A photography group I belong to gave us an interesting challenge: take interesting photos of things within one minute walking distance of your home. Their suggestions included smoke curling upward, a photo of your spouse, or a back lit spider web. I didn't find any spider webs, and dust bunnies didn't seem nearly as photogenic. So I went looking for other possibilities.

It was really fun looking at everything around me in a different way - with an eye toward what would make an appealing photograph.

A single branch against the sky took on its own artistic qualities, and seemed to tell me something, instead of standing there blandly as I walked right past, like every other day.

Branch against the sky

Orange on a blue plate

Related posts:

1. Your world is as big as you make it
2. One must have the adventurous daring

Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure".

While I certainly believe that in a big-picture way, there's a reason I have it on my mirror.

It's one thing to think this way while you're off viewing wildlife in the rainforest, or exploring ancient Greek ruins.  But what about the rest of life? What about the dull days spent toiling away at the office, or even (heaven forbid!) doing the accounting?  What about the difficult days, when disappointments arise, problems loom large, and tears well up?  Are those days part of the adventure, too?

This looks like a fun adventure!

Adventure
"1. A risky undertaking of unknown outcome. 2. An exciting or unexpected event or course of events." ~ Collins English Dictionary

Adventure and the dull days

Adventures don't have to be dangerous, physically challenging, or geographically distant.  You don't have to follow in the footsteps of Indiana Jones, searching for long-lost treasure, while evading jungle natives and outwitting German spies.

Walking around the block can be an adventure, when you first arrive in Hong Kong, you're jostling through the crowds, absorbing all the strange and fascinating sights and sounds, and you don't know what's around every corner.  Walking to the mailbox the same way you do every day - not so much.

But even then, are there ways you could add adventure to it (aside from darting between the cars on a busy street)? Perhaps set a goal to discover one new thing on the way every day, or take a daily photograph, and create a photo montage for the month.  A cloudy sky, reflections in a puddle, or recording a flower as it blooms and fades - there's beauty everywhere, if we take a moment to look for it. Discovering something new every day would bring lots of unexpected things, and the challenge and creativity would add a lot more fun and excitement.

Adventure and the difficult days

Problems are part of adventures, too. They go with the territory. After all, you don't get to the top of Mt. Everest without enduring plenty of difficulty and hardship on the way up. Even Indiana Jones got beaten up, captured, and thrown in a pit with a thousand snakes. That's the risky part of adventure.

Hmm, temple of doom....

In terms of travel, I've always found that the worst experiences at the time can make the best stories later. If you're going to laugh a year from now about the time you spent 2 days sleeping at the airport, or your bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, why not take it in stride, and laugh about it right away?

But it's a big step from there to viewing challenges and hardships in our "normal life" as part of the adventure. When you're in the middle of the snake pit, it's scary, and it's not where you want to be. It's hard to step back from there to see the larger view, where this is one of the ups and downs that make life exciting. (I'm not speaking of real tragedies here, but the many types of obstacles we have to overcome.)

It's difficult to get that perspective, even though we know that in the long run, the hard times are just part of life. They build ability and confidence, as you know that you've made it through another trial.  The next time you're in trouble, you can think "I can do this - it's nothing compared to the snake pit." They make the good times that much sweeter, as you suddenly appreciate any day without snakes. And sometimes they make great stories later, too!

Attitude is the only difference between an ordeal and an adventure." ~ Larry Hazan

So this year, my goal is to keep that adventurous outlook, regardless of what's happening.  I intend to have adventures afield, adventures close to home, and even adventures on days when I have to do accounting. And when I hit a difficult patch, I'll do my best to picture it as a yawning chasm or a pool of quicksand - all just part of the adventure!

What do you think? Do you see life as an adventure, or would you like to?  There's nothing required except an adventurous spirit.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes - I foresee one awesome, rocking year ahead!

