My wife, Lauren and I coined this term in the lead up to our 102 day, 1800km unsupported walk across the Australian Outback with our one year old daughter Morgan (yep you heard that right…one year old daughter – click here for a video).
Over the past 17 years I have been lucky to have made a life and career out of adventure and have been applying this expedition mindset to some pretty big journeys. From the first kayak across the Tasman Sea, to 3 months down in Antarctica completing the first unsupported return South Pole expedition and most recently the Outback expedition.
Some really Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
But if you rewind 18 years to year 12 in school I was the last person you’d think was likely to named one of Australia’s Top 50 explorers of all time or have two Guinness World Records under his belt.
In my teens, I suffered from a massive lack of confidence and let others, and societal expectations, chart my own path. Study hard, go to University, get a good job, settle down, buy a house, have 2.3 kids and get them to repeat the process.
Follow the predetermined path. PLAY IT SAFE.
It was adventure that saved me from a life of mediocrity. It is the Adventure Thinking mindset that’s helping me settle down differently.
In a fast paced, modern world, companies and individuals vie for that ‘unique edge and offering’ that will set them apart from crowd. An edge that is impossible to find whilst treading the most traditional path. To find it, one needs to blaze their own trail.
Adventure is an activity with an unknown outcome. It is intensely personal.
Adventure is about pushing human boundaries in all areas of life and is not exclusive to a mountaintop or Antarctica. It can be on the sporting field, in theatre, in business, in whatever you as an individual or organisation are passionate about. It’s a function of your desires, experience, situation and environment and its meant to push your limits.
Our growth and development in life is directly correlated to the challenges that we face. It is only when we push against the boundaries of what we are capable of, do we realise that we have room to grow. It’s not until we challenge the impossible that it can become the status quo.
Adventure and these world first expeditions have taught me a myriad of lessons from the importance of risk mitigation, collaboration, being present, the need for resilience and adaptability, amongst others but the greatest lesson that it has taught me is that we, as humans are infinitely capable of so much more than we think we are.
We just need to give ourselves the opportunity.
6 tips on how to apply an Adventure Thinking to everyday life
- Stay curious – Invite exploration. Adopt a growth mindset. Try something new, stay open, observe, keep learning.
- It’s not failure, it’s information. If you learn something from things that go wrong, it’s not actually a bad thing.
- Don’t be scared, be aware. Acknowledge that fear and excitement are very similar feelings. Let them sharpen your senses and decision making.
- Find and follow your passion and purpose. Do what makes you feel alive.
- Be like water. Adapt to the situation you’re in.
- Trust in yourself and your team. It’s only impossible until its possible.
Justin Jones - otherwise affectionately known as Jonesy, is Australia's pre-eminent modern day Explorer, keynote speaker, adventure thinker and storyteller.
Over the past 17 years he has made a career of undertaking huge, epic, record setting expeditions around the world and sharing these on the stage and the screen.
From the depths of a blizzard in Antarctica, to the terror of 10 metre waves towering above in a storm at sea and the suffocating heat in the heart of the Outback. He currently holds two Guinness World Record and a place as one of Australia's 50 Greatest Explorers of all time.
