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Hello and welcome. My name is John Cassidy Rice. I have the pleasure to be your host for this podcast. The Adventure of Living. Have you noticed just how wonderful life is? Yes, we have our ups and downs but you got to think to yourself, what’s the alternative? Now, what is it that gives life meaning? Well, there’s many things. And one of the areas I’d like to explore for this session would be to look at values.
Values are the things that motivate us. The reason we do what we do is because of our values. They help us judge what’s right and what’s wrong. Values are abstract terms like happiness, fulfillment, and legacy. Each means something different to each of us. So happiness to me means something different than happiness to you. These abstract words give us motivation and meaning.
So what happens if we’re not aligned to our values in a given area of our life? Well, we start to notice a lack of motivation. There is no direction and our energy levels really start to dip and we start to feel there’s no purpose to life or no purpose to our work or to an area of our life. What I really want to do was talk about a particular value that’s often not discussed. We know that happiness is talked about a lot and how important that is and there is, and there’s a lot information around happiness.
So I want to talk about another value, like I said, that’s not often talked about. It’s the value of adventure and just how powerful this value of adventure can be but also how destructive it can be. So I think it will be good to have a working definition of what I mean by an adventure. So let’s see if we can start to define this value of adventure so that we can start to play with this idea. Okay, so I’ve jotted down some ideas. Adventure is the manifestation of oneself, a form of self-expression. It’s innovative. It invents. It’s ingenious. It’s also a coherent evolving pursuit towards a single goal. It involves running risk. Adventure is the first form of self-manifestation. Okay, some lofty ideas. Maybe I spend too much time thinking about it but let me play with this idea of adventure.
So let’s start to build on this. So another way of putting this would be is an expression of oneself in action as well as thought. It’s the creative work, fulfilling oneself as a person. Now, what we do, what we notice when we start to avoid fulfilling oneself and I don’t mean it in a selfish way, just fulfilling ones need, interest, and desires. There’s often a sense of guilt. So this self-fulfillment has a great therapeutic value. So the working definition that I’m applying to the word adventure as a value is greater than the Cambridge Dictionary version which says, “An unusual, exciting or possibly dangerous activity such as a trip or experience or an excitement produced by such an activity.” So again, beyond that meaning, the dictionary meaning and looking at adventure as a value, which we already stated is an abstract term. And as we try to define an abstract term, we can have many different meanings but let’s work on the definition that I have which is the manifestation of oneself, a form of self-expression, is innovative, is in pursuit of a goal, it involves running a risk, and it’s the first form of self-manifestation.
Right, so, what happens when adventure is not fulfilled? So this longing for adventure is stronger than we can suspect. Now, have you ever wondered why somebody who has a successful life, everything is going well for them would start taking drugs, start gambling? Now, this is an expression of that adventure manifesting itself. So we’re strange as humans. We long for things to be safe and predictable. When we feel we have it and we start to feel bored, we start to feel that we’re missing out on life and so that adventure of gambling gives us a risk in a reasonably safe way unless you go too far of it.
Now, drugs is an expression of this adventure but an illusion, an escape of our reality to express that inner self, that inner manifestation. We can see where that can easily go wrong. Also, have you ever wondered when somebody is in a very strong, loving relationship and has probably been in a long term relationship who will have an affair? And it’s not that they don’t love their partner, they do love their partner dearly often. Its life becomes safe and they’re looking to ignite this value of adventure and in this case, being ignited through risk. So start to understand just how powerful this value of adventure can be and how it can affect us and will start enough exploring the downside of it but obviously, we wouldn’t go there first. There seems to be a process to it. We fill our lives with busy stuff and that busy stuff is often the heightened form of dissatisfaction in that area of our life. So let’s see if we can make a distinction between the quality of adventure and the quantity of adventure.
Now, when we fill our life with that busy stuff is often about that quantity of adventure which leaves you wanting more and never satisfied. So for example, some people start this adventure of work and they go into profession because they hear there’s a lot of money to be made in that profession and they get caught up in the cycle of a material adventure. So each year they want a more luxurious car, the newest most expensive phone, a bigger house. Now, I’ve got nothing against money and those things. I enjoy them. What I’m talking about these things replacing a life calling. So you’re filling your life with quantity trying to satisfy this value of adventure and not necessarily quality. So where else do we tap into this sense of adventure? Well, we utilize other people’s imaginations so we get lost in books, we get lost in films, music, hero worship, get involved in sports, fashion, and the list goes on and on. Now, this is the adventure of identification which is quite a normal phenomena and a very valuable social force which is an outlet of adventure. So we started to understand that if the value of adventure is not fulfilled, it can affect us in very negative ways. What if it is fulfilled and we’re living our adventure, our life, would there be examples of those?
