How to make your life more adventurous

I love the adventure, venturing out to the woods or riding my bike to see new places. But I have the normal life, job to do, bills to pay and duties to take care of.

Everyday life might feel dull when your mind wanders out there yearning for adventure. Life of a pro adventurer is not realism and life of a weekend warrior is not satisfying enough. Is there a solution?

I can't just leave everything and start living on the road but can I do something to make my life more adventurous?

I have found out that a big part of this dilemma is about my own mind. Basically, it is all about a question: what is an adventure?

Luckily I have my little princess teaching me. As I have written before, learning to look at the world through the eyes of a child is a great skill, a mindset that helped me to find a solution to the question above.

Every daily commute can be an adventure, every step taken outdoors can. If I want to live a more adventurous life, I need to make mine to be one. So, here are my tips to live a more adventurous life in the middle of the family, work, and other duties.

Most important thing is to change your mindset

Not every adventure will be a gigantic one, nor does it need to be. Even the tiny adventure of a commute to work is a valid adventure, you just need to appreciate it.

We, humans, are masters in making excuses and finding reasons why we can’t do something.

Once again it’s time to learn from the children, the greatest teachers in our lives. Kids just do, they don't waste time finding excuses, they are too busy enjoying their adventures.

I can't make the multi-day bike-packing trip whenever I want but I can turn every daily commute into a micro-adventure. With a little effort, my commute can be an escape from the rat race, including a nice outdoor meal and even sleeping under the stars.

Most of all adventure, especially with a kid is a mindset. The easiest way to make life more adventurous is to find the eyes and the mind of a child.

All you really need for an adventure is just grabbing your backpack and stepping out of the door

Once again we need to learn from the kids. Look how they grab few blankets and turn the living room floor into a campsite. Why don’t we just join in?

Take a day off, pack your backpack, and just go out. No planning, no goals, just spending time outdoors. That’s how an adventure is made.

We just need to change our concept of an adventure, any journey can be an adventure if we just let it be.

For my daughter, every single trip to kindergarten is a full-scale exploration. She grabs her backpack, hops on her bike, and starts to explore.

Once again I can say with huge gratitude. Thanks for the lesson honey.

DaddyMan's walking challenge

The hardest part of my current life is spending every other weekend without my daughter. I find it really hard to get anything productive done during those weekends. But now I decided to challenge myself, finding ways to improve myself as a man a dad, and a human being.

The plan for this weekend is clear. I’m going to try my luck and test my conditioning with the TR/JFK 50 mile walking test.

The test was originally invented by Theodore Roosevelt to get his army officers in shape. JFK made the test popular among normal folks and now is my turn to see what I am made of.

In its original form, the test is simple. Walk 50 miles in three days with the walking time not exceeding 20 hours.

Because I only have the weekend to do this, I changed the test a little, forgive me, sir Roosevelt.

I live in the metric system, so I changed miles to kilometers and I also bent the time limits to fit my needs. Hopefully, I will not be haunted by presidential ghosts.

“ This will be a real adventure”

My test will begin on Saturday morning, at 8 AM and I’ll do my very best to finish by 4 PM on Sunday. So I basically have 32 hours to complete the test.

To not feel myself a cheater, I add a little bonus. During those 32 hours, I also need to cover 30 kilometers by bike.

During my walk, I will listen to Joe Dispenza’s audiobook ‘ Evolve Your Brain’ to improve myself also on my mental state.

I have no idea how what will happen during my challenge and that is part of the fun. This will be a real adventure and I believe that Sunday evening I will be a different person than that who started on Saturday morning.

All I know is that during the next two days I will walk, walk a lot.

Learn to look at the world through the eyes of a Child

I will always remember the first big bike adventure with my daughter. Together we travelled from Vantaa to Hameenlinna, to visit my parents. Four beautiful days, wonderful things to see, riding a bit over 120 kilometers, all that together with my daughter.

There I was riding the last kilometers, and everything was perfect. Nice sunshine, familiar route, bike rolling perfectly and my princess sleeping in the safety of her trailer.

I could feel the joy and excitement of our accomplishment but still I was sad. Our great adventure was coming to end and I didn't want it to. I wanted to keep pedaling, keep exploring and, most of all, keep living life on the road with my girl.

I was able to already feel the warm shower, taste the food and that cold beer given to me by my dad. I was able to see the joy and happiness of my girl meeting with her grandparents. Still, I just wanted to turn around and continue our trip.

