Adventure Travel Taught Me How to Fail Better

I was less than 24 hours into what was supposed to be a week-long trip to Antarctica when my carefully planned itinerary went completely sideways.

A visa sanfu from the Chilean Consulate in Miami caused us to need an adjustment in paperwork. Of course we only had 24 hours to get it sorted, and of course the Consulate in Miami closed at 2pm local time and wouldn't be available again until after our ship bound for the Antarctic would leave. Making that ship became impossible, and suddenly I was facing the choice between pushing forward into uncharted conditions or admitting that my plan wasn't going to work.

That decision, to say let's throw caution to the wind and see what we can get done here. In a country I'd never been to before, and where I didn't speak the language, mde me accept that my usually well planned life was beyond my current capabilities and beyond my control. It taught me more about failure than any success ever has.

Adventure travel is essentially a laboratory for failure. You can plan meticulously, prepare extensively, research every possible variable, and still find yourself dealing with situations that don't match anything you anticipated. The mountains don't care about your schedule. The weather doesn't consult your itinerary. Your physical limitations don't negotiate with your ambitions. Foreign governments don't care about your bucketlist travel.

But here's what I've learned through years of trips that didn't go according to plan: failure whilst on an adventure isn't about not reaching your destination. It's about how you respond when reality doesn't match your expectations.

It's like some people say "The Journey is more important than the destination". What I've learnt is, the journey IS the destination.

Adventure travel is not about getting to the summit of the mountain, or stepping foot on a continent made of ice. It's about how you get there. The people you meet, the stories you tell while making true connections with other humans.

The Antarctic trip was a perfect example.

My initial response to the changed conditions was frustration, then self-blame. I should have checked the paperwork instead of just trusting they issued it correctly. I should have double checked my double check. I was treating the situation like a personal failure rather than an situational reality.

Adventure travel teaches you that there's a difference between quitting and pivoting.

Quitting is abandoning your goals because they're difficult. Pivoting is adjusting your approach when circumstances change. The mountain that's too dangerous in a storm might be perfect the next week. The river that's impassable during snow melt might be manageable in different conditions.

I've applied this lesson to every aspect of my life since then, especially my creative work.

Stage and screen projects that don't develop as expected aren't necessarily failed projects, they might be projects that need different approaches, different timing, or different resources.

The goal isn't to force every idea through to completion regardless of circumstances, but to recognize when conditions aren't right and adjust accordingly.

Adventure travel also teaches you about the difference between preparation and over-preparation. You need to plan, research, and prepare for known variables. But you also need to accept that unknown variables will always exist, and part of preparation is developing the flexibility to handle unexpected situations.

I once spent weeks researching a camping trip, identifying every possible challenge and packing solutions for scenarios that bordered on paranoid. Then the one thing that went wrong was something I'd never considered, my hiking boots didn't fit anymore. Not because I had out grown them, but because I had an unkown condition at the time that made my feet swell. I couldn't have predicted that. All my careful preparation for weather, wildlife, and navigation, and I was derailed by a temporary thing that I had no idea I had, and that was gone a few weeks later.

But by that point, I'd developed enough experience with failures to know that this was a problem to solve, not a reason to abandon the trip. I improvised and wore my regular sneakers or even went bare foot sometimes (although I don't reccomend). I learned that adaptability is more valuable than perfect planning.

The most important lesson adventure travel has taught me about failure is that it's often temporary and rarely as catastrophic as it initially seems. The trek I almost couldn't complete in the Aussie bush? I went back the following year, better prepared and with more realistic expectations, and had an incredible experience.

The camping trip with the failed boots? It became one of my most memorable trips because solving that problem led to conversations with myself and discoveries I never would have made if everything had gone according to plan.

Adventure travel failures have also taught me to distinguish between ego failures and actual failures.

Ego failures are when you can't do something because it threatens your self-image or doesn't match your expectations of your own capabilities. Actual failures are when continuing would be genuinely dangerous or impossible.

Learning to recognize this difference has been invaluable in every area of life. Sometimes what feels like failure is just your ego being challenged by reality. The creative project that's not working might not be a bad idea, it might just be an idea that requires different skills than you currently have, or resources you don't yet possess.

Adventure travel has taught me that the best adventures often come from plans that don't work out as expected. The most meaningful experiences frequently emerge from having to problem-solve your way through unexpected situations. The skills you develop adapting to circumstances you didn't anticipate are often more valuable than reaching the destination you originally planned.

So when I approach new challenges, whether they're creative projects, career decisions, or actual adventures, I try to plan well but hold those plans lightly. I prepare for what I can anticipate while accepting that the most important preparation is developing the resilience and adaptability to handle whatever I can't anticipate.

Failure isn't the opposite of success in adventure travel, it's part of the process. Every failed plan teaches you something about your capabilities, your preparation methods, or your decision-making. Every adaptation to unexpected circumstances builds skills you'll use in future adventures.

The mountain will be there tomorrow. The polar plunge I never got to do in Antarctica will be had the next time I'm at the ends of the earth.

The question is whether you'll be better prepared to meet it on its terms rather than insisting it meet you on yours.