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For 2011, my resolution is to explore the concept of adventure.  I'm not spending the year trekking unexplored mountain passes, but wherever I am, and whatever I'm doing, I'll be looking for the adventure in it.  Can every day be adventurous, even the dull and difficult ones?  That's what I aim to find out, in the Year of Living Adventurously!
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Related posts:

1. About Us - Adventure is the spice of life
2. The first post - Philosophy of adventure
3. Wilde about the senses

Wait - back up... It's not good to start a blog post with a lie, is it?

I DO know why birthdays evoke such a mix of emotions. First off, phrases like "getting older" - well, let's just say I live in a world of denial where this doesn't exist. Then there's the annual question - "another year, and what have I accomplished?" No matter what I've done, it's never as much as I could have or should have. And finally, there's the loss of something irreplaceable - one year of a finite life is gone forever.

On the plus side, I'm always happy for any reason to celebrate!! It's just that this particular party comes with a bunch of baggage.

Birthday wishes and wisdom

Fortunately, we now have Facebook! Getting birthday wishes from boatloads of Facebook friends around the world, and replying to each one, inspires new feelings of gratitude.

It reminds me of all the friends I've made over the years, the places, the adventures, and all the fun times I've shared with people.  Though I prefer counting my birthdays backwards, it reminds me that I really wouldn't give up a single one of those years.  (Days and weeks, definitely, just not years!)

And nestled in this deluge of birthday greetings were a few nuggets of wisdom, that are good to remember not only on a birthday, but throughout the year, too.

May you blow out all the candles and may all your dreams and wishes come true! - To me, this is a reminder to never let your dreams fade away.  They'll only come true if you keep them bright, refer to them often, and remember them when the candles are in front of you.

Once more around the sun. Well done! Hope today is awesome and sets the minimum bar for every day going forward. - Do I have a bar for days going forward, or do I just let day after day pass on by?  If I want more awesome days, it's up to me to make it happen!

Have a great birthday, oh all-powerful wench! - What a great reminder that we're not just helpless victims.  We really are powerful, and we create our own reality!

How time flies....seems like it was just last year you had one of these. If you were here I would have let you celebrate by shoveling snow!! - Now this is a reminder to be grateful for things we don't have, as well as those we do.  Not shoveling snow is now on my gratitude list!

You worked hard all year long to get here, so go out and make some great memories. - It's true - we do work hard all year to get to wherever we are.  This goes with the "powerful" part above - we create our own realities.  Everything I've done so far has gotten me to this point.  And if this point next year is going to be different (with a bunch more happy memories along the way), who's going to make it happen?

Dance, laugh, mainly pamper yourself. Cheers! -  Why wait for a birthday?  We could be nice to ourselves every day.  I don't mean daily facials (though that would be nice!) - but why not dance more, laugh often, and do a little pampering frequently?  How hard would that be, and wouldn't life be happier for it?

Enough philosophizing for now...  I've got some dancing to do! 

The video isn't the greatest quality - it's from the 1920s. But what you can see is amazing. She has no safety line, no parachute, nothing but guts!
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Gladys Ingle was a member of a barnstorming troupe called the 13 Black Cats in the 1920s. Ingles was a wing walker; in this film, she shows her fearlessness in a classic barnstorming fashion to save an airplane that has lost one of its main wheels. Ingle is shown with a replacement wheel being strapped to her back and then off she goes as "Up She Goes," a duet from the era, provides the soundtrack. In the video, Ingles transfers herself from the rescue plane to the one missing the main landing gear tire. She then expertly works herself down to the undercarriage only a few feet from a spinning prop. It's certainly a feat many mechanics wouldn't even try on the ground with the engine running."

Barnstorming was popular in the early 1920s. A pilot would fly over a small town to get attention, and then land at a local farm, where they'd use one of the fields as a runway. People could take airplane rides, and there would be an air show, where pilots would do acrobatic loops and rolls, and wing walkers would perform daring feats.

Some wing walkers did indeed die during these shows, and viewers always knew that was a possibility. In the late 1920s, the government began implementing stricter safety standards, and the barnstorming age came to an end.

Barnstorming biplanes, with somebody climbing out? ~ 1918

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I'd say Gladys Ingles was an Adventurous Wench of the highest order! She's now on my list, along with Amelia Earhart and other daring, adventurous women. Thanks to Dave for sending this one to me!
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Related posts:

1. One must have the adventurous daring

The famous church at Rancho de Taos

The tri-cultural history of New Mexico is strong here.

