Don’t Create a Bucket List, Do This Instead…

How to Create an Adventure List – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtV1mb_z99Y

Transcript:
(00:00) what are the experiences that you want to to participate in do you want to go to concerts uh uh with a specific artist do you want to uh do you want to go jet skiing in the Mediterranean do you want to do you want to go skydiving over uh over uh the islands of Hawaii you know what what are the things that that you want what are the experiences that you want to have and the part the important part about these experiences are that that when you think about them that they give you that sense of that that oh factor that I talked about before that
(00:42) sense where excitement and fear both pop up you in you in equal measure that’s the signal that your heart that uh that your heart is saying Eureka and that your brain is saying nope and that’s your signal that you’re pushing beyond your comfort zone those experiences should be pushing you beyond your comfort zone and again when when it comes to those experiences it can’t just be something superficial run it through that test of will I be fulfilled when I look back on this those experiences can
(01:10) be uh can be life-changing hello everyone and welcome to the flow over fear podcast where it is our mission to help you to rise above fear and realize your ultimate potential in leadership and life I’m your host Adam Hill and it is my goal to share with you The Human Side of high performance my guests share their experience with fear anxiety struggle Challenge and most importantly despite all of it how they Rose above it to achieve incredible results so if you’re ready to rise up let’s get started hey
(01:50) everyone welcome to flow over fear and today I want to again talk about Adventure and how to create an adventure list now you may be wondering what an adventure list is and if you have listened to this show before you’ve heard me talk about Adventure being one of the antidotes to anxiety that the more times that we can push past our comfort zones or do the things that really fill us up that push us beyond our comfort zone we can grow we can rise above our fear we can learn to have greater freedom and nothing expands our
(02:23) freedom than doing more of the things that we want to do and so this adventure list is basically your log of ideas for places you want to go people you want to see things you want to do that you want to experience in this wonderful life we have it’s very similar to what is called a bucket list and a lot of people have a bucket list you know the list of things that you want to do before you die my idea is that this is a little bit less morbid uh it’s not about doing more things before you die it’s doing more
(02:53) things while you are alive and it’s a subtle difference but it’s an important difference doing the things that make you feel alive while you’re alive and um getting to those getting to those things too uh as you can and so I call it an adventure list and I call it that because it’s a very very uh specific way of of organizing that uh list and the reason that I put this together I put I put my list together very recently within the last few years and the reason I did that was because I know that I
(03:22) grew up um you know one of the problems that we run into is is we have these ideas of what we want to do in our lives um you know they may be places we want to go they may be these experiences we want to have like going skydiving or bungee jumping and we think about them and they run through our minds and we think about them for a moment we say to ourselves oh wouldn’t that be great wouldn’t that be exciting and then we move on they’re fleeting those wants those desires get lost into the void of
(03:52) the unfulfilled meaning we just we have these things that that we’ve wanted to do and we never get to them because we don’t organiz them they still exist somewhere in the void of our mind of the unfulfilled wants that we have and so the result is sadly is that we could live a life of of regretting the fact that we didn’t get to those things that we want to do um this has happened in my own life where I grew up you know in my early teen and my teens and and early 20s wanting to travel the world I wanted
(04:25) to go see the world I wanted to go to Europe I wanted to see the L I wanted to see uh uh the Mediterranean Sea I wanted to visit all of the ancient cities of the world and and do that that’s always been something that’s fascinated me is that history and all of that kind of stuff and to this to and to this day I still haven’t been to Europe I still haven’t you know been to those ancient cities I’ve traveled more certainly in the last few years than I ever have but I still haven’t done those things that
(04:56) that I’ve wanted to do when I was in my 20s that they told us we should should do and you know while I have a sense of regret about not achieving those things or not not going those places um I also have a sense that now that I know that that I can plan for it that I can write down and be specific about the things that I want to achieve um and this is not just true of travel this was true of of lots of different things I didn’t I I didn’t write down the I I didn’t uh do the Iron Man Triathlon when I first
(05:28) thought about it when I was still you know in the midst of my addiction and my anxiety I didn’t um you know I didn’t I didn’t go to events or concerts or things that I might have wanted to do in the past because I said well now is just not the time or I will get to that later or I will do that someday and again it got lost in the void of the unknown of of the of the unfulfilled you know Jimmy Buffett was fortunately I went to a number of concerts with uh uh uh Jimmy Buffett concerts who I’ve talked about in the
