On actually doing things

The kayak vs the super-yacht

Happy Wednesday!

It is great to have you here and I wanted to extend a warm welcome to new readers of TBOI.

Some of you may have seen that last week I had a guest post published in another newsletter right here on Substack. There was some wonderful feedback and it has reminded me that sometimes you just have to ‘do things’, so this post was inspired by that idea.

Best,

Sarah

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Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

In Oliver Burkeman’s superb book: ‘Mediation for Mortals — Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts’, he uses a remarkably simple analogy that has helped me to reconsider some of my decision-making.

Burkeman suggests that to be human is like sitting in a one-person kayak riding along a river of time. We can make some decisions in our kayak, like turning this way and that, but he writes:

“You’re at the mercy of the current, and all you can really do is to stay alert, steering as best you can, reacting as wisely and gracefully as possible to whatever arises from moment to moment” (p. 11).

Burkeman recognises that we would all probably like a bit more control in our lives, and so it seems appropriate that he contrasts the kayak with a super-yacht. Here, we can program the route and then enjoy the views while we ride the calm waves towards our destination.

He says that the idea of being on a super-yacht is what a lot of self-improvement books/schemes can project to us: we just need to have x,y,z in place and then we become more successful/have more meaning in our lives and so on. Yet, what often ends up happening is that we spend more time on the planning rather than the doing while the destination moves further away into the distance.

Instead, Burkeman suggests that we must face the truth that we will always be in the kayak, and that if we can steer vaguely in the direction of where we want to go, then whatever our destination is can become clearer.

I would also add to this that if we are constantly trying to manoeuvre away from the natural currents of life, then we are risk of not living at all (well, that was my interpretation of his ideas).

This kayak/super-yacht analogy feels appropriate at this time of year. All of those goals and resolutions that we could decide upon and set for ourselves. And I am not opposed to these (although there does appear to be a distaste for the term ‘resolutions’ from some of the reading that I have done on Substack and beyond), but I have decided this year, I want to follow some of the natural currents rather than trying to super-yacht everything (yes, I did just use that as a verb).

We shall see how it goes.

And I mean, it can’t be all bad being on a super-yacht, right? There’s probably some great food and a place to chill on the deck…

See you next time 🤩

And finally, thanks to everyone who reads this newsletter. I know that time is precious and it means a great deal to me that you spend a little of that reading TBOI!

And ICYMI: How strength training changed my body image (some of the post is behind a paywall).

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