Mantra with Jemma Sbeg - I Say Yes to New Adventures

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

This week's mantra is I Say Yes to New Adventures. Stepping outside your comfort zone can feel scary—but it’s often where the magic happens. In this episode of Mantra, we explore how to welcome new experiences with an open heart, overcome fear-based hesitation, and lean into the unknown with curiosity and confidence. Saying yes to new adventures doesn’t mean abandoning what’s safe—it means expanding your world and discovering parts of yourself you didn’t know existed. This Mantra will inspire you to take bold steps, trust the journey, and invite more spontaneity and joy into your life. Mantra is an OpenMind Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to OpenMind+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Mantra! Instagram: @mantraopenmind | @OpenMindStudios TikTok: @OpenMind Facebook: @0penmindstudios X: @OpenMindStudios YouTube: @OpenMind_Studios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Open Mind. Welcome to a brand new week. Here is your mantra. I say yes to new adventures. I'm your host, Gemma Speck. Every Monday I give you a simple but powerful phrase to consider and bring into your life, a philosophy to guide you in the week ahead and hopefully even beyond. In each episode I unpack what our mantra really means, how it has shown up in my life and

how we can bring it into yours. I offer general prompts and a weekly challenge to help you take this mantra and put it into meaningful action. At Open Mind, we value your support, so please remember to share your thoughts on social media and rate, review and follow mantra to help others discover the show. For more exclusive content, monthly bonus episodes, early access and ad-free listening, join our Open Mind Plus community on Apple Podcasts. Each month I also love to respond to your questions and comments in bonus episodes,

so leave a comment on this episode or on Instagram at mantraopenmind if you have any dilemmas, questions or just queries around this mantra or any other. I cannot wait to dive into this week's mantra with you, so stick around, we'll be right back after this short pause. Welcome back. Okay, let's get right into it. It is time for this week's mantra, I Say Yes to New Adventures. Adventure is a necessity of life, and that might either be very exciting or plain terrifying. Doing hard things, doing scary things, beautiful things, is maybe what existence is all about, but we can become, A, complacent, and B, I think scared of our ability to handle uncertainty.

And in this way, we end up turning down truly life-changing opportunities for all the wrong reasons and what follows is regret and sadness that we didn't actually test ourselves and push ourselves. Adventures I think, they aren't just like the typical holiday, vacation, travel example that you're probably thinking of. Hiking Everest is a wild adventure, but so is saying yes to a job you don't feel capable of yet. So is choosing to fall in love when there's always

the possibility of having your heart broken. So is putting yourself in new and uncomfortable situations. Going to things alone, experiencing new and surprising parts of a culture or a religion, committing to a goal you think is ludicrous. I kind of think of adventure as anything that contains an unknown that you are equally enthralled and terrified by. They are also a huge catalyst for personal growth because I think these kind of situations really put a mirror up to who you are in both a very painful but revealing way.

Typically growth takes months, maybe even years of dedication and hard work to really show itself. But adventures are like a fast track. They speed that up significantly because it is when you are uncomfortable and dealing with ambiguity that you learn the most about yourself. It is those moments of stress and tension, but also exhilaration and excitement that a whole new facet of you opens up. I think about people who go solo backpacking for six months and return a completely different person, more self-aware, confident with a sense of deep purpose, or the way that, I don't know, marathon training can transform a person.

My friend recently ran a marathon and I swear her personality changed from the beginning of that race to the end. All because you don't know what you're going to do in situations like that until you're in them. And there is this entire part of yourself, I believe, that will be stretched and challenged like you've never been before. And once you are in that situation, it's almost like, oh wow, the secret cave or the secret door in your brain suddenly unlocks and you walk into this whole new room

of who you are, who you never would have met unless you embarked on an adventure that was scary. And I guess what I'm trying to you embarked on an adventure that was scary. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's meant to be scary. It's not an adventure without a little bit of fear. I think fear and feeling scared at the precipice of an adventure is a core ingredient for the reward that you will get at the end. Easy things don't make us feel as accomplished as hard things, but that fear component is typically what really keeps us from embarking on adventure, even when it

is a once in a lifetime experience, even when it is right under our noses, even when it is harder to say no than to say yes. Fear is what keeps us still. Fear is obviously a very important emotion. In fact, you guys know I think every emotion is important, even the ones that we would want to label as bad. If an emotion exists, it means that it has some kind of purpose. And fear's purpose is to obviously keep us safe. It's our alarm system. People who don't experience fear end up doing things

that are actually like life threatening without even realizing it. Because fear is also part of a rational side to us that we need. It's the part that can zoom in on our actions and link them to consequences in advance. So very useful, very necessary. We don't want to shut that part of us down.