(06:00) past and I’ve even had a podcast episode about about him where I loved going to his concerts but I haven’t been in 20 years and I still and now one of the things is I will never get to go to a Jimmy Buffett concert again unfortunately because he’s passed away but all of that to say that you know we don’t have to live in regret and I don’t live in regret because the thing is I’m still kicking I’m still alive I still have the opportunity I still have many many years in front of me to achieve a
(06:28) lot of the things that I want to achieve and go the places that I want to go and I’m planning on them why because I have an adventure list I don’t have to live a life of regret I could still do those things and I’m excited to actually start doing them and uh so so what I want to share with you is a few of the ways in which you can start to build your adventure list and and the things that you want to incorporate onto that Adventure list um and so first I’ll share the three things that are important to incorporate into an
(06:59) adventure list and they’re important because these are what make the experiences that we want to have worth living and that’s one thing that you want to distinguish between when you’re creating your adventure list and the reason I call it an adventure list and not a things list because it’s a it’s more about the experiences the relationships uh than it is about the things the tangible things there’s a stress test that I put on a lot of the uh on a lot of the items that I put on my adventure
(07:30) um and it comes down to this idea of when I look back on my life when I’m laying on my deathbed what am I looking back on that I was fulfilled that I was happy that I did that I could look back with pride or joy that I did you know um I won’t look back on my life and think man I’m glad I got those six-pack abs man I’m glad I bought that Maserati or things like that you just don’t that that that’s that’s a fleeting desire that’s a t that’s like a a a superficial want right so when you’re thinking about
(08:06) the things that you want or you you want to put on a list of things that you want to achieve make sure you’re running it through that test is if I look back on my life 10 years from now or on my deathbed or whatever that may be will this make me will I feel that sense of fulfillment will it put a smile on my face because the more of those things that you can put on your face the more that you can the more that that you can achieve and so there’s there’s really a few aspects of uh so there’s three
(08:39) really primary things that you want to do when you build this adventure list and and really all of the all the Adventure list is if you’re wondering if you’re still wondering what the heck this thing is it’s just a list of of items a list of things that you want to achieve experiences that you want to have in your life and the reason that writing it out is important is because when we get things out of our head it’s no longer in the void when we organize things in a list and put them down and
(09:09) write them down on paper they become more real they we they they have a sense of power that are taken that is taken from them so that when we look at it when we think about it we think Ah that’s impossible that’s a pipe dreamer that’s that’s something that maybe we can do but if we write it down and we look at it and we read what our hands wrote somehow that becomes more real more tangible more more uh possible and we can look at it and say well what if also the act of writing these things down is really really
(09:43) exciting it I mean just imagine for a moment not just thinking of one idea and then talking yourself out of it but writing down multiple ideas and revisiting them on a regular basis so the three things that are really important to have on your adventure list list the first is is people uh so what are the who are the people that you want to meet who are the people you want to build relationships with and this doesn’t have to be very specific people like you don’t have to say like I want to meet John Shola in a
(10:17) bowling alley in San Fernando Valley now you don’t have to do that um besides I I don’t that that makes it significantly less possible to meet John Travolta in a bowling alley in San Fernando Valley and by the way if you have met John Travolta in a bowling alley in the San Fernando Valley man let me know because that is some kind of serendipity that we need to explore but think about the people that you want to meet think about individuals yes like do you want to meet a president uh do you want to meet the dolly Lama or
(10:47) do you want to experience that person do you want to uh do you want to meet the love of your life do you want to meet your dream man or Dream Woman and describe that person describe that relationship and those people don’t even have to be specific people you could just talk about you can write down what are the type of friendships when I think of a best friend what does that best friend uh uh what does that best friend look like to me not just physically but like in terms of that relationship what is what is the meaning behind that
(11:19) relationship that’s why people are so important because human beings are built for connection regardless of if you classify as an introvert or an extrovert or somewhere in between I happen to consider myself an introvert um because really the only difference between introverts and extroverts is is not that they don’t need connection it’s that you know introverts may be a little bit more selective because we’re more susceptible to to the energy that we’re feeling from specific groups so when we’re
(11:50) introverted we might be feeling the energy pulling from us in certain directions it pulls more strongly but when we have those connections let me tell you they’re strong and so human beings are designed for connection we have to have that human connection so writing down what those connections look like that’s important so think about the people that you want in your life think about the people that you want to meet and and uh and write them down write them down in one column on that on that uh on that Adventure list and then
