Adventure Points

-

What would you do if your plane was hit by lightning?

If you’re Dolly Chugh and you want to prevent your kids from hating air travel forever, you invent Adventure Points.

When my kids were little, we once were on a plane that got struck by lightning. And of course we were all very freaked out. We were totally fine. Nothing happened. But it was just a little startling, and in the moment we were all freaking out. And if I remember right, it was actually my kids’ first or second plane ride ever. We had waited a pretty long time to take them on planes.

And so I remember saying to them, “Oh! We just got an adventure point!”, and sort of coming up with that on the fly, that this is a good thing that we just got struck by lightning. “Let’s see how many adventure points we’re going to get on this trip!”
 - Dolly Chugh #568. The Many Benefits of a “Paradox Mindset”, Ten Percent Happier, March 8, 2023

I love this reframe.

The physiological experience of fear and excitement are nearly identical (e.g. heart rate and blood pressure increase, breath quickens). The emotions we feel are an interpretation — a story our brains make up to predict what will happen next. We can nudge our brains in the direction of excitement.

Adventure Points are a great way to remind ourselves that we can do hard things. And it doesn't have to be as dramatic as being hit by lightning. It could be the scary phone call you need to make, or opening that email you've been avoiding.

What Adventure Points have you earned recently?


Thanks for being here. You matter.

If you would like updates in your email, subscribe here.

(For more on how emotions are made, check out Lisa Feldman Barrett.)

Create a Life You Choose, Not the One That Chooses You

Comments

Julia said…
I love adventure points! Thank you for sharing this tool!

I like how adventure points can be used to motivate us to do the hard task, and on the other side of the task, adventure points are a way of recognizing and celebrating the accomplishment. Also, I can see this being a great tool for positive accountibility. I bet it would work really well in groups.

To answer the question...
Most recently, I earned adventure points by having a difficult conversation with some very close friends. :)
January 27, 2024 at 12:10 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you have a piano tied to your leg?

-
Image
I remember taking the school bus home one afternoon in Grade Primary (Kindergarten). I was five years old, with bright blue eyes and blond hair, probably dressed in red rubber boots and corduroy pants that I called my “whip-whip pants” because of the sound they made when I walked. I knew my bus driver’s name, and that I had to get off the bus at the first stop beyond where we turned onto the Trans Canada Highway at the red flashing light, after about half an hour of stops for other students along the Bay Road. We reached my stop, and  I remember   gathering my backpack from the wide black bus seat, sliding myself off the seat into the aisle to make my way to the front of the bus. And I remember my bus driver hurrying me along by asking, “Do you have a piano tied to your leg?” That was 40 years ago and those words still echo. I wish I could travel back in time. I wish I could return to 1981 to erase the word “slow” from my grade Primary report card and replace it with, “Randy w...
Read more

Accountability Is Not a Dirty Word (with audio)

-
Image
Sit back, relax, and I will read this post to you. We have an unhealthy relationship with accountability. As ADHD folks, we’ve had more than our fair share of being “held accountable” for things we’ve forgotten, deadlines we’ve missed, emails we wish we hadn’t sent, and projects we haven’t finished. It’s no wonder that we could be repelled by the idea of accountability. It has the foreboding sense of a reckoning for our misdeeds. But accountability can be incredibly powerful. Have you noticed how it can be easy to do something for a friend, while doing that exact same task for yourself can seem nearly impossible? We are wired to be social creatures. Accountability draws on this social power. Everything gets easier when “I” becomes “we”. I was inspired to dive into this topic when I listened to an episode of The One Thing podcast on  Demystifying Accountability . Accountability comes in different flavors. We’ve just been accustomed primarily to the sou...
Read more

ADHD and feeling “dumb” (Henry’s story)

-
Image
From the ADHD Aha! podcast : "Growing up, Henry Lang kept hearing that he was too disorganized and “not smart enough.” Then in high school, he was diagnosed with ADHD and started getting support through a 504 plan." "Now, Henry is a teacher in Vermont dedicating his career to — and even writing his thesis on — teaching kids with ADHD. He has trouble giving himself the same empathy he shows his students, though. Henry, like many of us with ADHD, often calls the mistakes he makes because of his ADHD “dumb.” Henry and host Laura Key unpack what he really means when he says “dumb” — and how other ADHD-ers might internalize and misuse that word, too."
Read more