However, not all fear is created equal. What about when our brain's idea of what's safe is, is actually really restrictive? Or it sees danger where there is actually opportunity. What if fear turns into anxiety and starts to create its own magical world of hypotheticals, the likelihood of which happening is 0.00001%, but the likelihood of holding us back being 100. This is when we really start to say no, when we really should be saying yes. And it comes down to two things. Firstly, catastrophizing.

Our brain really hates uncertainty. As humans, we would much prefer the safety of an open field where we can see everything going on than a dark shadowy forest where danger could kind of be lurking at any corner. It's a natural instinct for us. One of the ways that our brain combats uncertainty is by filling in the blanks with its own made-up situations, its own made-up scenarios to prepare us. So imagine that you've had this once-in- this once in a lifetime opportunity to go on a solo work

trip and it's just going to be you and you're going to have all this responsibility and you're flying to Italy, you're flying to, I don't know, Australia, you're flying to somewhere amazing. Right as you board the plane, your brain might be thinking a million things, none of them good. Things like, what if the plane crashes before I even get there? What if I end up getting food poisoning? What if I lose my passport?

What if the person who I'm meeting with is my ex-boyfriend from 20 years ago and I don't know that and then I lose my job because I'm not impressing him and blah, blah, blah, blah. In that empty space on the precipice of an adventure is where our anxiety is likely to thrive. Because we know that anxiety and catastrophizing, they operate best when there is limited information. Because when there is limited information, there is limited capacity for us to say, There is limited capacity for us to say you're wrong. You've got to remember these catastrophic scenarios that your brain is creating for you, all they are trying to do is prepare you. They are trying to exercise your problem solving skills in advance by making up

hypothetical scenarios that probably won't happen, but saying, well, if they do, we've already thought about them, so we'll be prepared. It's a mental exercise really, an unconscious involuntary mental exercise. But the issue occurs when we confuse this mental exercise with the truth, and we think that just thinking scary things is somehow going to make them come true or that it is our wisdom or our intuition when these are nothing more than thoughts, nothing more than anxious thoughts at that that are trying their very hardest

to prepare you for the worst case scenarios. The thing I always think of when I am about to undertake crazy adventure and I'm catastrophizing and overthinking is not all of these worst case scenarios could possibly happen at once. I'm thinking of 50, 60, 100 things, terrible things that could happen without realizing that the very fact that I'm coming up with so many proves that the chances of them happening are actually very, very unlikely. So this is the first component of our fear. Our fear of adventure is catastrophizing and a fear of the unknown. The second component is a lack of trust.

I always say this and you've probably heard it before, the opposite of anxiety is trust. Trusting that things are going to work out for you, trusting as well that you have the ability to deal with it even if it doesn't. Every single adventure is going to stress you and stress you and challenge you. The thing is, you are fully capable of dealing with it. You are fully capable of things going wrong.

In fact, things have gone wrong in the past and you've dealt with it. You have coping strategies. You are a smart, intelligent person. So why is it with all these examples in the past of us doing hard things, do we then come across an unknown and think that suddenly our entire personality, and character, and capabilities are going to suddenly disappear from us, you are so unbelievably capable. This new adventure is going to prove that to you.

You are going to reveal to yourself some incredible talents, some incredible problem-solving skills. And that's really part of it. That's actually the allure of an adventure is how you come out stronger and better than before. This is why I really want to encourage you to say yes, even if you don't feel prepared, even if you don't feel ready, even if you don't feel like you have all the information. There is this incredible part of you who is going to step up and guide you through the situation and hard situations in ways that you cannot even imagine.

And this version of you is waiting for you to discover them. So what would our lives look like if we treated uncertainty as an invitation rather than as a threat? I think it would completely change how we see a lot of things. I think it would completely change how we see a lot of things. Firstly, I think that it would mean you would be more open to new experiences, which is just incredible. I think it would also mean that you would end up chasing new experiences that previously would have felt threatening to you.