(12:21) second part of your adventure list is uh places and the places part is really where in the world do you want to go or even if you’re if you’re really thinking a lofty goal uh where out of this world do you want to go maybe it’s space maybe you do want to go to space write it down maybe it’s Mars maybe you can write that down although it’s a little little bit limited on that um but think about the places that you want to go do you want to go to Europe do you want to go to specific places in Europe do you want to
(12:50) go to specific museums do you want to see specific historical sites uh do you want to spend time with a specific uh group group of people in a different part of the world write those down in specific and dramatic detail and that forms the basis of of of what you want to do the more specific you are the more likely you are to achieve it the more you likely you are to plan it if you want to go dine on on the on uh some of the fine cuisine in Waka Mexico where you can you know where you could go to a specific restaurant well then you know
(13:27) that if you want to go to that specific restaurant in ohaka Mexico where you are then you can book a flight from where you’re at to that uh to that Airport Drive to that restaurant and go there that is entirely possible within this life so make those write it down and then you can better be better equipped to make those plans and be extensive about it you know the the point is not that you know it very well may be that you don’t get to all of these items I mean you should not strive for Perfection at anything because
(14:01) Perfection is a limiting belief but but if you write these Adventures down if you write these people these places down the more likely you are that you are to to do it so that when you do look back on your life you can look back with that pride and saying that you did much more in your life than you ever would have if you didn’t if you didn’t get organized about it and that’s the important part is getting getting organized about it and then the fin piece of the puzzle uh the final thing that you want to write
(14:31) onto your adventure list is the experiences part what are the experiences that you want to to participate in do you want to go to concerts uh uh with a specific artist do you want to uh do you want to go jet skiing in the Mediterranean do you want to do you want to go skydiving over uh over uh the islands of Hawaii you know what what are the things that that you want what are the experiences that you want to have and the part the important part about these experiences are that that when you think about them that they
(15:12) give you that sense of that that oh factor that I talked about before that sense where excitement and fear both pop up you in you in equal measure that’s the signal that your heart that uh that your heart is saying Eureka and that your brain is saying nope and that’s your that you’re pushing beyond your comfort zone those experiences should be pushing you beyond your comfort zone and again when it comes to those experiences it can’t just be something superficial run it through that test of will I be
(15:41) fulfilled when I look back on this those experiences can be uh can be life-changing you know for for me one of the greatest experiences that I that I went after something that Lit me up something that gave me that old moment was pursuing the Iron Man triathlon uh a couple of the experiences that I have now going forward in my life are to play cello in a major Symphony Orchestra in in a major city symphony orchestra or to uh um or uh there there’s and there’s a lot of other or or to learn to play the piano uh like a
(16:18) virtuoso or to learn to play specific instruments those are things that really fill me up and when I look at them they prompt me to make a move in that direction and so these three typ of things these people places and experiences you could look at it from a number of different uh number of different lenses and here are the lenses in which you want to look at that a what fills me up what fills my cup um you know what fills your cup when you when you want to pursue these what that that’s how you want to kind of shape
(16:48) this and the other is how am I contributing this is an important part because our satisfaction or fulfillment is highly grounded in how we serve and how we contribute to the world uh it can’t just all be about us and so yeah the adventure part is is all is about how we get filled up but often times we get filled up in the way that we serve and the way that we contribute so one lens one frame of mind of how to look at this list how are you serving how are you showing up how are you contributing in the world and it may be like you know
(17:26) putting some putting things on there that that talk about how you are going to a specific part of the world and maybe contributing there serving in some capacity there are you are you uh are you able to support a cause like a Habitat for Humanity in some of the cities that you want to visit in the world are you able to uh to volunteer at a food uh a Food Kitchen or homeless shelter or orphanage in some of these areas that you might be visiting how can you contribute in these parts of the world that you want to visit how can you
(18:07) contribute to the people component that you want to meet how can you add value to to some of those people on that list that may contribute to your ability to meet them and build a relationship with them um how can you bring more value to the experiences that you have while you while you do them it’s it’s a really I mean it’s a really valuable way to bring more meaning to it and to hold yourself accountable I’ll share something about this that I don’t I don’t share very often but um but I share for the