• At Taos Pueblo, an ancient lifestyle is maintained, in stacked-cube buildings a thousand years old.
• The church of San Francisco de Asis at Rancho de Taos, a favorite with artists, is a reminder of the Spanish, who first arrived with Coronado in 1540.
• Kit Carson's house stands near the plaza downtown, now a museum dedicated to this sometimes friend, sometimes foe of the Indians in the 1800s.

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Moving forward in time, Taos always brings me back to one of my favorite books, by a very remarkable woman:  Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality, by Mabel Dodge Luhan.

Edge of Taos Desert

In the early 1900s Mabel was a high-society New York city socialite. She was used to Fifth Avenue, wealth and privilege, and she was a patron of the arts and the avant-garde. Technically, she was Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne. Her latest husband, Maurice Sterne, was a painter, and her intention was to turn him into a sculptor.

In 1917, Mabel decided to visit Santa Fe, New Mexico, a place hardly anyone in New York had heard of. Little did she know how this would affect her.

'I want a vacation', I said to myself. 'I've had a horrid time lately. I feel like a Change.'
I got it. My life broke in two right then, and I entered into the second half, a new world that replaced all the ways I had known with others, more strange and terrible and sweet than any I had ever been able to imagine."

Mabel fell in love with New Mexico, and particularly Taos - a tiny little backwater of a place at the time. She decided they should move here, and made it happen.

It's fascinating to read her descriptions of Santa Fe and Taos, and the way people lived in those days - the Indians, Spanish and Anglos all. In the nearly 100 years since it was written, life has changed greatly here, and Mabel has a unique way of viewing and describing things that's most interesting. But no matter how much has changed, every once in awhile, she says something that makes me think "Exactly - I felt that too!"

The sky was a burning, deep blue over us and my heart rose higher and higher until I was thrilling all over. It seemed to me I had never been happy before, just from being in good air and sunshine. Really, it seemed to me, I had never been happy before at all."

Mabel was more than an observer, though. She became involved with one of the men from Taos Pueblo, Tony Luhan, and eventually married him.

She also invited numerous friends from her old New York life to spend time with her in Taos, so they could discover this new world that so captivated her. By bringing artists, writers and photographers to Taos, she changed things for Taos, her visitors, and even us today. A couple of examples.

• If Georgia O'Keeffe hadn't visited Mabel in Taos, she might never have painted her stunning New Mexico landscapes.
• If Ansel Adams hadn't visited Mabel in Taos, he might never have found his passion for photography, and created his dramatic black and white landscapes.

This is a great book by a fascinating and influential woman - truly an Adventurous Wench! If you're headed to New Mexico, or even thinking about it, this book is highly recommended.

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We've finished our last women's trip to Santa Fe and Taos for the year. I do love visiting New Mexico, and hope to be back there again before long. The big blue skies, fresh crisp air, and remarkable history and culture keep drawing me back - and then there's the delectable food!
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Related posts:

1. Taos, New Mexico - Rio Pueblo Gorge (video)
2. Veterans Day at Taos Pueblo (video)
3. So there we were... rubbed down in the desert

It was too hot for outdoor activities, and I could work up zero enthusiasm for the gym. The plus side was long days of getting work done. The down side was long days of sitting at a computer.

Boot camp? Really?

Then, a Groupon happened across my desk, for a discount on outdoor boot camp workouts, starting at 530am to avoid the summer heat. 530am? For a confirmed night owl like me?

I posted on facebook, "Am I insane...?", and friends confirmed that I was definitely off my rocker. To prove them right, I went ahead and signed up with Urban Athletics boot camp. Spoiler alert - I'm glad I did! Sometimes temporary insanity has advantages.

I wasn't sure whether the most difficult part would be getting up about the time I'm used to going to sleep, or the workout itself. Perhaps the testimonial quote on the website "Seriously the hardest workout I've ever had" should have given me a clue, but I was fixated on that pre-dawn alarm.