You aren't just going to be sitting there waiting for a comfortable challenge to approach you. You are going to go out and find an adventure that can push you. If you're still scared around what that could mean and you're scared about the worst-case scenario, I have a couple of exercises that I think would be very, very helpful. The first is to start using the so what or the what else technique. When you have the opportunity to do something really, really cool and you don't feel prepared and the reason you don't feel

prepared is because of these catastrophic, uncertain situations, I want you to take those situations and ask yourself, so what or what else? What if I miss my flight and I'm stranded? So what? I'll get on a new flight. What if I make a huge mistake at work? Well what else? Well maybe I thrive and I prove myself time and time again. What if I fall for this person and the love doesn't last? So what?

Yes, it will be hard, but who's to say that wasn't the point all along? Who's to say that you won the point all along? Who's to say that you won't find someone else who loves you and adores you? This is a really important strategy for countering thinking that is going to keep you small and is going to keep you complacent. And complacency is this other thing that we see all the time as people get older, but also at any age. Complacency, I think we think is boredom. We think it's passivity. I really think it's just fear.

People become complacent because they don't trust themselves. So another exercise that we're going to try as well is listing everything that could go wrong in the left-hand side of a column and then countering that with everything that could go right in the right-hand side of a column, and then countering that with everything that could go right in the right-hand side. I could jump out of the plane and break both my legs. But what's the more likely scenario? I could have the most enthralling experience of my life. I could not meet anyone that I knew at the party that I'm going to alone.

What could go right? I could meet my new best friend. If you want to say yes to new adventure, you have to consciously counter the thinking that is trying to convince you that the worst case scenario is all that awaits you. And when in doubt, all you have to do is take the first step. Just take the first step. You can always turn around.

Just keep moving forward, keep trying, keep seeing where this, again, hidden amazing part of you is going to take you. It's so wild how often we hold ourselves back, not because the opportunity isn't right, but because stepping into something new really asks us to let go of control. And yet every time I've said yes before I felt ready, it has led me somewhere I needed to go. Sometimes the scariest leaps are the ones that end up changing everything.

I'm going to talk about that and so much more right after this short break. Now that we've looked at the meaning behind today's mantra, I say yes to new adventures. I want to get personal with you all and just share some of my own insights and reflections about this phrase. There have been moments in the past where I have turned down something amazing and later realized that it was a huge mistake. So you guys know I used to be absolutely terrified of flying

and back when I was at university I had this incredible opportunity for basically a fully paid trip to Europe. That's right, fully paid trip to Europe. It was going to be paid by my university. I wouldn't own them a dime. It was for two months. It was going to be spectacular. Guess what? I didn't go. I didn't go. I sat on it.

I thought about it and the idea of just having to get on a plane to get there. And the idea of being so far away from everyone that I know and everyone that I trust was so paralyzing and I felt so self-conscious and I lacked so much self-confidence that I didn't go. And you know what, I know someone who went on that trip and it was a once in a lifetime trip. It was incredible. And I remember sitting at home and seeing the pictures of her eating pasta and ireli and her at museums

I'd always dreamed of going to and her on the Eurorail being like, that could have been me. And it wasn't like resentment at her and it wasn't like jealousy. It was just like a severe case of disappointment and a severe case of just like, okay, I'm not going to get that opportunity back. Here I was waiting to be ready, waiting for the right time, not realizing that I sometimes have to create the conditions for the right time to occur. And in this case, I had to really be okay with being a little bit scared

for a greater reward afterwards. I had to be okay with getting over my fear of flying. So what happened after that? Well, COVID happened after that and my fear of flying actually really, really intensified. And then when my podcast, the psychology of your 20 started to really grow, I got a similar opportunity.

I got a similar opportunity to go to London for something called The Podcast Show. And I sat in the same position, umming and ahhing and feeling terrified, not knowing whether to go, not knowing what to do, except I realized the mistake I'd made in the past. And I really reflected on how disappointed I was, and I decided consciously to make a different decision. And so I ended up going into some pretty intense exposure therapy to get over my fear of flying, to get on that plane. And when I got on the plane, I was scared.

And I did have a panic attack the first 15 minutes. And I remember sitting next to this lady who didn't speak any English and she was just patting my arm and just being like, you're going to be okay. Like she wasn't saying that, but I could tell like her face was saying that. And she was so lovely. And after 15 minutes, guess what? The fear subsided and it was replaced by excitement. And I went on that trip and I ended up having the best time.