At the same time, reaching the goal was a joyful moment but also a melancholy ending to this great trip. So I stopped, to clear my thoughts and to wipe my tears. Yes, this moment was way more emotional than I ever imagined.

After few minutes a big decision was made, this is gonna be a lifestyle for us, me and my little princess. We are going to travel like this, as often and as far as possible.

Since that decision, cycling is now our form of adventure

After that initial trip we have rode numerous multi-day rides and countless shorter rides. And we have enjoyed each and every one of them. No strict schedules just curious, adventurous eyes and the will to explore.

Cycling is an easy and affordable way of family adventuring. It gives a huge feeling of freedom and offers kids countless new things to see and beautiful moments to share.

Even the daily trips back and forth to kindergarten are an escape from the everyday 9-to-5 life. Small moments to spend exploring the world together.

Whenever we can, we pack our bags, load the trailer and head out for overnighters. With one kid that’s really quite simple. For a one night trip we don’t need much and the urban jungle offers an abundance of pit stops with refuelling and toilet possibilities.

Many times we have just cycled out to see the sunset, sleep under the stars and eat an outdoor breakfast. Even those micro-adventures have offered countless great memories, such as eating porridge in the open tent as the sun slides up to the sky.

As an adult I need to be wise and flexible enough to let my daughter be the guide

Sure, routes from point A to point B are great and sometimes you need to plan carefully ahead. But still, our best trips have been spontaneous rides with no exact goals, just riding and navigating by feel.

To be honest, my little princess is my best navigator so far. When she spots a playground, beach or something else interesting, my walkie talkie will instantly shout a command “daddy, daddy stop, what's that?”

And this daddyman loves those stops. I love to see how my daughter explores the world, how differently she is open to everything new compared to my adult thinking.

That’s the biggest lesson so far, learn to look at the world through the eyes of a child again.

In that first trip, I never turned around, nor did I get to the destination according to the original plan. Once I was ready to pedal again, after that emotional stop, my daughter woke up. Immediately she spotted the bridge we were on and wanted to come out of her trailer to see the lake beneath.

For about an hour she walked back and forth by the railing, peeked between every board and spotted a swing along the road crossing ours.

Needles to say, it was time to sway on the swing before we could move on. And needless to say,  I didn’t see any of those beautiful, interesting things which my daughter spotted and which gave us so much delight.

Thanks for the lesson honey.

Trying to live my life by my dreams, not by limitations

Daddy man, little princess, fat bike and an bike trailer, that's a surefire recipe for endless adventures, time together laugh and lots of love. And that's basically what this blog is all about.

I'm not a pro cyclist not even a competitive one, just a daddy who likes to ride a bike with his daughter. After buying a fat bike my enthusiasm for biking grew even more. Almost as much as after buying the trailer for my princess.

My daughter loves rides on her red trailer. For her it’s always a new adventure when the red devil is taken out of garage.

For me every moment with my biggest treasure is cherishable second, best time in the world. So it isn't big surprise we both love our bike adventures, now with a new toy, fat bike.

"But why on earth I bought a fatbike, not just any bike"

My history with fat bikes goes way back. I found about them first time when reading book  ’Over the Edge’ where a guy at his 40's, creates a list of ultimate, life threatening adventures. One thing on that list, among triathlon, ultra running, whitewater rafting and rock climbing is Iditarod.

Iditarod is a race in Alaska. 1000 miles either running, skiing or cycling. For the cycling race, those guys racing created a monster, bike with two rims welded together, a fat bike.

I have never owned a fat bike even though the interest has been there for years. Finally this summer I decided to buy one, make one dream come true. I still remember riding my new toy home from the shop, love at first sight, or in this case, first ride.

"This new bike is also a symbol of my new life a life lived by my dreams not by limitations"

I have one big dream, being a stay at home dad again and make my living by writing. This dream I have had since getting back to work a year ago after spending the best 10 months of my life as a stay at home dad with my daughter.

That time led me back dreaming about cycling adventures. We had great time with my daughter, driving around with my old mountain bike and her trailer.  Spending time together we were happy, free and full of love and joy, full of life.

Eventually, life got in and at the moment I’m a divorced dad seeing my daughter every other week and working  a 9 to 5 job.

But now I have my fat bike and my big dream and I’m going after that dream with all my power. Finally in my life, at the age of 41 I’m strong enough to follow my dreams.

In this blog you can follow my pursuit of dreams and big adventures with my beloved little daughter. Welcome aboard!