(18:41) purposes of this this specific topic because it’s it’s relevant and that is that you know during my first Iron Man I I chose to race on behalf of three different charities during that during that uh during that race Compassion International feeding America and um and uh oh the third one always Escapes Me Oh uh Alex’s Lemonade Stand which is uh children with cancer um it’s a it’s a fund for children with cancer and we um and and the reason I did that was because a I didn’t want to just do this
(19:19) activity for myself I wanted to make sure that as I was doing this I was contributing in a meaningful way and what I found was that in doing that it held me accountable to actually uh seeing that thing through seeing that experience through so that I I did my first Iron Man so contributing adding value you know uh doing something for charity or or or serving in some capacity can actually hold you accountable to participating in that activity and also it amplifies the experience to the point where you’re bringing other people in and you’re able
(19:56) to look back on that experience with so so much pride so much joy so much fulfillment that it transcends and surpasses the idea of just I want six-pack abs significantly so how can you contribute within those things another element of these three things that you can amplify the experiences is is to is to see how you can incorporate the people the places and the experiences into the same into the same thing maybe you can see a concert in Europe where the president is attending and you get to and you get to meet the president
(20:34) at this event that’s like that brings it to a whole other spiritual level when you when you do that so the point is is that when you can actually write these write these Adventures down people places experiences you have them on a list you have them organized and you think of a way in which you can bring service or contribution to those experience experiences on that Adventure list and you can maybe even combine them your life actually Builds on a spiritual level because you are you are expanding your comfort zone
(21:11) you’re living a life that is more free and you’re giving more to the world and I think that that’s really what what God in his you know Superior guidance really wants for all of us we just have to want it we just have to do it we have to be the ones to participate in that and if you can do that if you can implement the tools of you know if you can implement the tools of personal development outside of this list like you know you can improve your mindset you can you can do all of the uh all of the things to make yourself believe in
(21:44) yourself which you should be believing in yourself because you are abundantly capable of achieving anything that you want to put your mind to if you can do that if you can f if you can implement the tools of personal development and as you rise above your fears using the principles that I’m sharing on this podcast and elsewhere I mean you can you can you can put your focus intentionally on putting one foot in front of the other on these tasks on knocking every one of these Adventures off your adventure list and bringing more value more
(22:21) contribution more service to the world in the process if we all can do that think about how better of a world we can live in and how more fulfilled we each can become if we pursue the adventures that fill us up and take care of each other in the process doesn’t that sound amazing doesn’t it sound incredible to have your own adventure list what if you put that Venture list together today the people the places the experiences that you want to achieve put that together and then when you uh and then as you put that together
(22:57) as you spend some time with that as you as you look at it take a look at it on a weekly basis and then on a quarterly basis on a quarterly basis every 90 days during your vision reflection Retreat if you’re doing that I highly encourage that you do that during your vision reflection Retreat revisit it modify it add to it look at what you’ve knocked off and then make plans to to uh to maybe tackle some of those new ones in the next quarter or the next year but plan it after you put that Venture list together on a quarterly basis put plans
(23:32) together on the on the steps that you’re going to take to go after any and all of those Adventures but make sure that you’re deliberate about it don’t overwhelm yourself with it but like I on a quarterly basis what I do during my vision reflection Retreat is I’ll look at the ones that I was able to accomplish over the previous quarter I will check them off and then I will look at the ones that I’m able to maybe pursue or again pursuing in the next quarter and Mark my and put some of my goals my 90day goals around that like if
(24:05) I want to learn the piano right I can put on there you know practice piano 10 minutes a day just or or practice piano uh three days a week for 10 minutes a day little small steps will get us in that direction and that’s really how we achieve our adventure list so are you going to put together your adventure list today I hope you do because it will lead to more fulfill and you’ll be able to look back on your life as you continue to live it you’ll expand your comfort zone and you’ll look back with so much joy and so so much
(24:38) fulfillment at what you’ve accomplished in your life so I hope you’ll pursue putting together Your Own Adventure list and I look forward to seeing you next time thanks for joining me hey everyone Thanks for tuning in to the flow over fear podcast if you’d like to learn more about getting into flow and learn the foundations of flow I have a free video series on my website at www.
(25:04) adamclick hill.com called the foundations of flow feel free to go there and download it and start your journey to Rising above fear and achieving greater flow in your life if you like this episode and I’m guessing you did if you stuck around for this long then please do me a favor and hit the Subscribe button and you will receive notifications when I have new interviews new Recaps and new trainings that pop up on YouTube thanks again for joining us