We Need to Explore!
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
H. Jackson Brown Jr. (P.S. I Love You)
Our brains thrive on exploration. The difference of a situation, the excitement of a new experience. It is mind-blowing to think of all the wonderful places to go, things to do there and stories you’ll have. So why are you still sitting there?
Actually sitting there is perfectly fine. I am still sat here right now, and you are there and we are both exploring. I am exploring new ideas and thoughts that have developed in my mind and processed through my own experiences, and I am making them concrete in the hope that they may reach just one person and help them to value this beautiful life they have.
When we explore our brain is being given new information from a different sources, a different version, with different examples and it is not the same old way of doing things!
The quote above always makes me smile. It is not the big mistakes I make, the embarrassments I suffer or hurt and pain I feel from all the things I have done that cause me pain, rather it is all the adventures I have been on, the things I have seen and people’s lives I have been a part of that have me fuelled onwards.
If I am that disappointed that I didn’t do something in 20 years time, I can only blame myself. No one else! I either do something or don’t. Remember the “5-Second Rule for Courage“, or how “Routine is Killing You“, all these are ideas which should be making you want to live this life to the full.
I mean full in your own way though! Not in an adrenaline junkie off the wall way (although that might be for you), or in a quiet modest librarian researcher way (as that too is exploration) – I mean in YOUR way!
You don’t need to go on a long trip, or wallow around in the mud, you just need to explore new areas in life. Try a new hobby, have a coffee in a different cafe each weekend,
or go to a poetry night and sit in the back and listen.
You cannot live my experience and I cannot live yours, each is completely unique to each one of us. It is that uniquess that allows us to share with others though. To tell them stories and explain feelings that they may not have understood or realised.
How will you explore the next thing in life? Is it trying a new recipe with new herbs that you have never heard of and don’t know how to cook? Or is it taking up choir signing or joining the popular app Meetups and seeing what group you can be a part of in your local neighbourhood. Maybe it is just finding out about Geocaching and going out with the family or your partner to look for a little buried treasure.
You have to do it in your way, and only you can do it too. Oh, and it WILL REQUIRE EFFORT! You will not feel like doing it, you will need to push yourself to get started, but once you do – whoa, there is a whole lot of exploring to do.
If the effort is what puts you off, try to think of the alternative – You require effort to keep doing the same things you do each day. The only difference between the two – One is comfortable and the other isn’t always.
Like being part of a group. You may be part of one now, and it is easy to keep going because you know all the rule and the way you can approach people. You did the whole meet and greet and everything is just fine.
Going to a new group requires you to again get out of your comfort zone. To be the Newbie, to have to say hello again. The realisation though is that the old types of experiences offer very slow change and the new ones open new doors that you were not aware of.
You will find that with each new exploration, new ideas and places appear to come from out of nowhere and they then need exploring. There is no limit, no end, and with the fascination you had as a child you begin to develop the lust for living again.
Don’t settle for acceptable and be “sort” of happy. Rather keep it moving and keep it vibrant. Be sure to Act Anyway, as exploration comes by acting!
Maurice
