Has Life Become ... Routine?

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our life." - Annie Dillard

Are you just getting through the days? Do you have so many obligations, it seems it's all you can do just to keep up? Has life become a bit of a blur or a blah?

That is a prescription for regrets. Someday, you’re going to look back and think, “What happened? Where did it all go? I want a do-over.”

Want good news? You can have a do-over on any given day. How about today?

The key is to look at your daily routines and ask, “Are they contributing to my quality of life or compromising my quality of life?"

Some routines serve a good purpose.

For example, walking your dog every morning can be a GOOD routine.?Getting outdoors, getting moving, reconnecting with nature can energize you. Even if you're not in a good mood when you walk out the door, your are when we walk back in that door.

That routine is a mood LIFTER.

Some routines are mood DOWNERS. They may have started out serving a good purpose, but they’ve become ROTE.

A good indication of whether a routine has become ROTE is if you’re on automatic pilot while doing them. If you're on automatic pilot, you're only half there. And if you're only half there, you're missing half our life.

Taking the same route to work every day is an example of a routine that can become numbingly rote. Sure, this may be the shortest way to work. But if you've "been there, done this" hundreds of times, that routine is squeezing the juice out of life.

Having the same thing for breakfast, going to the same store for groceries, doing chores every Saturday morning; all are examples of something that could be changed up - for good.

Chris Rock says, "Money doesn't guarantee happiness. You know what it guarantees? Options."

You don't have to have money to have options. You can choose to do some things differently anytime you want. Like right now.

Tomorrow morning, why not choose to take a different way to work? Sure, it may add five to ten minutes to the commute, but if taking a fresh route breaks up the routine and makes you more alert to what’s around you, isn’t that a worthy payoff?

Or, maybe you can be more like your dog.?Have you ever noticed that even if your dog has walked the same block hundreds of times, s/he is as excited to go out as if it’s the first time??

Mark Nepo says, “The secret to joy is to be easily delighted.”

You might want to keep some of your routines, but choose to experience them with the energized eyes and everyday appreciation of a dog?

Dogs are ecstatic just to be alive.?Pretty much everything - whether it's checking their p-mail or greeting you when we come back from the mailbox - is cause for joy.

Maybe today, you can choose to see your world with that same sense of fresh gratitude.

Take two minutes right now to think through your day.

What do you do, day in, day out? What has become rote, a routine you do without thinking??

How can you change that today??How can you put some juice back into your life??

Teihard de Chardin said, “The whole of life lies in the verb seeing.”

Today, see someone, and do something, as if for the first time. The second you do, life will cease to be routine and will become a never-ending source of wonder.?

- - -

Sam Horn is the CEO of the Intrigue Agency. Her 3 TEDx talks and 9 books have been featured in NY Times, on NPR, and presented to Intel, Cisco, YPO, Fidelity, NASA. Want more ways to enjoy life now, now someday? Check out Sam's Clarity Calls on YouTube.