2020 — A Year of Adventure
By: Laurynas Baltrenas
Tags: Motorcycling, Dancing, Adventure, Improve Yourself, Travel

The year is coming to an end. After everything that has happened, you might say it is about time. I am sure soon you will set yourself a New Year resolution claiming that the next year will be different. After all, you are staying at home and have nothing but time to exercise, right? Hold your horses. What if I told you there is a different way, a way where you don’t have to abandon your resolution in a month or so.

Your Theme

At the start of 2020, I watched a video called Your Theme from CGP Grey. The idea is simple — pick a theme for the year and try to follow it. This way, instead of a single goal, you set a principle that is easily adapted to the environment. Grey can explain this way better, so go and watch his video. Now, let me tell you about my 2020.

My theme was — adventure. When I picked it, I imagined that I will do a lot of traveling, meet people abroad, and so on. Yeah… That did no happen. However, this shows how adapting the themes can be — instead of traveling, the word “adventure” transformed to mean trying new things. If you know a movie called “Yes Man” it felt something like that, just with less comedy. In essence, the theme nudged me to at least try what I was offered. Also, now if I thought that I wanted something, I tried it. And I did try a lot in 2020…

My 2020

Let’s start simple. I already wrote about how I changed two jobs and moved to Switzerland. Maybe I would have done the same without this adventurous spirit, but it definitely helped me deal with all the hardships that follow a job change.

Next up — I started dancing. I have to admit, it was planned before 2020. However, the theme nudged me to go to socials and try more than one dance. In total, I tried five different dances and found one that I enjoy a lot. A new activity also comes with its community, so I also made some new friends. And then did not see them again until summer. During summer, when the restrictions were relaxed, I also attended two dancing camps. Thus far, I had no idea that people are capable of dancing until 5 in the morning for two days in a row.

My favorite dance so far — Blues

Another thing that I wished to try for some time was offroad motorcycling. So, I exchanged my big touring motorcycle for a nimble offroad bike. It allowed me to explore Lithuania like never before. I visited almost every corner of my home country and realized how truly amazing it is. Besides that, I participated in three different offroad courses and in a few offroad events. All of this was another source of meeting amazing people.

My first offroad motorcycling year

One event that left me the biggest impression was APL. It is a week-long adventure of driving the long way round Lithuania right next to its border. This new hobby was a great mix of sightseeing, exercise, and stress-relief.

APL track that we covered in 7 days

Besides these, there were numerous occasions where I got a chance to try something new, and I took it. For example, when I found out that local motorcycle dealers are organizing free demo rides — I went for it and tried out several new motorcycles.