Be Adventurous - safety isn’t an option
Okay, it's a weird world. (Weird as in the Anglo-Saxon for unknowable) Some days nothing it seems is certain and no one seems reliable. As individual where does that leave me? As company how do we assure ourselves about the future.
It seems sensible to hunker down and wait until it is all over whatever "it" is. Build ourselves and metaphorical snow cave and slide into it as the temperature drops and darkness falls. Play safe, conserve, avoid, restrict and then all might, in some unfathomable future, be well.
But perhaps there is an alternative way of facing this weirdness. By being more adventurous paradoxically we may be best at protecting ourselves. When Darwin spoke of ‘survival of the fittest’ he mostly meant the ‘the most adaptable’ not ‘the strongest.’ Playing safe in a rapidly evolving world may not be the best adaptation. To not play safe is to be adventurous.
But our minds may be set against adventure. For too many of us have been shaped by the world to be the dependent part in a kind of master servant-relationship. Through childhood through school through work through life we have been encouraged to think that if we fit in, do what is expected of us and accept being told who we are that, that in return, we will be offered survival, protection and some level of comfort. Implicit in this damnable offer is that someone knows better, someone has more resources and that someone is responsible for what is happening to us. But that relationship broke down years ago and anyway is impossible in a weird world. So how do deal with the world in which we can't rely on very much? By being adventurous.
In my treks through life, across frozen lakes Ontario, the Namibian Bush, the Benton Mackay trail of Georgia, Tennessee and New Mexico, from the Atlas Mountains to the desert, I have often pondered on whether they were truly adventures or not. I rather whimsically created some criteria for what would make an adventure to test them.
An adventure requires
most of the time you would not know where you were sleeping that night.
there should be a little frisson of potential extinction going on and you personally have to make sure that doesn’t happen,
and thirdly though you might be walking forward you should have the greatest sense that something unexpected is coming toward you.
On that basis, although tough and extremely challenging Namibia and Ontario weren’t really adventures – someone else was in charge and my responsibility was to fit in and be guided. The trek from the top of the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara desert and the Benton Mackay were in that what happened to me was heavily influenced by me!
Overall it's the sense of uncertainty, the sense you are going to be tested in some way and that you relish taking responsibility for this, that seems to be at the heart of adventure rather than just a sense of danger.
Implicit then in being adventurous is the idea of readiness. Perhaps you can look for adventure but just as much you can put yourself in adventures way let it come to you and be ready for it. It's like the harvest, you can't hurry it but you can be ready for it.
My old friend, psychologist Dr Michael Apter saw it this way. There is a dangerous edge, a metaphorical cliff edge to the way we see ourselves operating in the world. Beyond the edge we imagine trauma, disaster and oblivion. Some distance from that edge we can feel safe.
We manage the uncertainty by distancing ourselves from it. However between that safe zone and the dangerous edge is a space we might call the confidence zone. This is the feeling/knowledge that we will be able to cope or even thrive in this weird/uncertain situation. The more confident we are the more we can approach the dangerous edge. In fact we might even enjoy dealing with it, replacing anxiety with excitement and relishing a sense of strength and competence.
Operating in this confidence zone is something that the master-servant relationship has undermined. I am often told that people don’t like change. This is simply not true even the most stuck-in-the-rut, looks for variety and the novel. What people don’t like are ambiguous situations in which they feel they have precious little control or influence ie they feel ‘unready’ to deal with it.
Mobilising ourselves and others to be more adventurous is a vital response to a weird world.
In the time of Covid this may seem rash. Surely but we need to do is play safe till it's over? Of course we need to take care in terms of contacts with people but overall we have seen for those with confidence Covid has been a catalyst for adventurous innovation and breakthrough thinking. And there are many psychological reasons and practical ones why the ‘safe zone’ maybe false comfort. The dangerous edge may be moving towards us, the safe zone may be a false one and we have learned nothing about the true nature and potential of the weirdness.t all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.