The Essentials of a Routine

I'd like to start off by saying Happy New Year and welcome to 2011. You've made it this far, now keep at it.

Today's topic is routine. It's a fresh new year and you're maybe bored or disappointed with something about yourself. You want to lose weight, write that book you've been putting off, save more money, learn another language… list can go on and on. But why? Why do we crave the need for change? Why even half way through the year, are we "bored with ourselves" or our lives and begging for something new, something out of the routine?

My thoughts are that we are creatures of habit, whether that habit is a fixed routine or required "spontaneity" every few months. Without some routine, our systems tend to go crazy. For example, you usual enjoy a home cooked meal almost daily; however, you go on a road trip and must eat fast food for a week. By the end of it, all you want is a salad. Or, you live alone in your fairly quiet apartment and meet your friends in Vegas for the week. You have a blast but usually by the end of the trip, you're ready to get a goodnight's sleep.

Face it, you need routine. Sometimes it's refreshing. For those of you who are constantly spontaneous, that is your routine. And for all you writers out there, you know you have a routine.

What I'm getting at here is that despite the new year and the desire for change, remember there needs to be a routine in there somewhere (especially for writers) otherwise you run out of steam. I'm not saying New Year's resolutions aren't valid—I've a few in mind myself—but make sure you set realistic expectations that will fit in with the way you currently are or the way you want things to be going forward. The change should not be a temporary run of the mill decision (as most resolutions later become) but something that becomes a lifestyle. Only then will you reach those goals that have been eluding you for so long.

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life