Remember those choose your own adventure books? Where you would get to the bottom of the page and it would give you two different options where you had to choose which page to get to next? I used to love those. Deciding my own path was always fun (unless it involved randomly falling in quicksand, which somehow happened to me in those books more often than I’d like to admit).
I used to think those books were so interesting and abstract since the situations were definitely other worldly (see quicksand example above). But the truth is, they’re pretty darn applicable to real life.
I’ve talked about this before, but happiness is a choice.
I’d like to think of happiness as something more glamorous than that, but it’s true. Happiness is not just something that happens to you; it’s something you bring into your life.
Once I realized that, I really took control of my choices because I knew every single one was important. I could choose to wallow on the couch and think about the things I should be doing, or I could choose to get up and actually do something. It really is just that simple.
Over the past year or so, I’ve decided to view problems or issues or detours in my life as adventures, and it’s really changed my mindset. “Adventure” makes everything sound more exciting, and it doesn’t have an automatic negative connotation, at least to me. It can turn almost any situation into a positive one as long as you try.
When my sister and I were driving to a family gathering back in December, we missed a turn about three different times. Instead of choosing to be frustrated, we joked about how we were just going on an adventure by taking the scenic route, and it turned into a positive situation.
Seriously, life is an adventure and it should be called that. Instead of choosing to get derailed by little bumps or turns in the road, choose to see those as opportunities or little adventures.
Life happens, man, whether you’re ready for it or not. Choose to live your life as best you can while you can, and I promise it’ll be an adventure worth remembering.
How are you choosing your own adventure in your life? If you thought of your life as an adventure rather than something you have to just get through, what would you do differently?
