Adventure's the word

Rather than setting resolutions, each new year I like to choose some words or a mantra that will
be my guiding light for the coming 12 months. I think about this touchstone frequently throughout
the year, use it to steer my decision-making and to measure my successes.

Heading into 2023, my chosen word was adventure. I set no boundaries, and held no expectations,
I just wanted this 12 months to be adventuresome.

So, how’s it going? Well, without blowing my own trumpet, it’s probably been the most adventurous year of my life and I’m feeling pretty jolly happy.

Some friends wanted to hold a screening of The Fort in New York in February and asked me if I’d like to attend. I said ‘yes’ and flew first to LA for some quality time with some girlfriends, before hopping to the Big Apple for our movie’s first international screening. On the spur of the moment, I booked a trip to Byron Bay for a girlfriend’s 50^th birthday, followed soon after by another trip for a one-on-one retreat in Noosa that turned out to be quite life-changing.

Mid-year, life wasn’t going where I expected it to go, so on a whim I decided to take myself off to Italy. I put a call out to everyone I knew to let people know I was going to be in Europe and ended up catching up with so many friends who happened to be there.

At the end of that trip, I had five days free so I mapped the path from Italy to Melbourne and realised I could do a side trip to Egypt; a place I’ve always wanted to visit. Again, I sent up the bat signal and it turned out that a friend-of-a-friend was going to be there planning a new travel business so I went along as her guinea pig for what turned out to be a dream Egyptian experience.

For a person who hasn’t had a holiday since 2019, my year of adventure has covered many kilometres, taken many twists and turns, and has been so much better than I could have imagined. My adventuring was physical, but the outcomes were undeniably mental and emotional, I wouldn’t change my choices for the world, and we still have nearly three months until the end of the year to continue my quest for adventure.

As we embark on the final quarter of 2023, I’m starting to think about my touchstones for 2024; and I think I’m going to go with ‘no limits’, ‘no expectations’, and ‘transformation’.

I’m not going to try to control things, I’m going to keep an open mind and embrace whatever comes my way – the perfect segue from my year of adventure.

Did you have a word or mantra that was a touchstone for 2023? What did that look like, and how has it played out? And have you started thinking about a touchstone for 2024?

Your year might be about love, change, health, family, security, career, or fitness. These have all been past focus areas for me. Share your thoughts of 2023, 2024 and beyond with me on social media, and if you haven’t started thinking about what you want to draw from next year, perhaps you could start to write some things down to clarify your vision?