Editor’s Letter
HOW FAR WOULD you go for an adrenaline rush? Would you willingly be marooned on a deserted island, with nothing but your wits with you? Or embark on a high-speed chase on the narrow streets of Monaco, with the onus to save the world?
Has our daily life really become so boring that we are willing to pay other people to put us through excruciatingly uncomfortable situations just to experience some thrills and spills? It is not a new phenomenon. We’ve been jumping out of airplanes, catapulting off cliffs and sailing turbulent waters for centuries, but how far are we willing to push to get that burst of adrenaline rush?
And a greater question is, why do we need this adrenaline rush? Scientists suggest that stress-inducing adventures increase the level of the chemical noradrenalin in our system, causing that same euphoric feeling that you get when you fall in love. This, let’s be honest, can sometimes be more dangerous than jumping off a building without a harness.
When we asked our community of Thought
Leaders to tell us about their riskiest adventures, we expected answers ranging from swimming with sharks to navigating the Amazon (the forest, not the app, although figuring out what to watch on Amazon Prime can sometimes be quite an emotional roller coaster ride), but interestingly, many of them responded with a variation on a similar theme: quitting their established jobs and jumping into the unknown.
The thrills you get from spending a week in the wilderness (p.34) or from embarking on a race of the world’s most dangerous tracks (p.40) are momentary – they make for great dinner conversation for years to come, but it’s the decisions that have the ability to change the entire course of your life that are by far the scariest. The what ifs are nerve-wracking, but the implications of not taking that plunge can be even more alarming.
We hope this issue serves as an inspiration to push you to embark on a new adventure or even make that decision you’ve been delaying for fear of change. Best of luck!