Too much of life goes unexplored. All too often, we feel like life is just humdrum routine, struggle and some fun.

We forget to tell – and first of all, to live – our life story.

Life should be a great journey of discovery, and there are good reasons we should see our lives as such journeys of discovery.

How can you do that and why would you want to?

Exploration in a Life

Childhood is the only time for which we typically assume that it’s a time of exploration.

It may be just play, but in play, we discover the world around us and our place in it – and we even imagine, if not inhabit, worlds of our imagination.

Small things can hold great fascination during that time.

Adolescence

School times are obvious times of learning, but exploration already becomes less. We may explore our sexuality, our interests and talents, as we go through puberty and move towards work life, but there is a lot of pressure to leave aside childhood things.

With the need to learn certain things for school and with passions increasingly driven by social pressures, of same-age peers and of parents and public, teenagers try to push some limits, but there are often less interests – and what there are do not feel like any great exploration compared to what others are doing.

Adulthood

With adulthood, we forget even more of that, thinking that we have learned enough, lacking in time to even follow hobbies and passions… and here is exactly where you are probably reading this and where we should start to think and act differently.

First of all, we should realize that we as adults have better possibilities for exploration, more mature ways.

Seeing the Exploration Again

Learning what we need to get okay (better yet, good) at our jobs is an exploration: As with all learning, we can document what we are learning and how, and we can explore ways of learning and their effects.

We can try out other ways of doing things at work.

If work isn’t a safe place to experiment, we can explore how we live our daily lives.

Can we organize our homes better, develop routines that work better?

What routines do you even have, and how well do you know what positive or negative effects they have on you?

As you have children, you will discover new things. Certainly, new roles in life.

If you decide against kids, it is hopefully a conscious decision in which you explored your attitudes, the pros and cons of your decision.

As you grow older, your life will change, you will change, and you are hopefully not just living in denial of the longer-term health outlook you get from your level of physical activity and outright training and your nutrition, the financial outlook of your spending and investment decisions, and so on.

Your Niches of Exploration

Of course, yes, this is saying that you can see just about every aspect of your life and of the world as fertile bed for exploration. You will not be able to deeply explore everything.

You will have to decide – but deciding on things to pay greater attention to and then paying greater attention to them is exactly what we need to stop the sleepwalking through life, take the rudder and consciously steer, with interest.

Life Story Mindset

This, of course, is also why it is helpful to see life as a journey of exploration:

The mindset means that we approach things more consciously and with more excitement.

Same as you can get nervous about a presentation, take it as a sign that you are too badly prepared and then get into a vicious cycle, you can see life as bland, as offering nothing to see – and fail to see things.

Or, same as you can tell yourself that it’s not fear you are feeling, it is excitement that drives you forward, you can approach life in all its challenges and all its routines as a journey of exploration in which you can always find more, learn more, and live with fascination and passion.

Your choice.

Advantages of the Life of Discovery

If life is a story of discovery, you…

• aim towards goals, but you can also remain open to what you may find on the way
• keep on finding new things, learn and grow
• expect twists and turns in that story, and you can tell them as positive learning experiences helping cultivate resilience and adaptability
• reduce fear of failure, because setbacks are part of a journey of discovery
• uncover passions and interests to the point of finding – giving – your life meaning and purpose
• enhance creativity as you follow interests, play with ideas
• realize, hopefully, that even small things are steps in your journey and worthwhile joys and wonders.