking out the door.

To paraphrase Newton, objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Through work, family, friends, fun and all of the little things that make up your daily life, you develop momentum in a certain direction and stream of activities.

The momentum of normal life poses a sticky steep obstacle to adventure. An obstacle that, if not overcome, means you’ll never even set out the door on your adventure.

I’ve overcome the momentum of normal life to embark on several adventures, to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, bike across America, RV North America, and launch a venture backed startup.

These adventures, while awesome in total, had moments of extreme pain, depression, and terror. They presented obstacles that hurt me and demoralized me, some of which I never thought I’d overcome until I looked back and realized I had done so.

I slogged through mosquito infested swamps for days on end, slept soaking wet in near 0’F temperatures, pushed a busted bicycle down a desolate desert road in 116’F temps, and watched my startup crumble into dust.

That all sucked really, really badly.

Despite all of these difficulties, when I really examine the challenge of adventure, I find again and again that researching an adventure, creating a plan, saving money, setting a start date, and finally heading out the door on the adventure requires the most dedication and perseverance to succeed.

When you first have an idea of an adventure, you’re velocity is essentially at 0 miles per hour. The car is parked in the driveway without any wheels or fuel, and you’re going to have to get it rolling.

At the same time, your life filled with work and family is a van packed full of responsibilities barreling at 100 miles per hour down the highway.

To move towards adventure, you have to start ramping up your velocity on the adventure, making plans, saving money, and buying gear. You must gain some speed to develop momentum that can help carry you towards the first day of adventure.

At the same time, in a parallel stream, you have to start applying the brakes on your normal life, slowly decelerating to 0 miles per hour, exiting your job, buttoning up finances, and making arrangements for your home, cars, furniture or other stuff while you travel.

In orchestrating all of these activities, you have to make sure neither car crashes and burns in a fiery wreck.

I’ve seen more adventures fail here than anywhere else, for good reason. This is not easy to execute.

You have to maintain a high level of excitement and dedication, overcoming hundreds of little deterrents along the way, all of which could put you in the ditch and end your adventure before it starts.

Our goal at Adventure Possible is to help you succeed in this fragile stage.

Built around our concept of the Adventure Possible life, we give would-be adventurers the strategy, tools, and energy to overcome the adventure planning stage challenges so that they can finally walk out the door.