How to Wander

The 3 Practices of Good Wandering

We've established what wandering is - using intuition to move through territory -and that it's really good for us (physically, mentally and socially), so the next question is how do you actually do it?

Well, like any honest creative practice, there isn't one right way. Every wanderer will develop their own style and proclivities. But here's the 3 'rules' that I've developed over the course of my 25+ years of wandering.

Would love to read your thoughts in the comments below.

The 3 'Rules' of Wandering

1. Make frequent, frivolous decisions
2. Engage in variable intensity
3. Respond to subtle input

1 - Make Frequent, Frivolous Decisions 

The commuter has to get to work. They're on the clock.

But the wanderer has no such pressure. They've made trade-offs that allow them to have free time, and thus they have the mental and temporal flexibility to stop and smell the flowers, or even veer off into the undergrowth.

A good wander starts with one or a few lightweight goals. These goals can and should be abandoned if something better comes along.

And how the goal is going to be achieved should not be planned out in advance. Just walk out the door in the general direction of the goal. Heck, sometimes walk out the door in the opposite direction of the goal.

And along the way, make frequent, frivolous decisions. Want to stop and take a picture of some graffiti? Want to eat a taco? Want to tell someone you like their shoes? Do a lot of this, so that you're interacting with your environment instead of simply passing through it.

In this way, the wander influences reality, and tills the soil of human interaction, creating opportunities for insight, connection, and growth.

2 - Engage in Variable Intensity

Wandering is usually easy and fun. But if it's always that way, you're probably doing it wrong.

At its core, wandering is about leaving the comfort zone, and that means encountering moments of challenge. You don't have to scare yourself or take big risks, but you do have to gently push your boundaries.

Take the stairs to the 12th floor. Walk 15 miles one day. Just go around the block the next day. Go outside in the rainstorm. Listen to someone boring. Eat something you normally wouldn't. Go into a shop that 'isn't for you'. Say something vulnerable to somebody. Raise topics that make you angry or sad. Stay still when everybody else is moving. Move when everybody else is staying still.

And sometimes, just do the thing that makes you most comfortable. Because the goal isn't to always be pushing, the goal is to always be able to handle more, or handle less.

The wise wanderer doesn't always make the easiest decision. But they don't always make the hardest decision either.

3 - Respond to Subtle Input

Humans learn by connecting stuff we don't know to stuff we do know.

And because wandering connects us to stuff we don't know we don't know, it's a great way to punch out your world view and live on a bigger map. The more hooks you have in the water, the more hooks you attract, ad infinitum.

As we get older, we all notice stuff that would have gone over our heads ten years ago, but wandering supercharges this.

So, like our ancestors, who paid attention to subtle color variation in leaves, or looked carefully at animal tracks, or came up with dozens of names for snow, the wanderer tries to notice the subtlety in the world around them. Because those are the big hooks. Those subtle hooks are where the learning is at.

Look around. Listen around. Sense around. How'd that gum get on the wall? Is that sign sexually suggestive on purpose? Did my gut just tell me to cross the street, or turn around and go the other way? Did she just mention a type of yoga I should know about? Does that person realize they're humming? Is that person reading a book I should know about? Is that pasta spot giving away free samples?

Respond to the world around you. The more subtle the signal, the more valuable your awareness of it becomes. This yields many kinds of loot.

Conclusion

Wandering is hard to intellectualize.

You learn it through practice.

So get out there and wander.

And if you're (gonna be) in New York, join the next Street Lab, where we practice wandering on the street. It's free.

See you on the sidewalk,

Morgan