Yes. Let’s explore some of those. So various different ways that this value of adventure can be an express. So we talked about it being essential action taking where you’re in a world, a manifesto into the outer world. So somebody like Alexander the Great who created, seek, pursued, and build would be an example of somebody living their quest. A little more than a decade, he singlehandedly changed the nature of the whole ancient world. A single purpose goal drove that behavior, then what if we took Helen Keller who is an agent of sport, an expressive communicator motivator, a powerful woman. She was an author, a political activist, a lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor’s of Art Degree. And the story of how Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by her near complete lack of language has become legendary, a prolific offer and campaign for the rights of the poor and really helped women’s right. And in 1971, she was inducted in the Alabama Wall Hall of Fame. Her adventure is inspiring.
Now, let’s explore somebody who is known as an adventurer. Scott of the Antarctic, Robert Falcon Scott who is 1901 to 1904 which included Ernest Shackleton reached further South than anyone ever did before and when Scott returned to England, he was a national hero and he caught that bug for exploring and began to plan to explore all sorts of places around the world. And words that he would use would probably be words like dream, discover, investigate, scout, risk, and that’s the classic way of knowing adventure.
So another take on how this value of adventure was being lit up in someone’s neurology would be Mohammad Ali. Mohammad Ali singlehandedly changed the way boxing was approached and he changed it psychologically. So for example, he had this skill of planting ideas in people’s minds. So for example, when he was up against Sonny Liston, Sonny Liston was meant to be this monster of a man who would be imprisoned apparently for killing someone else and Muhammad Ali who was Cassius Clay at that point was saying, “I’m going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” and everybody was going this is outrageous. How can we put this young man in this ring with this monster? He’s going to be beaten to death. Now, here’s the thing, when Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay, was saying “I’m going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” he planted this idea in somebody’s mind that he was smaller than he was and lighter and yet if you look at statistics, Cassius Clay was not only taller but had a longer reach. And it’s been said when they got into the right and everybody still going, “Oh, they shouldn’t have allowed this young man into the ring with his monster. He’s going to be beaten. And we must stop it. It’s outrageous.” When they went over to shake hands, Cassius Clay was crunched down. And when they met eye to eye, lifted himself up and was looking down on Sonny Liston who looked up like, oh my word, and there’s many stories Muhammad Ali and his adventures in boxing.
So what we start to notice here is when we’re truly living this value of adventure, incredible things can go on that’s beyond self. The question then becomes is, how can we use this value of adventure for ourselves? Can we create our own adventure that possibly will impact the world but definitely impact us?
Yes, so let’s go back to where we started and recap on our definition of what we mean by adventure in this context. It’s a manifestation of oneself, a former self-expression, so that lends itself to the arts, music, expression. It’s innovative. It invents. It’s ingenious. It’s a pursuit of a goal. Now, it also involves risk and it’s the first form of self-manifestation. Now, as we start to explore this, we start to realize that NLP really supports this adventure.
So let’s take the first one. How do we discover this manifestation of oneself or oneself expression? Now, one of the ways we can do that is to ask ourselves some questions. So what do you enjoy in life? What is it that makes you feel most natural and alive? And that will give you clues of where the adventure naturally lies in your life. So what do you long for? What do you want to be, do, and have? Those are all areas that are potentially areas for adventure.
The other flip side to this is to think of areas of your life where you’re feeling demotivated and maybe you’ve been disconnected to a series of values and one of those key values is the value of adventure in that area. So does self-reflection seems to be key and that is a message when you hear throughout history, that great people take the time to self-reflect. One of the challenges of self-reflection is also that you realize the problems, the challenges you have in your life.
