Reading · The Starting Point

I keep circling the space between knowing and doing.

We know a great deal. We have the facts. We feel it in our bodies. We argue for it, worry about it, plan for it, prepare for it. And yet, at this moment in history, understanding is no longer enough. The world is changing regardless.

So I keep asking myself, again and again: Am I doing enough – in my own life?

Which actions actually create movement? What travels through social layers, becomes visible to others, subtly shifts something? Like the butterfly’s wing becoming a hurricane. Small displacements that, under the right conditions, change everything.

I don’t believe this happens through more negotiations behind closed doors. Not through more strategies, agreements, or plans. I believe it happens through movement. Through how we live. How we speak. How we move through the world.

There is an undergrowth where real change takes place. Not in the visible parts of the big systems, but in how we actually live our days.

Rhythm is everywhere. In how fast things are supposed to get done. In what the body longs for. In how we move as one large body through subways, roads, and daily life, unconsciously adjusting to each other’s pace.

My protest against this time begins in my own life. I let the struggle take place inside me. And I move, slowly, in new directions.

This is what has become the compass I write about. And this is why I created 100 days.
The result of several years of writing, experimenting, and trying to live change in the middle of life, rather than just talking about it.

What is it?

100 days is a gentle way of stepping into a practice of living change while life is unfolding. It’s what I myself am trying to do as I write. A way of seeing reality differently together with others, and of beginning to move what we talk about – climate, economy, meaning, work, relationships – into the body, everyday life, and rhythm.

Over 12 weeks, we move through a compass. Each week carries a theme, a perspective, a way of seeing. A way of beginning to live differently now.

It is subtle. It is slow. And it is enough – especially if many of us do it together.

Others have already begun, and you can step in at any point, when it fits your life. Here is the first week. If you want to continue through the other points of the compass, you’ll find more information at the end.

The first week is about your rhythm. How you move through your days. How you rest, hurry, pause, listen.

Rhythm is not speed. Speed is how fast something needs to be done. Rhythm is attunement – with the body, with the season, with the people and contexts you actually live within.

We have learned to follow tempo, and forgotten how to listen for rhythm.

Maybe you follow your calendar closely. Maybe you sense your body more clearly at times. Maybe you’ve noticed how energy shifts with light, seasons, or the people you’re with.

That’s where rhythm already exists – beneath the surface of everything that “has” to get done.

Start where you are

The first movement is to see life as it actually is right now. The more clearly you see where you stand, the easier it becomes to sense where change might begin.

Even that requires a shift in rhythm. Stopping long enough to see what comes to you, instead of chasing something.

Questions to carry with you this week

When do you feel in sync with yourself?
When do you keep going even though something in you wants to stop?
Are there already places, relationships, or habits where a different rhythm is alive?
What do you long to give more space to?
What do you know – deep down – that you need to let go of?

This week’s practice: see your system

Rhythm becomes visible when you see the whole. You can’t sense whether you’re in or out of tune until you see what you’re actually moving within. That’s why we begin here.

Take a piece of paper, post-its, colors, or a digital tool. How it looks doesn’t matter. What it evokes does.

Write “me” in the center.
Let circles or threads grow outward – like roots or a network.

Explore in layers, going as deep as you can and want:

Relationships
Who gives energy? Who takes? What wants to deepen or change?

Structures & contexts
Where do you adapt? Where do you feel free?

Energy & habits
What nourishes you? What drains you? Which patterns repeat?

Thoughts & longing
What occupies your inner life right now? What wants to be created?

World & current times
What in the world touches you most strongly – through worry, frustration, or hope?

If it feels right, add a layer for rhythm:
When are you most awake? When does tiredness arrive? When does presence arise – or restlessness?

Do this in the way that suits you best. Make space. Sit somewhere alone and undisturbed. Sit for a long time or in shorter moments. Let the questions live with you throughout the week.

There are no demands here. Nothing needs to be finished. Something simply needs to begin to live.

The questions are meant to take up space in you, and the different points of the compass will take shape in different ways, with different intensity, when the time is right in your life.

A final question you might ask yourself at the end of the week: What do you see now that you didn’t see as clearly before?

Want to deepen your view on rhythm?

If you want to read more about how I’ve struggled with rhythm myself – and how our time has lost its living rhythms – you can read the essay Rhythm here:
https://thestartingpoints.substack.com/p/why-rhythm-is-a-systemic-question

And if you’re curious about the gap between knowing and doing, I recently wrote about akrasia – the human tendency to act against our better judgement:
https://thestartingpoints.substack.com/p/the-gap-between-insight-and-action

The texts I write, everything I wrestle with and try to understand, are inhalations.
100 days is my way of exhaling – on my own, and together with others.

Want to continue?

I want us to become many more who move at a different pace. Who place ourselves elsewhere. Who find new words. Who refuse some things – and open for others.

If you feel that you need this and want to continue through the coming 11 weeks, you are warmly welcome. The program has a price, but you pay what you can. And if money isn’t right for you at all right now, write to me – we can exchange value in other ways.

Rhythm as protest – an invitation to 100 days of lived change

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