When I was young, I wrote off routine, as something folks did when they lacked self-discipline, suffered from ADHD or some similar psychosis. My thought was, I’d rather just die than wake up to an alarm clock every day and do the same thing over, again and again. What a boring way to live; at least that was my perception of what routine looked like.
Heck, I even had trouble following a recipe. I was always trying to tweak it a little this way or that, to squeeze out a bit more pop or sizzle. I should have realized when I ended up with more than my fair share of failures that there’s a valid reason to follow a recipe; like, you already know it’s going to work.
So, I adopted the concept of routine fairly late in life. Maybe my self-discipline just dulled after so many years of abusing it, but somewhere in my forties I realized it wasn’t working all that well and if I wanted to live my best life, I was going to need to optimize it.
When I was young I didn’t have a wife, kids, house, cars, bills, and dozens of clients to worry about, so perhaps it was the worry and stress that corroded my self-discipline. Whatever the case, I needed to make a change and that change was creating and following a routine.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Will Durant
Sharpen Your Self-Discipline
The power of routine is that it pares down the need for self-discipline, so it can be kept sharpened and ready to un-sheath, when you need it. Your routine should be designed to manage and prioritize daily tasks, providing more time and energy for the things you want to do. A big part of developing routine and good habits is setting some hard, fast rules.
The ego doesn’t have much use for rules if they change anything, so new rules that are going to create new habits can be a difficult proposition. My ego always tries to make every day a special occasion, so I can break all the rules; the mind is a dangerous thing – don’t trust it. That’s why the rules need to be hard and fast. Adopt them one at a time and after you develop the new habit, adopt another rule. Here are a few of mine, in no particular order. Rules, rules, rules, or the things I do or don’t – daily:
Do
- Get up early and make the bed
- Meditate and Pray
- Journal
- Go for a walk
- Exercise
- Read
Don’t
- No junk food
- Never drink more than three beers
- No eating after 7PM
- Never go to bed without brushing teeth
Distraction and disorder are the enemy of action. An unordered mind gets trapped somewhere in the past or the future, losing focus of what’s right in front of it – NOW. Order is what keeps us in sync with what is, and routine provides that order. Routine is a recipe for life. The more you practice, the better you get. Obstacles become lessons and challenges that make you better and stronger, not something to be dodged or avoided.
Knowing that I will practice my daily routine, frees my mind to make better choices and spend my time more creatively; but shit happens. That’s why it’s called “A Practice.” Special occasions do crop up and failure to abide the rules does too. You never know what each day will bring as they flow by, like water under a bridge. Everyday is a new day and yesterday doesn’t really matter, since you can only take action today.
Your routine needs to change and grow along with your personal evolution. Don’t trap yourself by becoming too rigid. The rules you set for yourself are a guide, not Universal Law. As you navigate the path towards your destiny, question everything and be pragmatic; failure is part of the process, not something to fear.