How Driving Home Has Changed my Life
40-minute commutes, a simple habit formation, and new opportunities.
The dreadful commute from your 9–5 job. Something that has come to be known as one of the most tedious of tasks. You spend half of your day at work, only to spend more time retreating to wherever you need to be next.
Some commutes are simple and quick. Some are tedious and lengthy. However, the national average is 26 minutes. Ten trips a week adds up to over four hours that you spend getting to and from work (Unfortunately, Seattle makes it almost seven hours for me).
By creating one habit of listening to audiobooks, my time spent driving has improved my life more than I ever thought possible. This was something so readily available and simple to do but let me explain what it has done for me:
The digital age, my own lack of desire, and a busy schedule have led me away from reading books in the past. I had probably finished well under a dozen books by the time I graduated from the University of Washington in June 2019. Weeks after I graduated, I decided to focus on self-improvement. Ever since, I have been looking for new ways that I can grow.
In saying this, I spent a great amount of time watching and learning from people who inspire me. I hoped I would gain special insights from powerful tech giants like Bill Gates to creative content creators like Matt D’Avella…
One commonality between these individuals that stood out to me was their realization and application of the power of knowledge.
This is the idea that by learning and consuming quality information, we can grow and benefit all aspects of our life. I decided that I needed to lean into this idea of the power of knowledge more.
I knew my busy schedule wasn’t going to magically open up for me. I wasn’t going to be granted 6 additional hours a day to study anything and all the things that I found interesting.
But what if there was a smarter way to give myself more time?
A professor of mine would say that we don’t always need to build something new. Many times, we can make something that already exists better.
How could I reinvent part of my day?
“My commute takes up so much time. 40 minutes of stop and go. Boring. Pointless.” Millions of commuters shared these thoughts of mine.
In the same day, I saw an ad for an audiobook streaming service that would give me a 30-day free trial. There’s no harm in something that’s free.
Bingo. An idea, so easy to execute, entered into my head — I could reinvent my drive.
This was a simple solution to utilizing our digital age to get more out of the power of knowledge.
Not having much reading experience besides textbooks on sorting algorithms, I decided others would know best and I picked the first book that seemed interesting to me in the Best Sellers list. James Clear’s Atomic Habits.
The following morning’s drive (a Monday) seemed like the best place to begin. I downloaded the book and as I dove into the six-hour-long audiobook, I started to learn and resonate. It clicked. This book was a perfect match for my newfound aspiration to reinvent my boring commute.
Using what I learned in the book on sticking to a habit, I decided that from now on, I would pair my drive home with leaning into audiobooks. Leaning into the power of knowledge.
Four months later, I have doubled the total amount of books read throughout my lifetime. This habit formation of listening to audiobooks during every drive home brought me into a world of self-growth, beautiful insights on life, and the confirmation I needed that knowledge IS power.
What happened after this initial habit formation is something that James Clear calls Habit Stacking.
“Synaptic pruning occurs with every habit you build. As we’ve covered, your brain builds a strong network of neurons to support your current behaviors. The more you do something, the stronger and more efficient the connection becomes.
“When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.”
My “audiobook-while-driving-home” habit has now grown into a habit to read before bed, learn new things through articles with my morning coffee, and to explore a world of writing that I have rarely considered as interesting.
This new reinvention of my daily commute has made me notice 3 major benefits in my life.
I learned how to grow
I didn’t just learn “new things” from these books.
I learned how to form good habits and deter bad ones with James Clear. I learned how to rumble with vulnerability in myself and others with Brené Brown. I even learned that I can be happy with less with Fumio Sasaki.
It isn’t just the lessons I have learned from the books or the knowledge I have gained. It is the new thoughts I’m engaged in from applying what I have read to grow and be myself.
The ink on a page or the words spoken to me have brought me more knowledge than just facts. I took information, applied it, and grew in the direction that I wanted to.
Greater knowledge, greater connections
Connections are everything to me. My connection to people, my connection to culture, my connection to the world. My new love for learning through books has brought me all of this.
I was sitting at a Sunday family dinner a few weeks ago having a group discussion about self-improvement. Immediately, I thought of the book I was currently reading at the time. The extremely popular, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.
I spoke up with, “I just started a book by Marie Kondo about minimalism and cleaning up the h — ”. Interrupting me, my grandma exclaims “I have read so much by her! She is amazing and an inspiration.”
An hour-long discussion ensued, bringing thoughts in by my aunt and cousins regarding how getting rid of material possessions and tidying up the home can improve happiness. This inspired my aunt to join me in discarding hundreds of items in her own home.
This has happened numerous other times as well. With friends, coworkers, advisers, and strangers. I have connected through a passion for learning and a passion for self-improvement. I can better relate to others and expand my mind past a surface-level interaction when I talk to strangers about Malcolm Gladwell’s impactful analysis work or thought-provoking ideas of Ted Chiang.
These books opened a doorway to connect. The power of knowledge offers more than just self-growth. It grants connection.
Your outlook affects everything
How did the task that hundreds of thousands of people consider dull and excruciating become the time of day that can excite me the most?
If you take away anything from reading this article, let it be this. Your outlook can change anything. Maybe this habit just doesn’t stick and it doesn’t work for you. There are habits that didn’t stick for me either. You gave it your effort and consistency but to no avail.
I coupled an activity I dreaded with something that sparks joy for me. I told myself (through a lot of brain rewiring albeit) that it is exciting to reinvent one activity into something more inspiring.
I shifted my outlook that maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe this 40 minutes can be an opportunity for me. Maybe anything can be an opportunity for me.
Everything is an opportunity when you look at it the right way.
There are days where listening to someone speak is the last thing I want to do. However, I do it.
When I think about the change audiobooks have made to my life — the change that commuting has made to my life, I have no reason to stop. I am the pioneer of my own life and I want to drive full speed towards the power of knowledge. Even if it happens at 5 miles per hour in traffic.
