“I love to deliberately get a little bit lost,” says Damian Hall, ultra runner, coach and author. “It means finding new footpaths, seeing familiar places from fresh angles, which leads to new adventures and often being out a little bit longer. Take the road less travelled.”

“I’m a big fan of Alastair Humphreys and his concept of micro-adventures,” says Dylan Reynolds, founder of Ride and Seek adventure cycling tours. Taking new commuting routes, or getting off at a different stop, will inject variety, discovery and unpredictability into a mundane journey.

“Living adventurously really is about the attitude you choose to charge at life with,” says the man himself, author and adventurer Alastair Humphreys. “Doing stuff that’s new and different and that scares you and makes you curious.

“For almost two decades, my understanding of adventure was: ride bikes, run up mountains, paddle rivers,” he says. “To a point where they no longer filled me with nervous excitement. I had to look differently at adventure to rediscover risk. I took up violin lessons and, seven months later, walked out one midsummer morning to busk through Spain with a violin but no money. It was one of the most terrifying and thrilling experiences of my life.”

This is a parenting technique whereby you pick a day during which you say yes to every request. It’s found to encourage independence and autonomy in kids. What effect will it have in adults? “Saying yes may open up opportunities and adventures that could change the course of your life,” says Terry Blackburn, an entrepreneur and author of Be A Lion.

Fitting adventure into the realities of a nine to five can be a struggle, but there are ways around this. Hall’s micro-adventures mean heading out of town, sleeping on a hill and waking at sunrise. “You could be back at 9.00am,” he says. Simple – though you need to be fairly commitment free – but you will remember it a year from now.

Or consider what version of an adventurous life can fit into your lunch break. “Get out every day and take photographs, go to the park and climb a tree,” Humphreys says. “You can totally transform the way you perceive yourself through actions as small and regular as these.” Your appetite for some of these will depend on your willingness to embrace potential embarrassment, but you can’t have adventure without some form of risk.

Find your destination on Google Maps and hit “Explore”. Recently reviewed venues, new bars and pop-ups that arrived after any guidebook was written will appear here, too. “Then just trust your instincts and your nose,” Humphreys says.

You can also “reset how you look at somewhere familiar by going for a walk in the dark,” he continues. “Pick a route you know well and go walk it under a full moon. The well-known becomes mysterious.”

What’s intimidated you too much to try until now? Baking, doing electrics DIY, the tango, learning French? Online and IRL courses offer the opportunity to school yourself in anything you’ve been curious to try. A Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience study showed that students who learned a new language grew more complex white brain matter, while similar studies found curiosity is an aid to greater life expectancy.

Adventure feels good because the neurotransmitter dopamine is released. It works on the brain’s reward circuit, providing the sensation of novelty. In the case of physically demanding activities, you’ll also be flush with anandamide, the hormone that inhibits fear, and then there are the endorphins that ease pain and give you that natural high. So, do something that engages the body to feel the rush of adventure.

Seek out the nearest climbing wall, tower attraction or high-rise abseiling course. A fear of heights gives spiders a close run in the list of top human heart-racers. “Give the climbing centre a call, say, ‘I’ve never climbed before and I’m really scared of heights,’ and the staff will welcome you with open arms,” Hall says.

“Plan a shared bucket-list experience that you’ll be excited to plan together and anticipate,” says coach and relationship therapist David Waters. “A sense of forward momentum in your life and relationship provided by shared excitement is brilliantly life- and relationship-enhancing.”

Time apart is also important. “It may sound counter-intuitive, but [spending] even a few days apart will be a welcome breather. Whatever you both end up doing, it will provide new stories to share and reminds each of you that no matter how connected you feel in your relationship, you should never neglect the equally important relationship you have with yourself.”

“You’ll be surprised by what you experience and learn about yourself by going to a social event, function or taking a break on your own,” Blackburn says. “This exercise will throw you into the unknown, develop your self-sustainability and help you enjoy your own company. Adventures don’t necessarily need to be with others.”

Fostering new connections can be exhilarating, too. “Often the basis of making a friend is a shared experience,” says the clinical psychologist Linda Blair. “These are in abundance in our earlier years. Joining a group or class based on something you really love, or volunteering for something you care about, can be a great first step for finding new friendships.”

When you travel somewhere in the off season, you are able to get a more authentic look into what the place is like for locals. “It may mean braving undesirable weather, but it can be a lot more interesting and adventurous to travel when and where most people aren’t,” Humphreys says.

Take the initiative to entertain and invite friends or family over for dinner or something different, such as a wine tasting or games night, cooking dishes you’ve never tried before or for neighbours you barely know. “A couple of hours out of the comfort zone could open the door to a new social scene,” Blair says.

“Feelings follow behaviour, not the other way around,” said the psychoanalyst Gordon Livingston. “Don’t wait until you feel energetic before you go for a run, or motivated before you plan your projects. You’d be subscribing to a backwards view of how people come to be the way they are.” We develop traits by using them and even one fleeting second of feeling fun when you expected fear can transform the way you see yourself.

“We can be creatures of habit, which can be abysmal for adventure,” says Richard Brook, the founder of Creative Wellness and author of Understanding Human Nature. “Notice when you are playing out the same patterns in a situation that you have done previously and change them. Whether it’s sitting in the same seat in a restaurant or visiting the same holiday destination, observe where you’re going to sleep in your life and wake back up.”

“You might be fearful of failing, of not knowing what will come up next, of succeeding, of what people will think,” says Frederique Murphy, a leadership mindset strategist and author of Lead Beyond The Edge: The Bold Path To Extraordinary Results. “It is normal to have fears, but don’t let them control your decisions. Your best moments are on the other side of your fears.”