What have you resolved to do differently this year? Lose weight? Never gonna happen. Exercise more? In your dreams. Work less? We’re literally laughing out loud now. Why not make a break from the tried and true and, we’ll say it, boring resolutions that 99.999% of us will drop like the proverbial bad habit they’re intended to break before the calendar turns to February.

For 2011, put some adventure into your travel. You can be a fat, alcoholic, put of shape, over-stressed example of humanity and, without straining too hard, put some adventure into that life of yours. We’re not suggesting you should pin a lion on the plains of the Serengeti with your high school wrestling moves or recreate Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon leap on your souped-up Segway.

Adventure doesn’t have to equate with death-defying. Adventure means merely to step out of the ordinary and find a novel experience because, to the traveler, it should all be about the experience. Even the best of us can fall into a rut when it comes to vacation planning. Do you always spend

a week at the same condo on the same Florida beach at the same time of year? Here are three ways to break the mold slightly.

1. Same place, new experience. Even if you are on the same Florida beach in the same condo, you can do something different, something thrilling that won’t kill you. Never been para-sailing? Hang gliding? Make this year the time to do it.

2. New place, new experience. You might decide to climb a bit farther out on the adventure limb and go to a different place entirely, perhaps even one that never was your first choice but offers intrigue nonetheless. Back to the Florida example. Instead of a week at Pensacola Beach, road trip around the state and hit some of the genuinely odd places like Cassadaga (psychic capital of the world) or Weeki Wachee (live mermaid show).

3. Off the map. If your previous vacation experience already resembles an Indiana Jones itinerary, now might be time to go all out with a walk up Mount Kilimanjaro, South Pole hiking expedition or reconstruction of Magellan’s historic voyage around the world. However, if you maim yourself, don’t blame us.

The point here, constructed around a tiny dose of humor for effect, is to consider the possibility of adding adventure into your travel this year and for all the years you have on this planet afterward because, when you’re done, you’re really done.

The Jetsetter Team

Flickr / Tommy Duchnicki

Tags: 2011, adventure, resolutions