Life has a way of settling into predictable patterns. We wake up, follow our routines, check off our to-do lists, and repeat. But what if I told you there’s a simple concept borrowed from video games that could transform your everyday existence from mundane to magical?

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of living like Lara Croft or Indiana Jones — you know, having a “normal” professional life but with regular doses of adventure woven throughout. Growing up, I actually toyed with becoming an archaeologist, captivated by the romance of discovery and exploration. Life had other plans (read: the need for a better paycheck) and I found myself in the corporate world instead, but that craving for adventure never really disappeared.

The concept of side quests became real for me when a recent colleague (Corrine Lloyd, I blame this all on you!) started using the term regularly. At work, going on a “side quest” with her meant diving into an unexpected situation, getting pulled into a random project outside normal responsibilities, or handling some delightfully chaotic one-off scenario. The results were often laughable, sometimes dramatic, but always brought a spark of joy and interest to what could have been just another ordinary workday.

That’s when it hit me: if side quests could transform a 9-to-5 grind, maybe they were the key to living that adventure-filled life I’d always imagined. Maybe I couldn’t be discovering ancient tombs, but I could still be the protagonist of my own adventure story.

What Makes Life Worth Living?

Let me be blunt: Our lives deserve to be more whimsical than our current reality of endless errands, gym sessions, meal prep, and climbing the corporate ladder. We’ve become so damn efficient at adulting that we’ve forgotten how to actually live.

This isn’t about self-care or checking boxes for wellness. This is about passion. This is about waking up and thinking, “What interesting thing might happen today?” instead of “What do I have to get through today?”

Side quests are those spontaneous adventures that break us out of our carefully constructed routines. They’re the antidote to the beige existence that so many of us have accidentally created for ourselves. Unlike hobbies, which we do regularly and consistently, side quests are those delightful detours that surprise us — and often surprise others too.

The Magic of Unplanned Adventures

Think about your most memorable days from the past year. I’m willing to bet they weren’t the ones where everything went exactly according to plan. They were probably the days when something unexpected happened, when you said “yes” to something unusual, or when you took a left turn instead of going straight.

That’s the essence of a side quest: embracing the unexpected and actively seeking out experiences that don’t fit neatly into your usual categories of “productive” or “necessary.”

Maybe it’s volunteering for a cause you’ve never considered before, taking a sewing class when you’ve never threaded a needle, or exploring a neighborhood in your city that you’ve driven past a hundred times but never actually visited. It could be writing poetry in a coffee shop, trying that bungee workout class everyone’s talking about, or simply following your curiosity wherever it leads.

Breaking Free from the Productivity Prison

Just like those workplace side quests that brought unexpected joy to routine days, life side quests work the same way. They inject spontaneity into our carefully planned existence. They remind us that we’re not just productivity machines moving from task to task, but curious, creative beings capable of surprise and delight.

Here’s the thing that nobody talks about in those career development seminars: constantly optimizing your life like it’s a quarterly report is sucking the soul right out of you. We’ve become so obsessed with efficiency that we’ve forgotten what it feels like to be genuinely excited about what might happen next.

I think about those fictional adventurers I admired — they weren’t just tomb raiders or artifact hunters. They were professors, museum curators, people with day jobs who happened to live extraordinary lives. They understood something we’ve forgotten: you don’t have to choose between being responsible and being adventurous. You can be both.

The beauty of thinking about life this way is that it reframes how we see interruptions and unexpected opportunities. Instead of viewing them as disruptions to our perfectly color-coded calendars, we can see them as potential adventures waiting to unfold.

Living with Intention, Not Just Routine

When you’re genuinely engaged in something novel and creative, you’re not mentally drafting tomorrow’s presentation or calculating whether you have enough time to hit the grocery store before your evening yoga class. You’re fully present, experiencing life as it unfolds in real time — what a concept!

This isn’t about being irresponsible or abandoning all structure. It’s about recognizing that a life lived only in service of efficiency and productivity is a life half-lived. Side quests add texture, color, and dimension to our days. They create the stories we’ll actually want to tell and remember.

The Joy of Being Unscripted

There’s something deliciously rebellious about not knowing exactly how your day will unfold. When you open yourself up to side quests, you’re essentially flipping off your inner control freak and telling the universe, “Surprise me. I’m ready for whatever interesting thing you’ve got.”

This mindset shift from micromanager to co-conspirator can be transformative. Instead of trying to schedule every moment of your existence, you become an active participant in your own life’s unfolding story. Revolutionary, right?