It was one of the first times I've been on a plane in I think like six years, definitely one of the first times I've been overseas in a long time, probably since I was a kid because of my fear. And I met incredible people. I made memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I bought souvenirs that are staples in my home and that every time I look at it, I think, wow, that was a really hard thing. I chose adventure and I chose fear over complacency and fear over what is known and what is comfortable. I'm so glad I did that. So this is your reminder when you want to take something from this story, if you want to take anything, you are actually fully capable of doing hard things and scary things. And also an adventure gives you so much more than your fear or your anxiety ever will. Adventure gives you a good story of nothing else.

And I fully believe that life is really just made of good stories and that if your only goal in life is to chase a good story, you'll actually end up being a very interesting and happy person and you'll be a fun person to be around. It gives you mastery over fear. It shrinks fear. It makes fear turn from being a big bad wolf to a little puppy. It gives you self-knowledge as we spoke about before. There were parts of me I never would have met if I hadn't done the hard thing.

It just gives you experiences and it gives you wonder. Yes, I'm sure that your job is great. I'm sure that your hometown is great. I'm sure that your commute is great. I'm sure that your boyfriend is great or your girlfriend is great. Those things are great. But there is so much more out there that you could experience and that is waiting for you. I always think of this phrase, right? The universe isn't greedy so ask for more. And I think that this really applies here. Ask for more adventure. Ask to see how far you can go.

You also have to ask yourself another question. What do you fear more? The worst case scenario that your brain has cooked up that probably won't even happen or regret? People are more likely to regret decisions that they didn't make over ones that they did. So what I'm saying here is that if you want to view this from a purely mathematical point of view, if you want to minimize your chances of future regret later in life, you need to do the thing.

You need to say yes to a new adventure. It's also important to be discerning though, and I really want to finish up this section by just talking about how to know whether an adventure is right for you. We are a very lucky group of people. We are a very lucky generation. There are a lot of adventures to choose from, a lot of different opportunities to try new things, see new things. How do you know if it's for you? I think you know if you're not just doing it because everyone else is.

If you're not just doing it out of FOMO. I used to think that I wanted to do van life. People who buy a beautiful combi van and do it up and it has a kitchen and a bathroom and they drive around. I used to think that adventure was for me and then I realized that I actually didn't want to do that. I just didn't want to miss out. I think an adventure for you is you're doing it not just because you

want to prove something to others. You're doing it because you want to prove something to yourself. It excites you even if no one else knows about it. You know, you would still want to do it if there were no photos, no posts, no applause, no one else knew about it. And it's driven by curiosity and not comparison. You're not like, oh, I want to go to South America because everyone else is in South America or I want to quit my job because everyone says that's the thing I should do even though

my current job is challenging. You cannot say yes to every new opportunity because then you would never invest in your current opportunities. So just be discerning. What is this going to do for your life? Is it really going to extend you? Do you need the challenge right now? Is this something you're going to regret? I think saying yes to new adventures for me hasn't always been easy. And I think I went through a period of saying yes to everything and then stretching myself a little bit too thin. But it's definitely taught me so much self-trust and intuition nowadays that I am ready to say yes to what is right for me and okay with saying no with what is wrong for me because I know that if I'm saying no, it's not from fear. It's because

I have this deep self-knowledge of what I need. So we are going to take a little break, but afterwards, let's turn these reflections into action. I want to share some journal prompts as well as our weekly challenge. So stick around for more after this short break. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shankar. I host a podcast called A Slight Change of Plans that combines behavioral science and storytelling to help us navigate the big changes in our lives. I get so choked up because I feel like your show and the conversations are what the world needs, encouraging, empowering, counter-programming

that acts like a lighthouse when the world feels dark. Listen to a slight change of plans wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Let's take a few minutes to ground this week's mantra, I say yes to new adventures in your real life. Starting with, of course, how deep thought of the day. So this deep thought comes from Mark Twain. 20 years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than the ones that you did do. So throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discover.

This is very similar to what we were saying before. We can be so held up by fear and complacency because it's the thing that is happening to us in the moment, not realizing that future us is counting on you right now to realize that sometimes the scenarios in your head aren't that serious. And your future self is counting on you now to just say, I don't want to listen to you fear Fia. Like, I'm okay with not listening to you. I don't want to listen to those scary scenarios. You are just thoughts. I can replace that thought with a better thought. And kind of throwing caution to the wind. You know, sometimes also you might not feel prepared and sometimes you might actually not be prepared in the moment. What this quote is really saying

