Some of the biggest revelations can come in the smallest of ways. This time, a trip to the post office.
For the last two weeks, Amy and I have taken an hour-long walk together every day. The habit started after I completed a two-week-long 40K running challenge, which got me running outside instead of on a treadmill.
Getting outside and moving around the world on my feet really improved my day a lot—but the running was not working very well with my ankles and knees. Despite a lot of consistent foam rolling, icing, and a pretty good build-up to the challenge, I kept having on and off issues.
So instead of running four times per week, I thought I could accomplish similar caloric burn (and enjoyment) by just walking every day for about an hour, which at my pace usually comes out around 5K or 3.11 miles.
After two days, Amy joined me and we’ve been walking together ever since.
Some amazing things have happened from when this started:
I’m getting 10,000 steps done every day without having to try
I’ve gotten noticeably leaner while maintaining the same other aspects of diet/lifting
Amy and I have had some incredibly deep (and helpful) conversations that we didn’t expect or plan on having
The walks have had no particular agenda or destination, we usually walk from our house to downtown, loop around different places and make our way back. There is always something magical about it that I had a hard time explaining. Beyond the purpose of being outside and getting some calories burned, there really was no purpose at all.
Until we decided to walk to the post office.
It was a matter of efficiency and “Hey, why not?” so we took our letters to mail. There wasn’t much else different—it was even in the same general direction as our other walks.
But about 20 minutes in, Amy looks over at me and says, “Huh. This feels different, doesn’t it.”
It did.
We were walking faster, felt more hurried, and generally weren’t talking much. It seemed we were focused on the destination—getting to the post office. Walking back felt rushed as well—even though we were spending the same time walking as we would have any other day.
While this could be a 2,500-word blog post, I’ll wrap it up here. Last night, I met someone who confirmed my suspicions (more on that later) and got me thinking.
There is immense joy in doing things with no purpose, no destination—which is impossible to do if we are overburdened with end goals. The more we can reduce responsibilities and commitments (to a reasonable balanced extent) the more opportunities we have to create and exist from a place of now. The moment.
And life feels very, very different when doing that.
Just something to consider as you head into the weekend.