So this leads us onto our next characteristic which is to innovate, to be ingenious. Now, one thing we can guarantee about life is that stuff happens to us. Now, the word stuff is obviously a technical term. You will have problems. You will have situations that seem insurmountable. And you’ve heard the phrase, “If somebody wants to do something, they will find a way to do it.” And this is where this ingenious part of the adventure starts to come into play because yes, there will be challenges in life. It’s what you do about those challenges that matter. Now, I’d like to recommend a book at this point. It’s all about adventure and it will help you understand what we’re talking about overcoming obstacles and it is one of the most widely read books in the world. It is called “Don Quixote De La Mancha.” It’s an incredible book that works on many levels. Essentially, it’s about a deluded man who thinks he’s a knight that goes out on this quest. He has a sidekick who’s there only because he thinks he’s going to be paid. He gives his love to Dulcinea who he never talks to but in the book is a plain maiden in the village because if you’re a knight you need to bequeath your love to someone. And he goes off in this amazing adventure where he comes across a lot of problems. It’s a very funny book and it has many life lessons and one is, that when you set a goal, when you go off on your unique adventure, people around you will think you’re crazy. I’d just like to have a quote from the book where Don Quixote is having this conversation about this sense of adventure and the journey that he’s on and he states, “Whether one wins or loses does not matter.” So what does? “Only that he fights and follows the quest.” The quest. What does you mean quest? The mission we follow to dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe and to never stop dreaming or fighting. This is a man’s privilege and the only life worth living. And it is true. The journey is much more important than the destination.
We next talked about adventure being in pursuit of a goal and it’s true. We are goal-centric beings and if you establish a goal for yourself and you clearly know where you’re heading, you’ll be fulfilled with motivation happiness. In NLP, we have a set of questions that had been modelled from people who consistently achieved their goals. And if you haven’t got a copy of those, I’d like to give you a copy as a gift. So in the resource section of this podcast, you’ll find the wealth and outcome questions.
Then we start to move in to this risk factor. Yes, there is risk in everything we do. There is risk in crossing the road but there is a risk in starting a business, a new job, a relationship, finally falling through in your goals. Take the first step and in taking that first step, you’re on the journey. And like any journey, there’s going to be heartache, there’s going to be problems and challenges along the way but at the same time there’s going to be joy and happiness and fulfillment.
Now, I’m going to recommend another book. So this is the second book I recommended in this podcast and it’s a book that maps out the journey that you’ll take when you start to move towards any goal and it indicates you the ups, the downs, and also the dangers as well as the positives. And again, it’s written by one of the most widely read authors in the world and it is called, “All the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss and it starts off, “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places, you’re off and away. You have brains in your head and you have feet in your shoes, you can stay yourself in any direction you choose.” And then the book goes on, “And it takes you through a journey of ups and downs.” It’s a wonderful personal development book and I highly recommend it. And even though it goes on the ups and downs, it leaves us on a positive note which says, “And you will succeed, yes, you will indeed, 98 and 3/4% guaranteed. Get your move mountains.”
Always we say in NLP there is no failure only feedback. The only way you can get feedback is to take the first step. Now, adventure is that first form of self-manifestation. This is where you design your life. You have the wonderful ability to manifest your inner world into the outer world. And the mechanisms we use for that is our thoughts, our imaginations which triggers an incredible tool to bring into reality your inner world and that’s your body which means get in and take action, do something, do anything but just follow through and do something.
Wow. Once again, we’ve covered a lot in this podcast. So a quick recap. We started to define what are values and we said values are abstract terms. There are things that motivate us. The reason you get out of bed and do what you do is because of your values. There were words like happiness, fulfillment, purpose. And then we started to explore the value of adventure and how it’s often not talked about. And the effect of that is when this valuable adventures not fulfilled, it can have a negative impact on our lives. Yet, when it is fulfilled, it can be incredible. You can leave a legacy that lasts for generations. And then we started to explore how could we put this into practice ourselves from our own definition which was “Adventure is a manifestation of one’s self-expression, is innovative, is in pursuit of a single goal, and it involves running some risk.” And we know that because adventure is the first form of self-manifestation. And a wonderful journey, a wonderful adventure that awaits you is the NLP journey. It is transformational. We’re honored to be part of that but there’s no substitute for taking the live training. So I encourage you to take action, not sit on the sidelines but to go ahead and take your NLP training to the next level. And if you choose to come and do that with us, we would be honored. Keep me informed of your adventures. Keep in touch and I’ll see you soon.
Until next week, John Cassidy Rice.
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