The value of micro-adventures

Many aspire to be adventurers, travel the world, or undergo great experiences that stick with us for the rest of our lives. However, we rarely have time, money or motivation to act on these ambitions. In our ordinary, daily lives we rarely experience extreme highs, which is why it is important to enjoy the small moments. 

One way to do so is to embrace small adventures and foster curiosity in your daily life. Some examples include driving a new route on daily commutes, familiarising yourself with habits from different cultures or learning a new skill. 

Stimulating curiosity in our daily lives leads to a multitude of life-fulfilling benefits, according to ‘the Well-Being Lab’, an incubator of scientific knowledge on how people can live better and reach their potential. These benefits include (1) an advantage in managing anxiety, (2) it provides an antidote to defensiveness reactions when threatened, (3) it functions as a precursor to innovation in the workplace (far more than mindfulness), and finally (4) it serves as a protective factor by boosting resilience when exposed to negative life events and stressors. 

Besides, curiosity is one of the most important conditions for a ‘psychologically rich’ life, which in turn, is one of the three ways to achieve a good life (besides happiness and meaning).

So, how can you stimulate yourself, your colleagues or your customers to step a little bit out of their comfort zone from time to time?