By Sam Makhoul
Have you ever wondered why some people just can’t get out of bed some mornings? Well, the real reason is that their mind and body can predict what is going to happen that day.
Most of us think that lacking drive comes from not having compelling goals and dreams but that is half the equation. You can still have a purpose but lack passion.
Why? We all experience life through our five senses and when we repeat the same things every day, we get caught in a negative feedback loop where the five senses send a message from the body to the brain and back again that “this is another mundane day”.
Consequently, our energy dims. When our five senses experience the same thing every day, they become too familiar with the known.
People call that their comfort zone when in reality it is their dead zone. It is where their five senses go numb.
But when we have variety and adventure in our life, our senses come alive. They are stimulated – we too then come alive and experience living with passion and excitement.
Remember the last time you woke up excitedly looking forward to something? An excursion, a holiday, a new job or business.
It’s because you knew that something unexpected was going to happen. Why do we watch sport? Because something unexpected is going to happen.
Or go on a new date, or to a concert. Visit a new restaurant, see a new movie or read a new book?
Make a new friend, develop a new strategy, use a new software program, to take a new route? Whatever gets us into new territory. Imagine living with that sense of excitement and adventure every day.
If you can’t or don’t want to imagine it? Maybe it is because you are trying to control every outcome in your life.
The comfort zone is also a zone of safety, familiarity and well, comfort. Ultimately, we retreat into our comfort zone because we fear getting hurt.
Every time we try and control outcomes in our life, we are giving up our greatness and wasting precious time on this earth. It takes fearlessness to experience living because there is a difference between being alive and living.
“Being alive is an opportunity to live. It is not living.”
Below we highlight how the sense of adventure is impacting some individuals ability to not be able to get out of bed in the mornings.
Adventure:
Living a life where we bounce out of bed every day can only happen when we have a sense of adventure in our life. Adventure is what takes us outside our comfort zone and exposes us to new opportunities for growth.
Adventure is how we practice fearlessness. The adventure leads to living because when we try something new we are stepping into unknown and unfamiliar territory.
When that happens, our body’s five senses are stimulated. For example, when we travel to another country, our senses are stimulated by new experiences.
It may be the aromas of exotic herbs and spices, seeing new sites, feasting on new food or hearing new music from another culture. Or feeling snow or sand between our fingers.
Our senses crave all such experiences. But we should never wait for holidays to feel that sense of adventure.
Every day is an opportunity for adventure. When you do something new in each of the eight areas of life daily, your five senses get stimulated and you will feel alive.
New sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch. Most of us can drift aimlessly in the eight areas of our life because we are not living consciously.
We wake and hit the repeat button every day. So, our challenge to you this week is to ask yourself:
- What new adventures can you try every day this week, using the eight 8 elements of life as your guide?
- What new things can you do?
- Or what old things can you do in a new way?
