From Routines to Rituals: How to Stop Living on Autopilot and Start Living on Purpose (with Erin Coupe)
About this episode
The episode explores the difference between routines and rituals, emphasizing the importance of living purposefully rather than on autopilot.
This episode is brought to you by Your Clockwise Week—a personalized weekly structure built around your actual life, not an ideal one. If your week feels full but not fitting, you can learn more at mikevardy.com/yourclockwiseweek . Most of us aren’t burned out because we’re doing too much. We’re burned out because we’re doing too much of the wrong things — on autopilot, running inherited scripts, and mistaking busyness for meaning. The distinction between a routine and a ritual sounds small. It isn’t. One checks a box. The other changes who you are. Erin Coupe spent 25 years in the corporate world before she recognized that her carefully structured life had become a kind of comfortable numbness. Her book, I Can Fit That In: How Rituals Transform Your Life , begins with a provocation right on the cover — the word “routines” is crossed out and replaced with “rituals.” That single strikethrough tells you everything about what this conversation is about. We dig into why rituals and routines are not the same thing, how autopilot living quietly erodes the quality of your days, and what it actually means to steward your energy rather than manage your time. Six Discussion Points Rituals…
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