"Are you living a life of service and adventure?"
This is the question that I ask to myself every time that my compass seems to be lost in confusion and overthinking.
Through my process of self reflection, I've encountered that there are two main values that have been driving many of the actions and decisions through my time on this earth. These two values have been taking me along many different learning paths, facing me with the right amount of challenges while at the same time, giving me the opportunity to create meaningful connections to other people.
Daring to be adventurous
It's terrifying to go somewhere or do something where we are not in control of the outcomes. To go somewhere where we don't feel like ourselves. To do something in which we are complete beginners.
I have a saying for that, if you're in a place where you feel a level of discomfort that is not greater than your will to discover what's on the other side, you're in the golden spot. It's all about a mix between curiosity, discomfort and will. Curiosity inspires will, will overcomes any discomfort.
The result?
Learning and transformation.
We could even say
Transformation = Curiosity + Will - Discomfort
Daring to be adventurous and bold is the part of my personal philosophy that takes care that I'm in a process of constant individual challenge and learning.
Daring to live a life of service.
I use the word dare here even with greater emphasis. Daring to live a life of service has a greater mindset. We can dare to live in adventure. Adventure is fun, exciting, but not everybody can really dare to live a life of service. A life of unconditional giving, a creative life.
I've met in my life, a lot of humans that were adventurous by nature, traveling to the most random places, experiencing lots of new crazy things, getting to know many people from all corners of the world.
This is great, sounds perfect on paper. Yet, nothing of this becomes really fulfilling at the end, if all of it comes only from a place of individualism, from a place of ego. It is not about, (and it was never about) what the world can give to us.
It is about what we can bring to the world.
Connection is about sharing, giving, creating.
If we take out the community of the equation, we have only ourselves.
If we take out the giving of the equation we have only the taking.
If we take the creative part out of the equation we have only consumption.
There's no real meaning, no real connection in seeing the world only as means to fill our desires and our expectations.
Your biological heart is all about motion, about pumping blood, about making sure all other body parts have the amount of blood they need to function. Your heart is all about giving, about effort, about self sacrifice and service.
The moment when it stops giving, that is the moment when we slowly start to die.