Day 1 (Sound of heavy breathing)

The first day was tough! I was exhausted after the warm-up, and it got harder from there. I can't even remember what all we did - it's a blur. There was a point where I felt like I was going to collapse on the grass, but then somebody passed me a relay hand-off and I just kept going. Miracles do happen!

The day after, I was SO sore. Walking down the stairs was a minor ordeal, and my arms were so sore I couldn't brush my hair. Just goes to show how much I needed it, right? After a couple of sessions, the pain went away - an unmistakable sign of progress!

Routine (Getting into the swing/push/pull of it)

At this boot camp, every workout starts with a warm up run, then stretching, and ends with more stretching. In between, each session is different, incorporating plenty of sprints, lunges, push-ups, bench dips, jump squats, keg tosses, sit-ups, leg push-downs, plank jumping jacks, and more. Some days are on the flats, other days are hill workouts.

Our fearless leader

One of the things I like is that every workout is different, so you never know what to expect next. Paul Rose (our demanding drill sergeant, encouraging leader) mixes it up, and keeps it interesting. It's a friendly session, and Paul has a sense of humor that can sometimes even coax a laugh out of worn-out people doing "another set of bench dips?"

The other thing I like about every workout is that sooner or later, it ends. No matter how tired I am when I drag myself out of bed, or how tired I am after running up, down and around for an hour, I feel pretty darn good at the end of the workout!

Results (Ooooh - I can feel it!)

After 6 sessions, I could feel enough of a noticeable difference in my body, that I wanted to continue that trend, and signed up for a bunch more. Yes, me, voluntarily getting out of bed before dawn, to go get my butt kicked around the park - and paying $$ to do it! Temporary insanity again, or pure logical reasoning this time?

Food (To eat, or not to eat?)

When I got home on day 1, after seriously the hardest workout I've ever had, I was freezing cold, putting on layers of clothes and huddling under blankets.  And this is Arizona in the summer! I called a workout fanatic friend of mine, and he said it sounded like my blood sugar had dropped so much it was hard to stay warm. He advised eating beforehand (if possible), eating immediately afterward (including protein & carbs), and drinking Gatorade (the full sugar version) during the workout to keep my sugar level up. So far, that's working a whole lot better for me.

You'll need to experiment with food. It's hard to find anything appetizing at 430am. I open the fridge, and think "yuck, yuck, yuck...", but I need something, even if it's just 3 bites of cereal and some Gatorade. Some people do yogurt, others manage with nothing - see what works for you.

Lessons & Tips

Location, location, location. Some boot camps are inside, others outdoors. Of course, in some climates outside isn't always possible, but for an outdoors girl like me, every minute of it feels so much better in the fresh air, vs. inside a stuffy gym. The downside is it's weather dependent, and you'll be down in the dirt and grass doing push-ups and more. Put that detergent to the test!

Becoming a morning person (or not). Picking a workout time radically different from your normal schedule adds its own issues.  I tried going to bed early, but couldn't sleep, and hated giving up my nights (a favorite time of day)! My new system is that I stay up late and get ~3 hours sleep at night, then take a nap or two later in the day. It's actually an easier, flexible version of polyphasic sleep, compared to what I tried before. Of course, depending on your employer, afternoon naps might not go over so well!

Medical stuff, etc. Every exercise video in the world says to talk to a doctor before starting a new program, so I'll repeat that oft-repeated statement.  I'm sure it's good advice, even though I never do it. It would also be smart to talk to your group leader when you're considering a boot camp, and see if it's going to work for your fitness level and needs. They also have modifications available for people, if you need an easier version of an exercise, or have an injury to work around.

Ready for a change? If you're tired of your normal exercise routine and ready for a new challenge, give this a try.  Change is good in fitness, as it is in life in general. As Ellen Glasgow said,

The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions."

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If you're in Tucson, I highly recommend Urban Athletics boot camp. (Don't let me scare you off!)  If you're somewhere else, then check Google to see if there's a similar program in your town. It's a great way to break out of that rut, and kick your fitness program into high gear.
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Related posts:

1. Fit for adventure: Gym-a-holic or Adventurous Wench?

On the downside, no A report card so far!   On the upside, I've identified 5 simple rules to make sure your resolutions fail.

