Get lost with intent

Are you a goal setter, a problem solver or an opportunity seeker?

Do you have a precise plan about how to reach your goal and get strained if not everything goes as effortlessly as planned?

You don’t panic if difficulties arise while accomplishing your goal, but you like challenges and you feel proud of yourself if despite all the factors and issues that made your work more demanding than it was supposed to be, you reached the desired outcome?

Or you prefer change, organizing and continuously re-organizing pieces into mosaics, playing with combinations and variables because you know that the opportunities that arise will bring you to the desired outcome, you just have to pay attention to the details and dynamically shift your perspective?

I know three ways of getting lost.

Blame the map

My parents often had a quarrel in the car on the highway because one of them made a mistake, we didn’t take the right road, we didn’t know how to get back and the GPS woman kept saying incorrect instructions regarding roads that do not even exists. This usually happened when we had a concrete destination where we spent our holiday and we traveled almost one day to get there. The idea was to get to the sea before the sun goes down, and every extra minute and kilometer spent along the way made the trip more exhausting and tense. We didn’t enjoy the getting there, but we actually wanted to get it over with. Is the tension and stress of this situation familiar to you too?

Celebrate mistakes

The other type of getting lost is fun and full of adventure. I was in Lisbon a few years ago and I wanted to see the ancient aqueduct. As I passed by, I noticed the beautiful favela on the hill, the Bairro da Liberdade in Campolide. There was no question, I wanted to go there and watch it from closer. Soon I found myself in this poor area, in a community where I was a stranger. I didn’t feel good and safe, and unfortunately I didn’t have a clue how to get out of there. I felt completely lost. I spent some time there walking up and down, while I tried ineffectively to figure out how to get back to the city center. I had to ask those people which direction to take, and I realized that these people were far from being dangerous, they were just poor and willing to help me. This was one of my best moments in Portugal.

Be the adventurer

The third type of getting lost stands apart from the previous ones as it is defined by the intention of getting lost. In this case the destination is not as important as how I get there. The focus is on the process. It usually happens when I go walking or running. I have a certain time frame and my task is to fill it the way I would like to. The preferred outcome of getting lost while walking or running is to make new discoveries in terms of places, thoughts, physical capacities and emotions. The only rule is to choose the unfamiliar streets instead of those I frequently cross and see what comes next.

Learn to improvise

Improvisation is the art of getting rid of the constructed, already existing frames, setting yourself free and stepping on the land of the unknown. The ability to improvise might not come by nature as it takes courage and curiosity to explore and accept the idea of imperfection, failure and change.

Improvisation is an intense form of experimentation and it only works if you engage with the idea that anything could happen. It is the perfect example of getting lost with intent, very similar to the experience when you go to new places without a map. Some people think of improvisation as the result of being unprepared or having lack of ideas, but the truth is that improvisation is about the opportunity of visceral experiments, listening to your gut and having trust in yourself. Do you think that getting lost could sometimes be an efficient way to move towards your goal?

Let us play

I would like to invite you to play a game with me. You can also think about it as a challenge, it is up to you.

Set three destinations for the next week.

If you have to go to the post office, your work place or to the gas station this week, these are perfect destinations. You know these ways by heart, so you could go there with your eyes closed.

1. First destination: your goal is to reach this destination as fast as possible and accomplish the task why you went there. Pay attention to the destination only.

2. Second destination: find an obstacle that makes this task difficult to accomplish. It could be a man on the street who asks for some money or a cigarette or anything else that disturbs you and slows you down. Then look at it from another perspective and celebrate the obstacle as if it offered you something.

3. Third destination: change the way of getting to your destination. Choose the streets you never choose, it doesn’t matter if the road will be longer than usually. If you like someone you meet on the street, stop for a while or follow them. Forget the destination for a moment, and experiment how you find yourself in a situation when your road could dynamically change according to the inputs and impulses received.

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love, d.