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.
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.