Failure is achievable - you can do it!

5 Simple rules to achieving failure

Don't allocate time in your schedule for new tasks.  Simple, and so effective!  I have a very full work schedule, that goes until after midnight most nights.  Why not add a resolution to do daily writing, without changing the schedule?  Saying "every day from 9 to 10" would be far too simple - introducing a recurring scheduling dilemma is much more effective. While this rule on its own won't guarantee failure, it's a big step in the right (wrong?) direction!

Make your new tasks as big as possible. This fits hand in glove with the rule above.  It's not such a big deal if 15-minute tasks aren't scheduled.  But give yourself tasks that could easily take 1/2 day each, and then try to squeeze them into a full schedule - now we're talking!  You can easily expand the work with a couple of judicious words - for example, "write and publish".  Those extra two words add all the time needed to find graphics, quotes, links, do formatting and testing.  See what I mean?

Avoid setting clear priorities. The recurring schedule dilemmas are much more fun if you can also question the priority of your resolution several times a day.  Whenever you think about working on it, just say "is this really more important than issue X that is sitting in front of me?"  Every time you ask this question and the answer falls in favor of issue X, your failure probability goes up!

Add other big changes at the same time. Simply put, the more things you try to change at the same time, the greater your chance of failure.  So if you started the month with a single resolution, like writing something every day, find something else you can add to the mix. Perhaps this is also a good time to start a new exercise program.  And why not start getting up a few hours earlier, too?

So tired... Can't go on...

Minimize your physical capacity. The more energy you have, the more you can accomplish. For the purpose of failure, aim for the opposite.  One possibility I can recommend, is starting a kick-butt bootcamp workout, so early that you need to get up about the time you're used to going to bed.  The schedule change will mean you're always tired, and an aggressive workout can leave every muscle in your body aching.  With physical and mental deterioration like this, just watch your results sink through the floor!

Note: Be careful about working out. If done on a regular basis, it can actually lead to the opposite results, increasing your energy, focus, and capacity. When you're looking for the way to failure, avoid that consistency - you want big changes, all at the same time.

That's it! With these 5 simple rules, you can set yourself up for almost certain failure, on any resolution or goal. See how easy that is?

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Plenty of lessons learned here! I'm working on course corrections to try to salvage my monthly resolution, but I sure set it up for failure! I think I may have a hidden talent here, since I wasn't even trying - all these rules just came naturally!
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Related posts:

1. The number of times I fail?
2. New Year's travel resolutions and resolution aids
3. New Month's Resolution: Write something

So how are those New Year's resolutions coming along? Still exercising regularly and sticking with that diet plan? If you're still on track with your resolutions, you're among a select few.

You may wonder why I'm writing about New Years resolutions in June! Well, this is my latest experiment - New Month's Resolutions, designed to avoid some of the pitfalls that plague the annual version.

What's wrong with New Year's Resolutions?

The problem is that far too often, by mid-January those good intentions have already fallen by the wayside. By the time June rolls around, it's hard to even remember what they were! Though I hesitate to cite myself as an expert, I do have years of experience with failed New Years resolutions!

Why is this so hard? Well, there are a bunch of factors, but here are few key reasons:

Too many.  Full of optimism and idealism at the start of a brand new year, we make a long list. "I will quit smoking, and read 100 books, and learn Spanish, and empty out the garage, and stick to a budget, and . . ."  That optimistic spirit feels great, and making a list like this feels fantastic!  Woo hoo, I can do anything!  Then real life hits, and pretty soon the first item bites the dust.  Then the second one falls off.   By then, it's time to forget about resolutions altogether.

Too much.  Learning from years of "too many", we decide to focus on just one to three resolutions, max.  Of course, if we're going to dedicate the year to achieving just a couple of things, they'd better be important, worthwhile, big-ticket items, right?  So this year, "I will get to size-0 and be financially free".   Of course, these are so daunting that we doom ourselves to resolution disappointment before we ever get very far.

