Happiness is Simple

BE HAPPY
By Debbie Gisonni

Choose Adventure

When I was thirty-eight years old, I walked into a tattoo shop with a drawing of a sun, moon and star to be etched into my ankle. It was like a rite of passage for me after leaving my fifteen-year career. I had willfully jumped off the corporate treadmill and traded it for a time of emotional upheaval, financial challenges and yes…adventure. I had no idea where I was going or how to get there, yet the anticipation of new possibilities was exciting. Some friends and colleagues thought I was insane to leave a successful career, but I listened to a voice inside me that beckoned like a blinking lighthouse to a ship in a misty fog. It said, “Do it, do it, DO IT.” It was that same voice that encouraged me to move three thousand miles away from home when I was twenty-three and elope at twenty-six. These decisions were not the most popular with my Italian-American parents—OK, they were devastated by my actions! After all, they believed in making safe choices in life, just like they did. A conviction guaranteed to render a life of unhappiness, just like theirs. My parents discouraged adventure as a way of protecting me from disappointment. As a child, I felt like a dog behind an invisible fence. Each time I was tempted to go beyond the line, I felt a shock to the back of my neck, usually in the form of my father’s voice saying, “What are you— an idiot? You’ll kill yourself doing that!” Thankfully, there were more times in my life when my spirit of adventure outweighed the memory of my father’s advice. Even if it was only to show him that not everyone who skis breaks a leg! And if I did (break a leg), at least I was doing something I enjoyed. Adventure is having the courage to take risks in life without the anxiety of being judged negatively or failing. If Columbus cared about his reputation, he would’ve played it safe and stuck to the theory of the flat world. And who knows when someone would have discovered the medical benefits in bread mold. How dull life would be without adventure! As for that tattoo I wanted, I did get it a few days later—after I had obtained a prescription for an analgesic cream. No need to include pain in my adventure!

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Five ways to choose adventure in your life: • Take the path in life you want, not the one others expect you to take. • Turn fear into excitement by visualizing the best outcome of a risky decision. • Commit to trying something new—food, sport, class—twice a year. • Don’t listen to naysayers; they’re secretly jealous of adventurers. • Change a familiar routine—route to work, morning ritual, Saturday lawn mowing.