Sometimes it can be hard to listen to the well-known advice to appreciate the little things in life. Well maybe not everyone has a hard time with it, but I know I do, remembering to find something positive in bad situations is not my first response. I decided to put my own spin on remembering to appreciate the little things, I call them mini-adventures.

When I think about an adventure I think of some big, grand, new experience that might have some danger involved. I love to go on adventures but clearly, it is not realistic to be able to go on them all the time. I started using the term mini-adventures when my friends and I got lost on car rides because even though we were lost we had managed to find someplace we had never been before, it also helped to ease the stress of the situation.

Once I started using the term mini-adventure it grew from just getting lost on the road to any tiny new experience that didn’t quite fit under the definition of a full adventure. It has helped me find the joy in potentially bad situations. Getting lost with friends has now turned into a great experience, don’t get me wrong there is still the stress of making sure we find our way back and don’t run out of gas.

To appreciate the little things sounds like easy advice to follow but it can be harder than it seems in the moment. Having mini-adventures works for me because it embraces that there is good and bad in what I am experiencing but in the end calling it a mini-adventure makes me remember it in a positive way. When I hear appreciate the little things it sounds like I should forget the negative things, and personally I would rather remember the good and bad.