I think everyone has those things in life we do almost every day, without fail and without thought; we wake up at roughly the same time of day, get up on the same side of the bed, walk the same route to our first stop whether it be the kitchen for coffee or the office for the morning email, and we all have that time of day where our day actually begins in our minds, the part where the routine is no longer set and we have to decide (or have decided for us) on what we’re doing that day. My morning routine has been recently changed with the addition of checking on my five month old son, changing and feeding him but overall still part of a relaxed morning.
I for one don’t think having a set routine in the morning is bad, it’s keeps us comfortable, at peace, calms us before we start what could be a stressful day full of unknowns. Alot of us have several routines per day in fact, whether they be around lunch time, just before going home for the day, maybe once you are home for the day, or any other time your schedule has the time for a bit of normalcy which is really what a routine is for most of us, a time to be us, to be “normal”.
If you added it up, I’ve been alive for over 14,000 days and I can tell you firsthand, there are some routines I’ve done more than once and for many days consecutively. Despite all that however, I’ve had some tough times in my life, times that made the times of day in between routines nearly unbearable. Strange how one minute you could think your live isn’t worth living, yet just an hour or two later during your routine time, you feel at peace, even if only for a little while.
If you can feel relaxed during your routines, can’t you feel relaxed anytime? Does life really change that much? I would go so far as to say that for most people, if they compared yesterday to today they would see that nothing has really changed, despite the daunting perception of the events that may have just taken place, and, once the event has subsided, today will compare to tomorrow just as equally.
A routine means that we have the choice to do what we want to do when we want to do it, its how routines are even formed. Nothing changes that simple but basic concept. Life can try to alter our routines at time, but whether its successful or not is completely up to us, we can let it change us, make us do things we don’t want to do and make us miserable or we can say no to a change, keep in sight who we are, what we represent and how we intend to live our lives and not be changed. Making the choice is as much our choice as is what we decide to do once its made.
I like my routine, get up, spend some time with the baby, spend some time with the wife, a calm drive to work, work can be either fun or boring but that’s work for now, spend time at home with the wife for lunch, finishing off my day at work before getting to spend four hours with the wife and baby before bed. Sure I’d like to work from home and I want to be doing that within two years if possible, but with those plans in motion, my routine is alright until that comes to fruition making my routine even more amazing. When the day comes that my routine includes seasonal trips, overseas travel and the like, even more so.
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