Instead of feeling like time is flying by in the blink of an eye, here’s a way to slow our lives down and start stretching every day to its maximum. We are often taught to “find our routines” in order to be our most productive selves. But could those routines actually be keeping us from making the most of our time on Earth?
Our routines are comfortable but rarely do they lead to growth and exploration. When’s the last time you discovered something new by doing something the same over and over again?
It’s in the differences, the oddities, the slips from normality where we discover a new view and our imaginations are swept away into possibilities.
Thankfully, upheaving our entire lives and routines isn’t completely necessary to feel the benefits of this life hack. All that we need to do is break our routine and make the most of every day to start feeling time slow itself down!
Rethinking the routine
All too often, we get swept up in the routines and habits that make us our most “productive” selves. When we’re finally able to look up, the time has seemingly gone by without our notice. It’s a sentiment that’s solemnly echoed by so many who are decades into their lives: they blinked, and the years were gone. So, is there something that we can do to stop this? Or at least, slow time down?
Jedidiah Jenkins, author of the best-selling book To Shake the Sleeping Self, pondered this as he shook up his own routine. Granted, his “shake up” was a bit more extreme. Jed quit his job, got on his bike, and traveled almost 7,000 miles from Oregon, USA to Patagonia, Argentina. Over one year, with adventure at every corner, time seemed to slow down for him.
Is there a bit of his discovery that can help us all better enjoy our own time? To find more adventure and wonder every day? Here’s Jed in this beautiful short video directed by Kenny Laubbacher, showing us how to experience a longer, fuller life!
Find more of Kenny’s work over in his Vimeo library!
To see more from our time-slower, Jed, check out his Instagram and his books, To Shake a Sleeping Self and his latest release, Like Streams to the Ocean. You can find both on his website!
When you’re a kid, everything’s new so you don’t have to work for it, you’re just astonished by it. Once you’re an adult, that’s a choice. You choose adventure for your own life. But it’s not about the bike, it’s about getting out of your routine. And that could look like anything.
—Jedidiah Jenkins
Bring your childlike amazement to your adult life!
Who says that there isn’t room in your life for some random adventure? Sure, maybe you can’t quit your job and spend a year biking down the coast as Jed did, but as he states in that quote above, it’s not about that. It’s about looking at the routines you’ve established in your life and finding space to mix things up!
Do you find that you endlessly get the same foods at the grocery store? Are you always vacationing in the same spots, or relaxing with the same activity? Grab that fruit you’ve never tried before and make something with it, choose somewhere new to explore, or pick an activity that you haven’t done in a long time—go for a bike ride, drive an hour away and go for a hike with new views, or try painting.
There are small shifts that each of us can make in our lives to start living in our moments with more presence; to feel more alive; to slow time down.
Looking for a bit of inspiration for ways to shake up your routine?
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Read Article Watch Video Listen to PodcastAs always, my friend, stay open to new possibilities!
- Sam
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Notes:
- Laubbacher, Kenny. “The Thousand Year Journey: Oregon to Patagonia.” Vimeo, 27 May 2021, vimeo.com/120206922. Accessed 27 May 2021. ↩