Too vague.   So how about a simple resolution like "I will get in better shape"?  Sure, sure.   It's an admirable goal, really!  But it's way too vague on the subject of exactly what I'm going to do to get there, or even where "there" is.  Do I really need to go to the gym again, or how about if I just walk to the bank instead?  Or I could just eat a salad for lunch - surely that would count, right?

Too all-or-nothing.  This is the flip side of the vagueness problem.  Here we make a goal that's absolute.  "I will exercise every single morning before I do anything else."  This has some hallmarks of a good resolution.  It's definite, measurable, and achievable.   But it's also easy to fail.  One morning I'm sick, or groggy from a long plane trip.  The way this goal is written, I've already failed.  If that happens again, then I'm a double failure, and might as well give it up.

How's that list of resolutions going?

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An alternative:  New Month's Resolutions

Make a single New Month's Resolution at the start of each month, and make it something specific and definitely achievable within that month. If it's the kind of thing that requires a plan of action, then that has to happen in the first week of the month, leaving the other 23 or so days for implementation. If it's the type of thing that involves setting a new habit (or breaking an old one), then a month is a good amount of time. Some experts say that it takes 21 days for a new habit to really take hold, so a month should be enough to have it well-established.

If this works, then by making one simple resolution each month, it should be possible to get 12 of them done in a year. And what would the odds be on doing all 12 in a year if they were on one massive New Year's list? I don't know about you, but for me that would be somewhere near absolute zero.

The experiment

My body is telling me that it wants to get back to running, but unfortunately this time of year that requires either doing it on a treadmill (uninspiring) or getting up early in the morning (more inspiring, but trying to also turn into a morning person would make this a double-whammy resolution). I don't want to set this up for failure the first time out.

So instead, my resolution for June is to write and post 30 articles this month, either for this blog or for another site. I know I've let writing slide too long, so this goal does have value in getting me back in the habit.  I'm targeting one a day, but to avoid the all-or-nothing pitfall, I can miss a day and double up on another day, as long as I end up with 30 items by the end of the month.

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I'll keep you posted, and let you know how this turns out.  I barely got #1 in before midnight, but so far so good... one down, 29 to go!
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Related posts:

1. New Year's travel resolutions and resolution aids
2. How to make sure your resolutions fail
3. The Year of Living Adventurously

Don't wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom."

~ Jim Rohn

What will you wish for?

When times are tough, it's natural to wish they were easier.  Whether you're sending out countless resumes, dealing with a problematic relationship, facing business challenges, or struggling to pay the bills, it's easy to just wish those problems would go away, right?  Problems be gone!

Those wishes are natural.  But useful?  Not so much!

On the other hand, if you flip it around, and wish you were better, stronger, and more capable - that gives you something you can work with.  You can actually develop your skills, educate your mind, and build your strength.  Improving yourself in this way can help you get through the current set of problems, and also improve your ability to deal with other things after that.

Here are a few positive outcomes we can gain from our challenges:

Expand knowledge and learn practical skills. A friend of mine was laid off with hundreds of other high-tech professionals, when her company decided to outsource their IT.  She's using this time to take an intensive series of courses to get certified in a specific niche skill set.  It's hard to dedicate the time to this when you're working full time, so this is an ideal opportunity in that respect.  It also puts her in a stronger position in the job hunt, and is likely to provide long-term career benefits.

Develop new perspectives, lateral thinking, and creative solutions. When our standard approach isn't working, it forces us to search for alternatives.  This can lead to new perspectives and imaginative approaches we would never have thought of otherwise. An example I love is from Rory Sutherland's presentation at TED.  A group of engineers were given the task of improving the rail service between London and Paris. Their solution involved replacing all the tracks and shortening the trip by 40 minutes, for a cost of $6 billion. As Rory says, what an unimaginative solution!  For less than that cost, you could hire the world's top male and female supermodels to walk slowly through the train, serving everyone free champagne for the duration of the journey.  Happy customers, who wish their ride would last longer.

