There’s a river of adventure that runs through each of our lives.

For some people, it’s on the surface – a cascading torrent. For others, it’s a stream buried deep underground. It runs along in their imaginative lives but rarely sees the surface in the form of any lived adventures. And then there’s the river that runs dry, which remains unfed, and which relies on a refreshing storm of rain to bring it crashing into life again.

In relation to adventure, my wife, Nicky, and I know all these rivers. We met while adventuring many years ago, later got caught in the slipstream of corporate work, hit the road again in a camper van after resigning our jobs, and recently set up a new business dedicated to travel and adventure.

So we love adventure and travel but have also had to wrestle with the practicalities of earning a living, bringing up a family, and keeping the flame of adventure alive.

We’d like to suggest some observations on living an adventure-fuelled life, including what to watch out for in the lean years when the spirit of adventure may threaten to die.

1. Your travel bag carries everything you need in life.

We weigh ourselves down with homes, possessions and memorabilia. But the truth is that we came into life with nothing and we’ll leave it the same way. Travelling separately in the early 1990’s, Nicky and I both learned that a travel bag can carry all one’s real essentials.

We met in Latin America when we were both time out of work to travel the world. Our subsequent world trip lasted twenty two months, taking in countries as diverse as Ecuador, Peru, the USA, Thailand, Vietnam Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and China.

When we get bogged down in life, let’s remember that travel bag lying in the corner. Do we really need all the other stuff of life or are we ready to head out the door again?

I had to kick away the corporate ladder and re-embrace adventure again, this time not only with Nicky but also with Kiah, our eight year old daughter.

In the 1990’s, I worked in export sales for a sailing clothing brand before managing a major fashion accessory brand. It was easy to believe that I was living an adventurous life. Scaling the peak of corporate life provided its own adrenalin rush and, for a while, it was enough to travel as part of business.

But business travel is no substitute for adventure. After twenty trips to the US in one year, I realised how much my family was suffering. I had to kick away the corporate ladder and re-embrace adventure again, this time not only with Nicky but also with Kiah, our eight year old daughter. We took a year off, bought a camper van, and toured Britain and travelled abroad.

We need to remember that it’s never too late to get out and adventure again. Stepping away from employed existence was also the first step in enabling us to follow a dream – setting up a business dedicated to sustainability, outdoor life, and travelling accessories.

We had become slaves to the corporate world. Now, through travel, we became excited about the multitude of choices facing us again.

3. Adventuring brings you back to your deepest values

Travelling together as a family, Nicky and I realised that we loved slowing down, the idea of a sustainable life, and an emphasis on quality rather than quantity. We value analogue things in an increasingly digital world and we wanted to start our own company based on a foundation of making wise and conscious choices.

Adventuring can often be about the adrenalin rush of white-water rafting. But it can also be about meandering, connecting with unexpected people, and finding a completely different rhythm to life. For us, adventuring at this time enabled us to take our lives back into our control. We had become slaves to the corporate world. Now, through travel, we became excited about the multitude of choices facing us again.

4. Always be ready to start a new adventure

In summer 2008, we took the plunge and started our own business. It is based in our home in the Lake District, UK, but draws on a network of suppliers both local and global. Since our company, Millican, started, I’ve been to Asia several times. It been a delight to travel far afield again and also to do business with people on the basis not only of money but also of shared values and lifestyles.

Starting the company has been an amazing adventure – exciting, nerve-wracking, at times all-consuming. We?re aware of the dangers of getting swamped by a monster of our own creation and of becoming as enslaved as we became in corporate life.

But we are also hugely excited by the prospect of promoting travel, sustainable living, and in making the kind of connections with new people that we did when travelling the globe the first time on that worldwide trip.

When we travelled then, it was in a time – hard to contemplate – before e-mails and mobile phones. Today, we are networked in more tightly than ever – a great bonus but sometimes a cage of its own. All the more reason to be ready to shake the dust from our travel bag and embrace the wide blue yonder again.

We decided to name our company after Millican Dalton, a local legend in the Lake District. Born and raised in Cumbria, Millican abandoned life as an accountant in the City of London in the early 1900’s and became the self styled Professor of Adventure around Borrowdale. Embracing a life of self-sufficiency and adventure, he guided parties around the Lake District and the Alps, reputedly only accepting food and Woodbines for payment.

We’re not under any illusion about how we differ from Millican. We don’t live in a cave, we try to take regular showers, and we don’t wear home-made shorts in all weathers. But Millican’s pioneering belief in simplicity and sustainability we heartedly endorse. We all have only one chance to be pioneers in our own lives. Let’s grab the opportunity.

6. The most important map you use will be the one you’ve created.

Travelling around the world, Nicky and I relied on local maps the whole time. If truth be told, though, many of our best adventures took place off the beaten track. Working in business life, I relied on a different kind of map  the corporate map – but it was a well navigated world in which I eventually felt lost.

Heading out onto the road again was about tearing up that map and using a new travel one. Starting a new business was about discarding that travel map and inventing our own. So ultimately the most interesting map any of us can draw will always be the one tracing our own adventures through the ups and downs of life.

We met when we were carrying no more than a bag on each of our backs. Today, we’re
using and testing bags that we’ve designed ourselves on a daily basis.

And through those adventures, we’re aware that there’s been a common thread. One which makes us see our time now as completing a circle we began two decades ago.

We met when we were carrying no more than a bag on each of our backs. Today, we’re using and testing bags that we’ve designed ourselves on a daily basis.