If you are reading this you are probably the type of person that loves adventure and exploring the world. 

I’m guessing you love trying new things, opportunities for personal development and challenging yourself. 

The problem with this, or at least it is for me, is that it’s possible you are a bit addicted.

The more we experience life and the world, the more we want to see and feel. The more we are scared and excited and thrilled, the more of that we crave. Experience is an addiction, one that means we can find ourselves always striving for the next one and the next high. Because of this, sometimes, experiences lose their potency and we struggle to appreciate the simple things in life.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t strive for new, exciting experiences, how could I? They are so good for us! But I think we should check ourselves occasionally. Perhaps clarify why we are choosing to do these things and make sure we haven’t devalued the quieter, less adrenalin pumping elements of our lives.

After a year of persistent adventuring, I have come to realise that not adventuring can be just as important as adventuring. That the contrast is vital to achieving true appreciation of the adventures themselves.

If, like me (last year), you roll from one amazing experience to the next without a breath in between, it’s easy to lose sight of what it is you are doing. There is no time to get excited (only stress about the organising) and limited time to reflect.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself, but I am not sure I appreciated them as much as I might have done if I had only one challenge scheduled that I had been looking forward to all year.

Another side effect of experience addiction is that our expectations for life in general often become that much greater, our desires that much more desirable.  Potentially reaching levels that are unobtainable or unrealistic, and often this comes with a significant amount of anxiety and a self-induced pressure to achieve more in life.

The extraordinary becomes ordinary, ordinary becomes boring and boring becomes insufferable.

I’m not sure if you can ever really undo this damage, the pandora’s box of life experience has been opened and, once opened, it’s next to impossible to close. You are a go-getter, you know what is out there and you want more of it.

Could you ever truly change your mindset, reduce the breadth of your world and the bar you have set yourself? I don’t think so, and if you can manage the addiction, then why should you?

So, I think the mitigation is to make yourself aware of the danger, pause your experience seeking occasionally and remind yourself that, despite the Instagram barrage, most people are sat behind their laptops working quite hard.

You won’t be able to pause for long anyway (you’re addicted remember) but hopefully you can pause just long enough to reground yourself so that you can feel fulfilled by the smaller, simpler things in life.

You might even appreciate your next incredible experience that much more.