If everything you do is routine, time will slip by in a blur and you will find yourself wondering where it went. Tranquility By Tuesday* Rule #6: One Big Adventure, One Little Adventure aims to get you doing things to avert time blurring together.
My Realization Through Conversation
Since my mother’s death I have spoken with my stepfather every Sunday evening. These conversations are much more interesting than those with my mother, mainly from the fact that it is a conversation and not letting one person (my mother) do all the talking. My stepfather will always ask what I have been doing during the week.
Looking back over the week and realizing that I did nothing but work, go to choir, do housework and read made me realize that my life had become far too routinized. The days and weeks melded into one, and it became hard for me to think about what I had done.
Where To Find Time
The rule says that a big adventure would be about a half day on a weekend and a small adventure could be an hour.
At first I thought I didn’t have time, but planning out my week ahead of time allowed me to see that I could easily find a hour for a small and a couple hours for a big adventure.
Obviously both of these had to work with my schedule and my geographic location; but there was time there.
What To Do?
Then the question of what to do came in. What could I do that was outside of my usual routine to be considered an adventure?
To help with this, I added a section to my yearly plan called “100 things to do in 2024”.
I started numbering and writing. And promptly got stuck at 16. And sadly, the first 16 included 8 entries, 4 each to read a book in productivity and programming.
It took me three multi-hour sessions, but I finally dragged myself to 100. And that will give me plenty of options to choose from for my weekly adventures.
My Big Adventures So Far
I look forward to my adventures every week. I plan them out when I do my weekly plan, and if I don’t have any definite ideas in mind I go to my 100 things list.
So far, since implementing this, I have done a writing session at the library, learned how to do hotpot (at a new restaurant), and seen the snow in the mountains.
My Little Adventures So Far
I found myself dismissing the little adventures at first, because it is only an hour. But once I got into the spirit of it, I have been having fun.
So far, my little adventures include cleaning out my cookbooks (and rediscovering the ones I had), tried a meal prep service, had lunch with a friend, and met a former Girl Scout mom for coffee (which has turned into a monthly thing).
My Time Is Passing With More Attention
Time is still passing, but the days when I have an adventure or do something out of ordinary stick out more to me. I have been able to tell my stepfather more of what is going on with me. And at another level, my life feels more meaningful.
I live in North Carolina. The only Christmas gift I ask for from my mother is a subscription to the Our State magazine, which always profiles and highlights small towns, cities, nature spots, restauratns, etc all over the state. It enables us to do little day trips to small towns we’ve not heard of (our rule: a destination should at least have one good restaurant and a brewery or pub), and gives us a good drive through country we’ve never seen. (One of the little towns we went to had a brewery that specialized in deviled egg entrees, so of course we had to try that.)
When we have a free day coming up, I’ll look at the magazine’s web site (all their articles are online), search on a town within about 50 miles of us, and decide on a destination. And of course, in our own area (Research Triangle Park), there are probably 100 new things that have popped up in the last 10 years we could go to.