Continual growth. Challenges force us to grow and change, while a lack of challenges doesn't. If everything is peachy keen, we can get lazy, assuming that things will continue to run along fine the way they are.  How much progress would we make in our lives if we never had problems?  How much would we learn if everything we tried worked perfectly the first time?

Intangibles. Dealing with problems can teach us resiliency, flexibility, adaptability, self-reliance, and equanimity. The normal ways of dealing with things may not work any more, and trying to rigidly stick to the way we've always done things is not going to get us where we need to go. When you have to adapt, you do.

Confidence. It may seem odd that problems breed confidence, but it can work that way. Overcoming challenges gives us confidence that we will be able to overcome other challenges in the future.  The next time a similar situation occurs, we see it from a different perspective - "I've dealt with things like this before".  We know that we will get through this, we will survive, we will grow and learn from it, and we will be be happier and wiser in the future.

Viewed like this, we can be grateful for the problems that come our way.  Or if not really grateful, at least we can recognize the silver lining. We can use these challenges to develop our own strengths and abilities.  We can gain a long-term benefit from a short-term problem.

So don't wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.

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I'm currently working on our high-level business strategy for Adventurous Wench, and as I'm sure everyone knows, our current economic environment has plenty of challenges!  And thank goodness for that! 
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Related posts:

1. Brains in your head, Feet in your shoes
2. Challenges are gifts that force us to search

All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success."
~ Dorothea Brande

Failure is impossible!

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If only it were so easy, right? If all we had to do was "act as if", then why would anybody still be stuck in that state of inertia and frustration? Why wouldn't we all be exulting in abundance and joy? A simple look around shows that's certainly not true!

Yet, something so simple and paradoxical really does have power behind it.

"Acting as if" means putting all our efforts into this focused direction, without holding back, and continually thinking "maybe this really won't work", or "maybe I'd better not", or "what if I can't do it?". How much mental effort is normally wasted worrying about things that never do go wrong, and visualizing worst case scenarios? If you can focus your mental state forwards instead of circling in endless worries, you can make progress a lot more easily.

"Acting as if" means trusting that solutions to issues will appear, and that you will figure out how to make things work, even if you don't know all the details yet. This helps avoid the "analysis paralysis" syndrome, where you spend so much time trying to analyze every possible problem up front, that you never move on to getting things done. If you wait for all the answers first, you'll never go anywhere.

"Acting as if" means heading in your chosen direction, confident this is the path to the success you want. It's not about going a few steps down this path, then deciding "no, maybe I would be better off going that way instead", then later still "probably safest to go back the way I came and start over". This leads to starting down many paths, but never getting far on any of them! If you act as if, you can continue down a path long enough to see the results.

"Acting as if" means visualizing the success of our venture, visualizing the good things that can come from it, and getting that feeling into our bones through the process of acting. It helps us to achieve that winning mindset, seeing ourselves as successful, rather than losers. That helps develop confidence, which in turn can help us develop real results. Confidence leads to better results, leads to more confidence. It's an upward cycle, and you can jump start it with a little acting.

"Acting as if" means taking risks, as you would if you knew it was impossible to fail. Every undertaking requires risks of certain sorts -- whether it's financial risk, risk of trying something new, risk of being different than your friends, risk of looking foolish, etc. If you're afraid to take the necessary risks, then you're afraid to move forward. Act as if it's impossible to fail, and you take those risks, and get on the way.

"Acting as if" means pursuing your dreams instead of settling for normal, realistic, or status quo. It means that you get out there and go after what you want. Don't let anybody - family, friends, experts, or even your own negative thoughts, tell you that what you want is impossible. Of course it is if you never get started! But if you "act as if", and start moving down that road... Well, that's the way to get there!

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People often ask me how I started Adventurous Wench, or how I got to be so lucky to have a job that lets me travel all over, meeting people and doing cool things. It all starts with an idea, and then you have to turn the idea into reality. There's a definite leap of faith -- that critical period at the beginning, where you have to start "acting as if".
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Related posts:

1. The number of times I fail?
2. The man who never makes mistakes
3. The notion that we must be regular