A venture with a twist, a venture with added uniqueness (Ad-venture), a state of mind comprised of factors like the interplay between risk, fear and reward, the balance between risk and competence. It is that exciting, mostly novice experience where the outcome is unsure. The involvement of either or both physical and emotional risk, not being sure how this experience will work out, but so excited to find out.
Adventure is, therefore, something that can be attributed to numerous life experiences, endeavours where we are excited about the unknown outcome, the potential of being successful as well as the fear of the potential to fail, and the question of whether your skills and competence will be enough to triumph over this experience. This constitutes an adventure, all our experiences in life are adventures whether it is business, relationships, a new project, going on holiday, addressing a crowd, eating new flavoured ice cream, or climbing a mountain.
If we can appreciate that life’s challenges are all adventures, if we know what to look for, how to consciously step outside our comfort zones, prepare for the risk, ensure our level of competence is equal to or more than the level of risk, then we can ensure success and we can have a lot of fun in the process.
The sooner young people become comfortable navigating life’s challenges, the sooner they can approach new and exciting growth opportunities with so much more ease, ensuring each new life stage will promise much more joy and reward.
The Adventure Institute is actively driving this philosophy, packaging an inclusive skill set uniquely labelling it as “experience facilitation”. The vehicle is the outdoors – as it is a natural driver for adventure. Students go through the outdoor and adventure process, not only because there are so many life-enriching employment opportunities in this field, but also to empower them with the generic philosophy of adventure whether it is entrepreneurship (excitement, risk and reward of a new business idea), the adventure of people engagement (excitement, risk and reward of new relationships, being challenged in old ones), the adventure of learning facilitation (excitement, risk and reward of learning something new, teaching others something new), the adventure of hospitality (excitement, risk and reward of hosting clients), the adventure of physical and emotional trauma response (excitement, risk and reward of identifying and responding to a medical “issue” whether physical or emotional), and many more.
Students who complete the Adventure Institute programmes will be able to tackle life as an adventure, they will be less afraid of the unknown, they will want to explore new experiences. They will also be skilled in a variety of specialized programmes where they will be able to facilitate experiences in business, tourism, learning, medical first response, and many more.
The philosophy of adventure is something the young person (and old ones) of today and the future cannot be without!
