Children and the Adventurers' Skillset

The Adventurers’ Skillset is a collection of 8 skills. They are highly transferable and serve us well in other areas of life and naturally lend themselves to developing leaders and people who make things happen. It is a wonderful skillset to foster in our children! So go on, give your children the gift of adventure.

Dreaming

Every child dreams, due to our experiences in the world we often quash them. Adventure is a beautiful opportunity to allow children to attempt to manifest their dreams. The more success they have the more tenacity they develop when faced with people who do not believe in their dreams. Remember it is the dreamers that make magic happen.

Planning

The archer only hits the targets they are aiming at. Bringing planning into a child’s life shows them how to choose a trajectory and focus on it. It brings actionable structure to a dream and ultimately shows them how to make the dream a reality.

Being Present

Meditation is not just for monks. Anyone can learn to control their mind, it is just like a muscle and requires exercise to operate optimally. Adventure is a great tool for helping young people to operate in the present and be aware of their thoughts and actions. This leads to an increased ability to achieve anything and also to increased levels of happiness.

Navigating

Navigation is an art and the heart of it is very simple. You take a representation of what you think is going to be and cross-reference it with what is. When the two align you know where you are and the best thing to do next. Like all the adventurers’ skillset it is transferable into all areas of life.

Trusting

Tie into a rope with someone and you either have a life long friend or you are walking in the opposite direction at the end of the day. Adventure always speeds up development of trust and provides a personal example of how great it feels to trust and be trusted. It also indicates how situations are made easier by a healthy dose of trust.

Managing Risks

Risk management is another simple skill that has huge benefits in life. At its core we assess the consequences of a hazard and then consider the likelihood of the consequences occurring. Each of us will have different outcomes to both components of the equation so we have to make a decision based on how it is going to affect us. Giving children a simple framework at a young age helps them avoid situations later on in life.

Dealing with Adversity

Picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off when things are not going well is one of the quintessential skills of successful people. Nowhere is the development of this skill expedited as it is in adventurous settings. When we give children the space to do this they show us just how resilient they are.

Finding Solutions

Life does not always go according to plan, adventures will constantly give us circumstances where we have to practice dealing with this fact. When we provide children with situations and help them develop the tools needed to deal with them, then we create leaders for the future.