Routine is the Enemy of Time - Ten Years Later
A look back on ‘The Thousand Year Journey’ and what I’ve learned
It’s been ten years since my friend Kenny released the short film ‘The Thousand Year Journey,’ about the impetus and intentions of my 14,000 mile bike ride from Oregon to Patagonia. Ten years since I finished my bike trip, and came back to America exhausted, full of change and no idea what it meant. Well, I had little ideas. Hunches, feelings, that collect words one at a time until language can convey what they’re after.
From that trip, I’ve gone on to write three books. And I’m currently halfway through my fourth.
Ten years ago, I wondered if I could be a writer, and I took a leap to try, and now I am.
The lesson of the two-degree turned ship returns and returns. You know the metaphor: If you turn a sailing ship just two degrees, barely noticeable, but pointed at a star just to the left of the one before, in a few hours, you’ll be a mile off the previous course. In a year, you’ll be a thousand miles. Small changes, planted intentions, grow and grow.
We are made not by our hopes, but by our habits. And if you want a new habit, put the habit in your way. Make it unavoidable for a little while. Sign up for a class. Go on that trip. Move to that city. Start a weekly blog that is due every Tuesday.
Let me laugh at a little irony. This sounds like I’m advocating for… routine? Well… in a way I am. But now with a little distance, I’ve come to love routine, so long as it is a life giving one. My mornings with coffee and my notebook, writing and thinking, is the life I want to live.
What I was challenging in that film and with To Shake The Sleeping Self is the accidental routine. The cozy lifeless life that pays the bills but keeps us limping. Avoids conflict but ignores rot. Technically alive, but always contorted.
I am not an advocate for everyone to quit their jobs and travel the world. For some, that would be foolish, negligent, and cruel to those who rely them. What I am an advocate for is auditing one’s own life, and making tweaks or leaps in the direction of fulfillment.
A stalled life is not an innocent circumstance. Unrealized potential is always noticed by the soul, and metastasizes into bitterness, compartmentalization, poisoning children by vicarious proxy living, and depression.
We owe ourselves the life audit.
In honor of ten years of The Thousand Year Journey, I want to ask you, ‘where would you like to be in ten years?’ Picture it. And let’s point our ships, shall we?
Adore you jedheads,
Jed. (Old trip photos and a little more below, keep reading!)
I remember, The Thousand Year Journey’s voice over was inspired by this Richard Feynman video I’d seen. It is just images put over an off-the-cuff video of Feynman explaining his take on beauty. I loved how natural and alive it felt. So, Kenny sat me down and just asked me a few questions and let me talk to him while he recorded.
Here’s the Feynman video. It still hits.
I devoured this like a decadent meal. Every word so delicious.
You point to an important distinction - routine vs ritual. The practice of ritual turns the mundane into something sacred, simply through intention and attention. An easy life audit is to look at what we already do every day (including what we need to), and ask how we can make it more sacred. 🙏🏼
This! What a well written article and great adventure that you will glean from the rest of your life!!! So many truths and facts and reasons to face each day with hope and keep your ship pointed toward the brightest star. The slightest change in direction can take us on a journey of meaning and purpose. Like you said, ‘take the class, take the trip’, or may I add, ‘plant the garden, go to the family reunion, go on the group hike, paint the picture, write the poem, and get out of your comfort zone.’ It’s so easy to slip into a dead, empty routine (even laziness). Of course, all of us need routine but sprinkled within the daily familiarity are sparks of newness, fresh insights, moments of clarity and vision and excitement. Look for them. Do one big or little thing you love each day and nothing will become boring, empty or even routine. I have traveled across the world and am excited for my next trip, but I can honestly say that I love sitting on my porch with a glass of iced tea to listen to the birds sing. They sing just for me.