The title of this article is borrowed from two of my favorite Disney Movies; Up and Meet the Robinson's. I loved both of these movies so much that I designed my own shirt with the saying "Adventure is Out There...Keep Moving Forward" on it the last time I was at Disney. I proudly wore it around the park and received several positive comments for the sentiment I was sharing. If you haven't seen either of these movies I highly recommend them and even if you aren't a fan of animated movies or Disney pics the lessons you can learn are well worth the time.
I have recently been confronted with the fact that what constitutes an adventure for some equates to an annoyance for others. Same challenge, different lens. Some look at challenges as opportunities or ADVENTURES while others look at the same challenges as ANNOYANCES. I believe that how we view challenges is an attitude, heart and maturity issue. It is a life altering decision to look at problems as adventures and not annoyances.
Two stories to illustrate my point. I am blessed to Teach and Coach in a growing and striving ministry. We have both a large church and large Christian School located on our property. Occasionally these ministries "bump" into each other due to a lack of space. Recently we had one of those "bumps" when part of our school was forced to re-locate for one day to another building on campus. Some teachers and classes were majorly affected and all others were at least in some way put out. Nothing major and it only lasted a day. Typically the kids were fine and loved the change of routine and scenery.
During the day two types of teachers, and attitudes, emerged. One was the adventure and one was the annoyance attitude. I asked several teachers how their day went and the response was "the kids loved it. They thought it was so cool to get to try something new and have a new classroom. It was an adventure." Without a doubt, those kids learned a valuable lesson in flexibility and probably learned a bunch in school that day." However, another group of teachers and attitudes also emerged. This group made comments like "this was awful, the kids didn't learn anything, how am I supposed to teach like this." Unfortunately, those kids probably didn't learn much that day (at least anything positive). Same set of circumstances (which weren't ideal, but were certainly manageable), yet far different responses. As a leader we need to see challenges as adventures and opportunities, not annoyances.
The last story occurred a few weeks later. After teaching all day and then coaching soccer practice for 2 hours I was headed off to do my taxes. My truck had been acting up and I was planning to get it worked on (hopefully with a fat tax refund check in the bank) in the next few days. We loaded up the two boys and headed out. We stopped for gas, filled up, and then it happened. Truck died. Not kinda, sorta, wouldn't start, but dead and no amount of jumper cables was bringing it back to life. It was about 38 degrees and we had two hungry boys in the truck and we were 10 miles from home and 10 miles from our destination. It was getting dark fast. Time to see if I believed this was an adventure or an annoyance. Bravely I told my 3 year old that we were on an adventure. He bought it, even though I wasn't so sure myself. For the rest of the night he kept telling everyone that he was on an adventure, and he believed it. Through some lucky circumstances (I believe some divine intervention and heavenly blessings) the truck was started by a local mechanic and returned home. My wife's cousin happened to be traveling through the area and her dad happened to be our tax person. My wife and two boys were safely delivered to their home while I returned the truck to our house and retrieved our car. Plus the truck was an easy and free fix once we figured out the problem. The point is... A rough situation became an adventure, not an annoyance or catastrophe. I learned a valuable lesson from my three year old:
The leader sets the tone and decides if it is an adventure or an annoyance.
