​When you are stuck in a routine, how do you break it? Is this something you care to do?
 
I find the idea of why we seem to reject breaking a routine to be an interesting conversation topic. Keeping a routine threads through much of our lives – from getting up in the morning, to our social lives, to how we commute, to restaurants we eat at or vacations we take.

We find something we like. We do it again. It’s simple. We are rewarded by consistency. We know what we’re getting.
 
Recently, while taking our dogs for a morning walk, my wife and I discussed this. One of us had just gone for a blood drawing for our annual physical. This entails a MINOR inconvenience at most. You don’t eat breakfast in the morning until after your blood is drawn. No biggie, right?

Then, why did both of us whine about it on our walk? We couldn’t have our morning coffee. We couldn’t down breakfast at our usual time. We had to break a minor routine, and we both felt slightly thrown out of whack by that. A bit cranky.
 
It’s a good example of why so many of us prefer the sameness of the familiar. Another good example of how we like to take on similar tasks in a specific order is how you work out.
 
My wife and I both work out early in the morning. And, we both get irritated when we’re humming along from one weight machine to another, then bam, someone is sitting on the next machine we want.

That alone doesn’t get us revved. But, if that individual chooses to do six sets of increasing reps, checking their phone for songs or messages in between while also contemplating the origins of the universe, you start to get a bit exasperated. You want to finish what you started, move on to the next series of exercises, and this individual is keeping you from your objective. So, you internalize how upset you are, work around the inconvenience.

That workout machine dawdler is another great example of how we don’t like to change routines. Think about how simple it is to just move onto another machine. Does it really matter what order you do bench presses, arm curls, leg extensions? No. Yet, you want to do them in the order you are used to.
 
We commute down the same route most days we go to work. Perhaps that is the fastest, straightest or has the least stop lights. We’ve figured that out. We want that routine. We don’t want to explore or change to see some new sights or a different angle of the sun.
 
Breaking the routine isn’t hard, and it has many benefits – you see the world differently; you refresh your thought processes; perhaps you meet someone new or experience a unique sensation; you challenge yourself. When you think about it, breaking your routine has more positives than keeping your routine.
 
As humans, we are driven by the familiar, the comfortable. I would argue because we are also explorers at heart that we should take moments to make ourselves uncomfortable. Drive a new route, see what you find. Don’t eat those those barbecued ribs every time at your favorite restaurant. Check out a new dish. Taste it, savor it, maybe spit it out. Or, maybe it becomes your new go-to. You won’t know until you choose to break your routine. 

​Our Sunday newspaper carrier has recently changed and because of this we no longer get the paper early in the morning when my wife and I would typically pick it up at the end of our driveway after returning from walking the dogs. Initially, this irritated us. Actually, it continued to irritate me for months.
 
That is, until I accepted that reality and learned to find the positive. Don’t consider this a nirvana moment. No way. Just a little bit about choosing how you want to respond to something that doesn’t go your way and you probably can’t do anything about, then determining there is some good involved.
 
What later Sunday morning newspaper delivery now means to me is more relaxation time on Sunday evening. Getting done whatever needs getting done during the day is followed by spreading my legs out on the living room couch, sinking back into the pillows, nestling my reading glasses on my beak, crinkling the pages and snapping the newspaper sheets to attention. AAAHHHHHHH! The day is done, no worries, now I can take some time to peruse what’s going on in the world with more depth and attention.
 
This teaches me several things, and brings back memories – a bit of a nostalgia tour. Way back when newspapers meant a lot more than the seem to mean today -- and EGADS, some cities even had TWO morning newspapers (or more) or a morning AND an afternoon paper -- it was the primary forum for keeping you up-to-date on events in your community, state, country, world. You waited for the news, it meant something to you, and you had to actively read to learn.
 
The relevancy of the newspaper plopping on your driveway every morning (or afternoon) was that it started your day. Catch up on the things you wanted/needed to catch up on, eat breakfast, head out into the world. Not having the paper delivered on time taught me that I don’t need to consume the news first thing in the morning, or on social media or the internet during the day. It can wait.
 
That’s a good lesson for me. Slow down. Pace yourself. You don’t have to overwhelm yourself with thoughts, facts and opinions instantaneously as they appear electronically. Give yourself time for perspective. Savor your day without the news slamming you in the face.
 
Relaxation is another positive of the later Sunday night newspaper reading. There’s something about finishing your day and topping it off with the newspaper in a relaxed setting that helps you unwind. For some reason, you just don’t get as amped up about all the problems exposed in the pages. You ponder instead. You put the paper down and consider options, wondering about what could be done differently.
 
When the cat jumps on your lap while you’re reading Sunday nights, that’s a bonus. When he kneads with his paws and stars purring, that adds to the experience. That doesn’t happen in the morning.
 
The world doesn’t have to be 24/7/365. We CHOOSE to make it that way. You can isolate yourself from the daily imaging, video, opinion onslaught and then pick up the newspaper in the evening, and you know what? The world still spins. Maybe something new happened that day between the time you woke and time you ate dinner. But, did it matter in your life?
 
Waiting until the evening helps you unwind from mass news. I thank newspaper delivery person for starting me down this path.