Exploring, discovering, getting lost, and find your way can be rewarding in all areas of life. It's fun, exciting, adventurous, challenging, and refreshing. Even when you find yourself in places you wouldn't have planned, you can still see, hear, and learn something to take with you.
In all places, with all people, you can have an experience that resonates with you for your entire life. This can be random encounter or planned outings. It could be from a deliberate trip, or a lost way. The way you approach and accept these mysteries will influence how you respond and what you take away with you.
For several years, I was fortunate to be able to travel for work. I could find a job in almost any area, and sign a contract for three months. After that, I was free to move to the next place.
I was able to search different areas of the country, and find myself in environments I wanted for each season. I never knew anyone in the area I was going, but I knew I had a job, and I could find somewhere to live.
Three months in an area was both great and difficult. I always had new areas to explore and sights to see, but I often had to do things on my own. By the time my three months was up, I finally knew where I wanted to go and who I wanted to go with. That was about the time I had to pack up and move along.
When I first started this traveling job, I found it to be intimidating and even scary at times. I knew though that I wanted to make a strength of my weakness. I knew that by forcing myself to go out into unknown territory, without personal connections, and sometimes without a place to live, that I would be able to learn and get better at being independent.
After several years of maintaining this lifestyle, I forgot how much I've learned, how far I've come, and how comfortable I became. Packing up and changing locations, houses, jobs, and friends was just a normal part of my life. This became what I knew.
Finding new places, new things to do, and new people to meet became easy. Having the freedom to pick up and go wherever I wanted made everyday and every season exciting. This includes finding new mountains, new resorts, and new trails.
I think all outdoor athletes like to see what's over there. They like to find something maybe no one has ever seen. The look for treasures that others have missed. It's part of what makes being outdoors so exhilarating. The things we can encounter, we couldn't ever imagine.
When you're finding new ways to get places, you are training your mind to think about other options. When you are going to unknown areas, you are training your mind to be curious and inquisitive. When you are looking for something but you don't know what, you are training your mind to be alert, observant, and responsive.
Our mind wants to explore. It wants stimulation, and challenges, and problems, and awe. We want to have things to solve and figure out. We want to feel accomplished and successful.
We can practice these skills with satisfying adventures. We can road trip to a destination, meet new people, or take new paths. The mystery and the intrigue keep our minds engaged. Finding out the answer to our questions is highly rewarding and pleasurable to our brain. It's what it wants to do.
When I'm out on a new mountain, I want to get familiar with my terrain. See what major routes go where, find out how each slope feels, and get the views in all directions. After getting the overview, I want to focus in on details. I use the knowledge of what I've explored and seen, and I pick a new area to dig deeper into. This might be trying several trails off the same lift, trying the trees between two trails, or repeating a trail to find all the bumps and hits along the way.
The more I explore the environment I'm in, the more rewarding it is. It keeps me present, focused, and aware. These are feeling that relax and satisfy, and I find that everyone craves this, even if they don't recognize it.
Finding what stimulates your mind to feel it's best is an adventure only you can take. Find something you enjoy, then take away the rules and restraints you had with it. Allow yourself to freely explore the possibility before you. Having the choice to choose your happiness is a great gift we have. Treat yourself kind and give yourself the gift. #snowbeastperformance
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