7 Adventures That Will Kick-Start Your Personal Growth
Self-improvement happens outside of your comfort zone
Personal growth is often the result of uncomfortable activities.
Hard workout routines build exceptional physiques. Cold showers boost your resistance to pain and disease. And meeting people with radically different backgrounds broadens your horizons.
By leaving your comfort zone — both mentally and physically — you incite growth. And this growth will produce outstanding results over time.
That’s where self-improvement adventures come to fruition.
A few times a year, we need to kick-start our personal growth by taking on novel challenges.
These adventures provide extra impetus, surpassing the general motivation we might find in our jobs or leisure activities.
7 adventures that will kick-start your personal growth
The following are seven activities that will smash the barriers of your comfort zone and force you into unknown territory.
As such, they will pose new challenges and provide fresh self-improvement tools.
1. Start a few side hustles
Most of us have some kind of monetizable leisure activity. Whether it’s writing, photography, or dog walking, anything can be turned into a side hustle.
Side hustles are, by definition, not your main occupation. They are sources of extra income that you collect on the side.
According to Marketwatch, an estimated 44 million Americans supplement their income with a side hustle.
Several factors explain their popularity.
First, it doesn’t take a lot of capital to set up a small business on the side. Secondly, side hustles don’t require a lot of time.
And finally, side hustles are becoming more and more essential for people with financial woes.
So, how do side hustles fuel personal growth?
In short, side hustles are an ideal way to learn the basics of online business, personal finance, and startup management.
If you currently work as an employee, a side hustle like freelance writing or video editing can offer you a glimpse into entrepreneurship.
Better still, side hustles can fuel your creativity and spark novel interests.
Whatever your passion, start monetizing it and embark on your first online business journey.
The opportunities are endless, and you can learn every skill thanks to a vast offer of books and online courses.
Don’t expect heaps of money. Expect a learning experience.
A side hustle may not make you rich, but it can undoubtedly kick-start your personal growth.
2. Go solo traveling
When it comes to personal growth endeavors, not many experiences beat solo traveling.
In this context, solo travel ignites self-improvement in various ways.
On one side, you’ll be forced to navigate foreign cities, organize trips, and make travel-related decisions without external interference.
You’ll become the master of your trip — a surefire way to bolster your decision-making skills and organizational talent.
On the other side, solo travel has a social component.
Because you’re traveling alone, you have to make contact with strangers. You’ll learn how to strike up a conversation, and you’ll actively train your social skills.
Finally, solo travel puts you into adrenaline-inducing circumstances.
You’ll experience unlimited freedom, and you’ll feel a constant rush to discover new places.
Thanks to this excitement, you’ll be receptive to new lessons and ideas, an excellent starting position for personal growth.
3. Talk to one stranger a day for 3 months straight
In line with solo travel, talking to strangers is a powerful personal growth tool.
Think about your daily routine. How many strangers cross your path? Everyone has a story waiting to be told.
That’s where the 3-month-talking-to-strangers experiment comes into play.
For 90 days, initiate a conversation with at least one stranger every day. Even if it’s just a small exchange at the gas station, you’ll learn something.
After completing this experiment last year, I was amazed by the results.
Out of the 95 people I talked to, only 20 had no interest in talking to me.
75 told me about their day and sometimes came up with funny anecdotes or life lessons.
There was the 30-something-year-old woman who told me what’s it’s like to blind.
Then there was the professional volleyball player who explained the annoyance of being mistaken for a basketball player.
And finally, I’ll never forget my train conversation with a 100-year old man who revealed his secret for longevity: “eat two eggs every day and be thankful every morning.“
Many of these exchanges were banal and brief, but some left a lasting impression.
As such, the experiment became one of my favorite everyday personal growth activities, and I would certainly do it again.
4. Declutter your home and get rid of 100 things
Learning about your character, values, and priorities is a major step toward self-improvement. And decluttering your home can help identify those priorities.
Most of us can find 100 things we don’t need, use, or want. Liberating yourself of those burdens can free up space in your mind for novel challenges — kick-starting new habits.
As an example, getting rid of excess tech gadgets, cheap entertainment, and dusty decoration will unlock space for books.
The more possessions you get rid of, the more you’ll have time to think about new projects and spot further potential.
As Leo Babauta from Zen Habits writes: “Decluttering causes us to confront some key relationships we have to our stuff, and to the world around us.”
By analyzing your relationships to material possessions, clutter, and consumption, you ask questions that will define your priorities.
And by defining those priorities, you embark on a fascinating personal growth adventure. You’ll adapt your decision-making processes, consumption habits, and general behavior.
In short, home decluttering will become the starting point for redesigning your lifestyle.
5. Take on a sports-related challenge
Sports-related challenges can improve your body, but they will also stimulate personal growth.
On the edges of your endurance, strength, and physical tenacity, your mind becomes your body’s chief motivator.
In tandem, your body and mind work toward a certain goal — creating a foundation for self-improvement.
In this context, marathon runners train their patience in the same way they train their running tactics.
Bodybuilders focus on discipline as much as muscle growth.
And climbers first and foremost learn to trust their partner before hammering pitons into the surface.
In a nutshell, physical challenges like building muscle, climbing a mountain, or running a certain distance will help you embrace self-improvement in different areas.
Aside from training your body, you’ll train your mind for the challenge — fostering holistic personal growth.
6. Read 50 books
Personal growth adventures don’t necessarily include traveling, talking to strangers, or starting a business.
Books provide a vast treasure of wisdom, kick-starting personal growth on your couch.
Reading 50 books in one year isn’t easy, but doable if you build a consistent reading habit.
Whether it’s literary classics like Paulo Coelho, online business manuals like Tim Ferriss’ work, or productivity guides like Cal Newport’s releases, books can stimulate personal development.
Of course, books will not improve your life as such, but they can point you in the right direction and provide valuable tools for your next endeavors.
7. Start a journaling habit
Much like reading 50 books, journaling daily over long stretches can support personal development.
By writing down your fears, hopes, projects, and feelings, you give your thoughts space to breathe.
Entrepreneur explains this phenomenon in the following terms:
“Stepping back, you can see a clearer path to overcome what once seemed to be an insurmountable challenge. This type of introspection keeps you grounded and focused.”
As such, the space you create can become an excellent breeding ground for fresh ideas.
If you can’t travel to faraway lands, launch a side hustle, or meet new people, journaling is one of the best ways to further personal growth at home.
From the ancient Stoics to 21st-century business magnates and brilliant scientists, many of the world’s greatest minds keep a diary to clear their minds and trigger personal development.
How can you build a long-lasting journaling habit?
Start small by writing down a few sentences every day. Commit to those sentences. Even if it’s just a three-line paragraph, don’t skip it.
Once you’re fully committed, this small paragraph will become a natural part of your day, like brushing your teeth.
That’s when you can increase the number of sentences, go into more detail, and build a fully-fledged journaling routine.
