For a while I assumed the reason I’m not as adventurous as I used to be was simple… AGE. After all, I’ve been in my 60s for more than eight years now. It seemed like the obvious explanation. In my last post, “Letting Things Happen (Without Letting Go),” I wrote: “Experience teaches you that control is overrated… but intention never is.” And the more I’ve been thinking about that, the more I’ve realized something else. Because the truth is… it’s not just age. It’s environment.
I sometimes think back to my 20s and 30s, even my 40s, and wonder what changed. Back then I would just go. I’d figure things out along the way and worry about the details when they showed up. I remember renting a car in Italy with nothing more than a AAA map, barely speaking the language, and simply driving. If something went wrong, you dealt with it. If you got lost, you asked someone. And somehow those moments often turned into the best parts of the experience.
Like the time in my 20’s when we passed a sign for Orvieto, Italy and decided, on the spot, to check it out (this mention is directed at one person, you know who you are
). No research, no plan… just curiosity. And it turned into one of those unexpected highlights you never could have scheduled even if you tried, and will hold in your memory forever.
Or the road trips I’ve taken with John Andrews, many of which we have shared via social media during out trips, where the plan wasn’t really a plan at all. We figured it out as we went. Where to stop, where to eat, where to go next. Those trips weren’t defined by efficiency… they were defined by experience.
Of course, some of the shift probably is age and perspective. As we get older, we tend to calculate risk differently. The unknown can feel less like possibility and more like inconvenience. But the more I think about it, the more I realize the environment around us has changed dramatically. Technology was supposed to make adventure easier. In theory it removes barriers. We have GPS, translation apps, instant reviews, and the ability to research every possible outcome before we ever leave home. And the more I look around, the more I realize this isn’t just happening to those of us who’ve been around a while… it’s shaping how younger generations experience the world from the very start. Yet somehow those same tools can quietly remove the “adventure.”
Instead of enabling spontaneity, they often encourage over-planning. Instead of leaving room for discovery, they nudge us to map everything in advance. Instead of embracing uncertainty, we’re conditioned to expect a smooth, optimized, almost perfect experience. When everything can be pre-planned, measured, and reviewed, it becomes harder to simply wander.
The irony is that the very tools designed to give us confidence may be the same ones making us less willing to step into the unknown.
Looking back, some of the best experiences I’ve had came from moments when I didn’t know exactly what would happen next. The missed turn that led somewhere interesting. The conversation with someone who helped when I was lost. The small surprises that never show up in a travel guide. Adventure used to live in those spaces.
Maybe the challenge today isn’t learning new technology. Maybe it’s remembering when to put it aside long enough to leave a little room for serendipity again. Because letting things happen isn’t just about loosening control… it’s about resisting the systems that quietly try to take it away.
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