Routine? Boring! Change Your Dumb Routine For Growth

Change. The universal constant. The mother tongue of biological ecosystems and organisms. Leaving things behind for things ahead. A vehicle for growth, personal, relational, and professional. To say goodbye, let our past identity die, and allow life to flow forward. You need some.

The Three Musketeers

Routine. Food for the human spirit. The language of long-term success and harmony. Human minds have evolved to seek patterns and predictability. Structure is one-on-one combat against change. To stay in solid order, conformity, and keep out of trouble.

Consistency. The child of routine and diligence. The foundation of interpersonal and intrapersonal trust. It bears consequences, some positive and enriching, others negative and impoverishing. Perfect efforts regress and burnout. Consistent moves progress and win.

Components Of Life Itself

You need these. Always. They are the fabric of who you were in the past, are now, and will be in the future. Three musketeers which give structure, malleability, and perseverance for you to reap. Prosperity is unattainable if one is missing. Can’t consistently invest your resources? No business, retirement fund, savings, or growth for you. Can’t dovetail with a healthy routine? No toned body, clarity of mind, or longevity for you. Can’t shed your skin; opinions, values, or behaviors? No adaptability and flexibility render you dead.

The third, change, is the most painful and pleasureful simultaneously—ironically, pain and pleasure are processed in the same brain area. While we love it in our comfort zone, we hate it too. We’re well aware stepping beyond the line results in growth and transformation. The promise of endless opportunities on one end, and the guarantee of conformity on the other keeps us undecided.

Ups and Downs

For what it’s worth, changing it up is seldom a misstep. Not that hard. Initiating change is the most challenging step. Afterwards, the ebb and flow of life takes you through the mishmash. Mishmash of skipped days and guilt. Messy all-nighters and masochistic work to catch up. Disgusting imperfections which seem obvious in hindsight.

Wake up, hop out of bed, take a dump, wash up, have breakfast, go to work, sit for hours, get home, and go to bed. Insert caloric bombs and frozen meals, maybe a workout or hobby, and that’s it. Routines are cool. Hunter-gatherers had them. Wake up, track animal footsteps and forage for berries (work), come back to the base camp, process the morning haul, dance around the campfire, eat, and go to bed. Brains love the reduced cognitive load and stress.

Can’t Stay Frozen Forever

Consistency is sick. Human intelligence never ceased compounding because of it. Tools and practices got software updates. We mastered the plants, then the weather, seasons, genetic variation of crops, factory machines, sleep depriving artificial light, depressive social media… Thank consistency for the fascinating and fattening shit.

But we need novelty. “The snake which cannot cast it’s skin has to die.” from Friedrich Nietzsche. The diss-lord of the philosophical world knew it. Shaking up your rhythm reveals blind spots and possibilities for growth. This applies not only to individuals, but sports teams, businesses, romantic relationships, or anything routine and consistency driven.

Be Different

Novelty breaks up the monotony and unveils inconsistencies you can’t see when riled up in the rat race. Same job. Same house. Same route. Same friends. Same food. Purposeful change of work tempo, location, or method can show you or your team flaws you hadn’t noticed. Purposeful change in any area can. Personal, professional, or relational.

Making the best or worst of it is in our hands. The fast-paced, always-on culture keeps us stagnant. Ever feel like a hamster running in his or her cage? Why not give into the evolutionary programming to seek the new and unfamiliar? Why not step away from the ego masturbating status quo regimen and try something fresh?

BONUS #1: Learn From Mistakes

Dodging risks is okay. Routinely actions which breed consistent progress are terrific. Experimenting and exploring pushes the envelope though. “A ship is safe in harbor,” said John A. Shedd, “but that’s not what ships are for.” Don’t you agree? Isn’t traversing the stormy sea more exciting than staying securely on shore? School teaches us that mistakes are bad, yet humans learn only by making mistakes. Teach a baby to walk without falling down, I dare you.

Be candid with yourself. You won’t feel one-hundred percent satisfied with where you’re at. The background frequency of having yo-yoed life never goes away. Paradoxically, changing on purpose empowers you. Change happens, whether you want it to or not. Co-author those pages. Switch up your routine. Switch what, when, and where you do.

BONUS #2: A Meaningful Life

Don’t just exist. Live. You can be eating well, working out, working hard on projects, attending Spanish classes in the afternoon and yoga in the evening. Yet behind the curtain of perfection you could be drifting meaninglessly, wasting yourself by not experiencing new memories. Floating isn’t what you came here to do. Rowing is.

This is the classic notion. Be like water. We crave change and fear uncertainty. Dopamine wants you to change and avoid negative consequences, and it often sounds the alarm too quick.

Novelty Breeds Productivity

The change doesn’t have to be big. It has to be exciting. Work from some other room in your house. Turn your desk around in your office. Hang up a picture, art piece, or poster on the wall. Place a new object on your desk. Listen to a new playlist while working out. Wear something entirely unlike you. Attend to online meetings while walking.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You can go right back to your old way of doing things if something is dissatisfactory. Only, you can never have known, had you cowered from novelty altogether. Understanding defects and limitations means growth! Uncertainty in a company can inform you of it’s leaking pipes! Change, and let nature spill the beans.

The Bottom Line

In the end, routines, consistency, and change make up our lives. Yet routines and consistency can be limiting if we rarely change. Valuable insights into inconsistencies, leaks, inadequacies, and hidden problems can be garnered from a change of routine. Risk it for the biscuit! The biggest risk is not taking risk.