Ep 14 - Adventure, Finding Yourself and Comfort Zones

Our guest on today's episode might sound familiar - that's because he's our voice over guy. Adam, or Burnsey as he's more affectionately known, was a part of our team in 2016-17, before departing on a world-wide trip with his wife, Jade. Not only are they heading overseas, but they're finishing their jobs to live abroad for 14 months.

A key inspiration for Adam is to live in the present. He shares that throughout his life, he's just gone through the motions, moving from one thing to the next. It's easy to do. For Adam and Jade, their trip is an opportunity to take time away from the busy-ness of work and study and be present to one another and to others.

There's a lot of different reasons to travel. Many young people embark on a gap year. There are thousands of travel blogs and Instagram accounts detailing people's travels. It's common for people to travel to find themselves.

For Adam, it's not about finding himself, or fitting it in while he's young or before he has kids. He speaks about being present in the moment and in the world. He talks about experiencing life through the eyes of other cultures and people. And he talks about service, giving of his time and gifts to others.

Have you ever thought how odd the concept of "finding yourself" overseas is? If you can't find yourself at home, how are you going to find yourself overseas? Definitely, through the experience of travelling, you might learn a different side of yourself, or it might shape you in different ways. Yet, you are who you are wherever you are.

This doesn't mean that travel is meaningless. As Adam shared, there is incredible meaning in being present, in learning from others and in seeking ways to serve.

What are the two things that would make this trip successful, rewarding and fulfilling for Adam?

1. Being able to push outside of his comfort zone and to interact and learn from other people and other cultures.
2. Being able to slow down life in order to focus back on his core values.

Sure, those are things that Adam could do at home, but as he points out, it's about your intention. What's your intention about doing things? With travel, you can just make it about finding yourself, or you could make it about making the most of the different people and places you encounter.

As Adam candidly shares, this wasn't an easy thing to plan. He experienced a lot of fear and nervousness about quitting his job and sacrificing other things to make their trip a reality. But as he points out: "anything in life where we want to have that growth, where we want to push ourselves in new space of doing life even better, there needs to be those experiences where we push ourselves and we're out of our comfort zones."

What are the three things Adam wants to have as his daily focus while he's away:

1. Putting people ahead of tasks.
2. Being more grateful.
3. Pushing out of his comfort zone more.

Challenge of the week: you don't have to go overseas to find yourself, you create yourself right here and right now. What are the three things you can focus on each day of this week?

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