It is time for a celebration! We made it to 50 episodes of The Art of Adventure Podcast! Thank you for listening! I really appreciate all your emails, iTunes reviews, and comments. This project is such a blast, and I am energized to knock it out of the park for our next 50 shows!

Today is a special episode, only my second solo round. I went through the first 50 episodes and collected the common themes and ideas that popped up repeatedly. Then I filtered the list for the most useful and impactful ideas. Episode 50 is a collection of a dozen themes that stood out in the AOA universe, complete with stories and episode references where you can go back and listen to the original thoughts from the guests.

Here are the dozen most impactful themes, in no particular order of importance, from the first 50 episodes of the Art of Adventure!

Feedback: The best way to accelerate your skills and career. You can gather feedback by asking people to evaluate you or simply listening carefully. For personal skills like body language and vocal tics, you can record yourself and watch and listen to yourself.

Best illustration of this idea: AOA 046 | Linda Rottenberg | Crazy Is A Compliment: High Impact Entrepreneurship

Mindset: Having a growth mindset allows you to make mistakes and have that experience help you learn rather than throw in the towel. The right mindset leads you to take the actions you want and need to take in your life.

Best illustration of this idea: AOA 016 | Fostering Grit And Joyful Learning With Tom Hoerr, Ph.D.

AOA 017 | The Mindset Of Building A Six Figure Acupuncture Practice With Alyssa Dazet

Authenticity: Don't cover your true personality and bring less than your full self (doing so will cost you money)! People want to hear the real you. Talk about your struggles and have strong opinions about what you really love!

Best illustration of this idea: AOA004: How To Commit To Creative Authenticity with Zio Ziegler

AOA 040 | Erica Dhawan | Get Big Things Done With Connectional Intelligence

Commitment: Commit to your path and know that you will have to do the hard work up front. Most people seem to take three years to get to 6 figure incomes, and five years to get to Millionaire status. "To finish first, first you must finish".

Best illustration of this idea:

AOA 029 | Adam Stanecki | Helping Fitness Professionals Help More People

Focus on your strengths! Should you shore up your weaknesses or play to your strengths? Most guests have said go with your strengths, because you can hire, collaborate, or delegate the other stuff that you aren't as good at!

Best illustration of this idea:AOA 039 | Jesse Krieger | Focus On Your Area Of Genius

Connecting ideas: If you want to be valuable and solve any problem, have the best ideas! You can do this by connecting ideas from different areas, or shifting your perspective when you brainstorm (Ask yourself "How would Einstein, Yoda, or a 10 year old solve this problem?").

Best illustration of this idea: AOA 031 | Shane Snow | Smartcuts and Storytelling

Connecting with people: Forming strong relationship with the right people is the best thing you can do for your career and sense of belonging. This is one of the most explored topics on AOA,