Some Routines Are Good…

I’ve written a lot about changing habits because for most of us those little things we do, without thinking, account for around 75% of our waking time. I believe that much of the time we are virtually sleepwalking through life. We don’t think, we react… and like it or not, our habits, not our hopes and dreams, is what reaffirms our day to day reality.

All habits aren’t bad! Some types of (habitual) activity is good. It can actually provides us with a level of freedom to focus upon things which can create the overall change we may desire in our lives.

There are certain repeatable things we do, routines or habits, that are in our best interest to continue doing. These are the things which deal with our basic life sustaining activities. You need to look at these things. If they are working in your best interest, don’t change them. If you recognize that they are not working in your best interest then by all means, change them.

Because of my engineering background I have a way of dealing with the things I decide to change. I start with my benchmark, which is a known quantity. Then I change only one thing. The reason for this is to determine a couple of things:

1. Does the change improve or cause a dysfunction of some kind?

2. Is the dysfunction the result of the “new thing” by itself or is it the result of a new synergy between those existing things which comprise the benchmark?

Obviously you don’t want to change anything that is already working!

What you want to do is to identify those things that can be improved which will provide an overall better life experience. In order to do this, you should only “experiment” with a singe “aspect” of yourself at a time.

There is good reason why an alcoholic is told not to quit smoking cigarettes or drinking coffee when they are attempting to “go sober”.

We humans do not respond well to wholesale change. On the other hand, incremental changes over time seems to be something we are “hard wired” to thrive on.

We “freak out” when to many things suddenly change. We flourish and grow if change happens in steps.

Ironically, incremental change is the fastest way to create overall change in your life. It brings about overall life change in the most efficient way possible. The reason is you are continually expanding your foundation (of reality) rather than attempting to radically alter it.

Do you understand this concept?

When it comes to your consciousness, it’s always easier to expand it than it is to chop part of it off!

-Bob Baran