Where Your Curiosity Leads (Hint: It’s Not to Another Meeting)

Here’s a radical thought: What if you actually followed those little sparks of interest that you usually dismiss as impractical or “not career-focused”? You know, those moments when you think, “I wonder what it would be like to…”

Those childhood dreams don’t have to stay buried in your past. Maybe you can’t become Lara Croft or Indiana Jones, but you can take that archaeology class at the local community college. Maybe you’ll never be a professional explorer, but you can explore that cave system you drive past every weekend. The adventure is still there — it just looks different than you thought it would.

Maybe you’ve secretly wanted to try pottery but dismissed it because “what’s the ROI on ceramics?” Perhaps you’ve fantasized about taking a comedy class but talked yourself out of it because “professional women don’t do stand-up.” Says who? The professional women police?

Creating a Life Worth Remembering (Not Just LinkedIn-Worthy)

Picture this: You’re 80, sitting in your perfectly organized retirement home, scrolling through your mental highlight reel. What do you want to see? A montage of flawlessly executed quarterly reviews and meal-prepped Sundays? Or do you want to remember the time you tried rock climbing and fell on your ass but laughed so hard you couldn’t breathe? The time you signed up for that weird art class and created something so wonderfully terrible that it became your favorite conversation starter?

The memories that stick aren’t the ones where everything went according to your strategic life plan. They’re the ones where you took a chance, tried something completely outside your wheelhouse, and discovered something about yourself that no performance review could ever capture.

The Ripple Effect of Actually Living

When you start approaching life with a side quest mentality, something magical happens: you become the most interesting person in the room. Not because you’re trying to impress anyone, but because you’re genuinely living instead of just surviving your way through another week.

You become the woman who has stories that don’t involve work drama or weekend errands. You develop the kind of confidence that comes from regularly doing things that scare you a little. You start bringing a sense of possibility to every situation because you’ve trained yourself to see opportunities instead of just obstacles.

Your Next Adventure Awaits (And Your Calendar Can Deal With It)

Living with passion and spontaneity doesn’t require you to quit your job and backpack through Europe (though if that’s your side quest, more power to you). It just requires you to occasionally prioritize adventure over optimization, curiosity over productivity, and joy over just getting through the day.

So here’s my challenge to you, you beautiful, capable, probably-slightly-overwhelmed woman: What’s one thing you could do this week that would qualify as a side quest? What small act of rebellion against your perfectly planned life could you commit to?

Your life is not a project to be managed. It’s not a problem to be solved or a goal to be achieved. It’s an adventure to be lived — messily, passionately, and with enough plot twists to keep you guessing.

The next side quest is just around the corner. And honestly? Your future self is going to thank you for saying yes to it.

The “I Have 30 Minutes” Side Quests:

• Visit a museum you’ve never been to and spend exactly 30 minutes there
• Take a pottery painting class at one of those walk-in studios
• Go to a farmers market and buy one ingredient you’ve never cooked with before
• Attend a random community event you found on Facebook or Eventbrite
• Take a boxing or kickboxing class (perfect for releasing work stress)

The “Weekend Warrior” Side Quests:

• Take a day trip to a small town within driving distance and explore like a tourist
• Sign up for a cooking class focused on a cuisine you’ve never attempted (latte art, anyone?)
• Take a photography walk through your area’s most photogenic neighborhood
• Volunteer at an animal sanctuary
• Try indoor rock climbing or bouldering or a new water-based activity
• Take a dance class in a style you’ve never done (salsa, swing, or line dancing)

The “NYC Adventure” Side Quests:

• Take a spontaneous day trip to NYC and see a Broadway matinee
• Explore a NYC neighborhood you’ve never visited and eat at three different food trucks
• Take a behind-the-scenes tour of something cool (like the Metropolitan Opera or a TV studio)
• Go to a jazz club in the Village on a random Tuesday night

The “Slightly Daring” Side Quests:

• Sign up for an open mic night (comedy, poetry, or music)
• Take a glassblowing or metalworking workshop 19. Go on a ghost tour in a historic city
• Try a weird fitness class like aerial yoga or pole dancing
• Take a motorcycle safety course (even if you never buy a bike)
• Go to a psychic or tarot card reader
• Take an improv class

The “Go Big or Go Home” Side Quests:

• Book a solo weekend getaway to somewhere you can drive to in under 4 hours
• Sign up for a multi-day workshop in something completely outside your wheelhouse (like wilderness survival, screenwriting, or furniture making)