CAREER CHANGE
I recently came across a term that I think best describes a career status worth pursuing, working adventurer. This is how the adventurer, author, speaker, podcaster, photographer Alastair Humphreys describes his career title in his book, Ask An Adventurer: Behind The Scenes: Making A Living From Living Adventurously, Growing An Audience, and Unconventional Creativity.
Retired is not a career title for someone still able to work. With my thirty-year military career behind me, for almost seven years I have been trying to find what is next for me. When I transitioned out of uniform I thought I was pretty confident about what would be next. I had been upgrading my education, seeking and finding work opportunities, but nothing truly stuck.
So do I truly retire? Do I not pursue employment opportunities? I am blessed to receive a decent military pension with benefits. But trust me, it is not as generous as you might think. It is far from a full pension, it is actually less than 60%. And I still have children at home for a few more years before becoming an empty nester.
Retired? Nope. I don’t spend my morning at the local coffee shop solving world problems with other retirees. Not that that has been much of an option for the past two COVID years. I still want to contribute, I still want to pursue opportunities that have a financial payout of some kind. Doesn’t that mean that I still want to work?
No one can say a long military career is not filled with adventure, though generally not an adventure one has much say in. Being in the Navy I saw a fair amount of the world, experienced many other countries and their cultures. The North Atlantic in a bad storm is certainly an adventure, a bloody grand adventure when the winds are howling at gale force and the seas are crashing above the bridge which is 30 feet above water and the ship is regularly rolling over 30 degrees to either side. There is no life like it.
I want to continue to work. I want to continue to adventure. Ergo, a working adventurer I shall be.
Humphreys loosely defines a working adventurer as “someone who earns money from their adventures.” He is clear that it is not” someone who enjoys adventure as a hobby or takes a break from work to go traveling.”
Now how exactly one earns money from their adventures is, well, up to that person. For Humphreys, he earns money from a variety of sources, including, writing books and magazine articles, speaking engagements, brand ambassador, making videos, photography besides many other means.
One example of what being a working adventurer can look like, check out his video My Midsummer Morning — rediscovering a life of adventure on YouTube.
So how does one become a working adventurer, being in my mid 50’s with kids still at home?
My 500 words tomorrow will begin to explore how I foresee becoming a working adventurer.