(Image credit: ostill / 123RF Stock Photo)
Being express kidnapped in Bolivia? Running out of money halfway through the trip? Having my passport stolen in Amsterdam? No, not even close.
I spent all year worrying about it. It was constantly at the back of my mind niggling away. It ate my soul like an acid, stealing away some of those breath taking moments that only adventure can provide. It was the fear of going back to work.
“Nearly half of those surveyed said they worry about becoming unemployed…”
– Associated Press-GfK poll
Not me. I’d taken 17 months leave from my job and was spending the first 12 of those months travelling the world before going back to Australia to try living life a different way and if it worked out, I’d make the change permanent. At the back of my mind was the fear that things would not work out and that I would have to go back to work. Back to my old job. Back to my old life. And within six months, I’d be back in the same dreary routine with my time off feeling like some distant dream.
It wasn’t that I hated my job. It was just that I had decided I wanted to do something else. I’d actually decided that a while ago but for one reason or another, I had stayed where I was – 10 years with the same company. I’d been unknowingly living my life inside a comfort bubble – living almost entirely by a fixed routine that I knew backwards and it had been slowly sucking the life out of me. I knew ‘how it went’ with my job and my life but there was always an intense longing for something more. Something I could never fully define, which created a degree of uncertainty. And it was my uneasiness with that uncertainty that meant I stayed in my comfort bubble.
…adventure had reignited a fire deep within my soul…
In my time off, I had discovered through adventure a new zest for life, an indescribable excitement and a level of freedom I can’t ever recall experiencing. My adventure had reignited a fire deep within my soul and made me feel alive again – something that the comfort bubble had slowly but surely drained from me over the years. Without even realising it, I had popped my comfort bubble and followed that calling for change with all the uncertainty that went with it. And I was loving it. But this was a holiday – albeit a long one. I wondered constantly, when it came to the crunch, when the 17 months was up, would I go back to my comfort bubble or would I choose adventure?
In the end, after 12 months traveling overseas and a 3 month road trip down the east coast of Australia, I chose to overcome my fear and quit my job. And while my year of adventure had finished, my life of adventure was only just beginning.
Good for you, moving away from that which sucks the life out of you. Woo hoo for popping the comfort bubble, breaking through the drudgery and living an adventurous life. I’m about to embark on a mini adventure, one I’ve wanted to have for a few years now. I’m going to walk the six foot track in the Blue Mountains. So excited.
Thanks for sharing Shannyn. Great to hear you’re ticking an adventure off your list. I just googled the walk – looks fantastic. Have a great time.