is, you know, yes, ships are safe in the harbour, but that's not what ships are made for. That's not what you are made for. Whilst we're in this reflective mindset about that quote, let's keep going. I want to guide you through a few journal prompts to really help explore what this mantra is bringing up for you today and maybe in the next week or next month. And of course, if journaling isn't your thing, or you don't have one nearby, you're driving, whatever it is, that's totally okay. All I want from you is just to take a quiet moment to reflect on these prompts

wherever you are. Here are the three prompts to help you check in with where you are, what's coming up today, what this mantra might mean for you, how it could guide you. First, what does adventure mean to you right now? What's the definition? And how is that definition changed over time? Is there a particular kind of adventure you feel more drawn to right now? Next, what are three things you've said no too recently out of self-protection? And what would it look like to revisit just one of them? And finally, what part of you is craving change right now? And what's been holding you back from answering that very important call? Now that you've made the space to reflect,

let's give your mind a moment to rest and consider these questions further. In just a second, you'll hear a music track, and I encourage you to take this opportunity to process this week's reflections in whatever way feels right for you. No pressure, no expectations, just see where your mind goes and if this isn't something that you connect with, that's totally okay, just skip ahead about 30 seconds. But as you settle in, keep our mantra in mind. I say yes to

new adventures. As the music plays, let this mantra shape your thoughts and take the time to really connect with whatever it's bringing up for you. Beautiful. I find that whenever I take just a few seconds to just breathe and actually just think about what I'm thinking about, I feel a lot lighter. It's like a little mini reset for my mind, just enough space to pause before moving forward. But now that you've had a moment to reset and ground yourself, let's take all that energy and bring it into action. It's time for our weekly challenge, inspired by our mantra.

And the purpose of this challenge is really just to help you take what we discuss and turn it into real actionable steps in your life. So I'd love to hear how that's going. You can reach out to me at mantra open mind. Each month I'll also be responding to your questions and comments in our special bonus episode, which is available exclusively on open mind plus. But this week's challenge is called the tiny yes challenge. I want you to say yes to one small thing this week that you'd normally overthink or decline, whether it is a spontaneous plan, trying a new dish, speaking

up in a moment that you usually stay quiet. It really doesn't have to be anything like earth shattering or massive. I just need you to do something that's a little bit out of the ordinary. Notice what opens up when you lead with curiosity instead of hesitation. Notice how capable you actually are. Notice how these moments might actually surprise you and end up being really beautiful moments and moments of great capacity and capability. Again, make sure to reach out to me at

Mantra Open Mind to share how this challenge is working for you. All right. As we wrap up this week's episode, I want to share a few final thoughts about this mantra. I say yes to new adventures. You know what? This mantra has really brought up a few plans of mine that I think I need to take action on.

I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm moving to the UK at the end of the year. So not that my time in Australia is coming to an end, we'll definitely be returning, but there are all these things that I wanna do before we leave that I keep asking other people if they wanna do with me. Like I really wanna go to Uluru, I really wanna go to Broome,

I really wanna go to the Great Barrier Reef because I haven't really been before even though I've lived here most of my life. And so I think that I'm just gonna do it, genuinely. I think that this week I'm just gonna book the ticket, I'm just gonna go, maybe I'll drive, I don't know. I'm just gonna say yes and let myself lead the way rather than waiting for other people to show up.

And also, you know, my specific adventure that I'm thinking about at the moment does involve a plane ticket. It does involve something spontaneous, but that doesn't always have to be the case. Sometimes adventure is just a quiet choice to say yes when part of you wants to play it safe. The truth is, and I really want to end on this, you will not grow by staying comfortable. You grow by staying open, by stretching yourself, by doing things that are scary.

And you know, saying yes doesn't guarantee a perfect outcome and doesn't guarantee an amazing story, but it's a pretty sure bet. And sometimes that's more than enough. Sometimes even if the story isn't the fantasy picture perfect one, it's still a good story. So if something is calling to you, even softly consider this episode and this mantra,

your nudge to say yes. Thank you for joining Mantra, an exclusive Open Mind original powered by Pave Studios. At Open Mind, we really value your support. So please share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review, and follow Mantra to help others discover the show. For ad-free listening and early access to the show and so much more, we invite you to

subscribe to Open Mind Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'll share another Mantra with you next Monday, but until then, keep showing up for yourself and your journey. I'm Gemma Speck. See you next week. Mantra is hosted by me, Jemma Spegg, and is an open-minded original powered by PAYDE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the incredible Mantra team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Stacey Warrincker, Sarah Camp, and Paul Leberskind. Thank you for listening.