The Pleasures & Perils of Routine

The Pleasures & Perils of Routine The sad fact is even jet-setting millionaires get bored of the high-life, if indulged in too much and too often. It merely just becomes routine.

After a few favourite fixes have been mildly disrupted, the role of routine in our lives and its healthy and less positive habits has consumed me of late.

Recently, my wife complained her yoga studio had changed something she used to enjoy on Monday mornings to a far less convenient Friday night.

For those of us who are older, we are more prone to be “stuck in our ways” and with the fast-changing world we live in, we have a harder time adjust. Like my wife, who is less than thrilled with the new Friday yoga time.

While advocates of routine have an impressive list of benefits as efficiency, saving time, structure and the instils of good habits.

Example: I used to think the dog needed the routine of an early evening walk but honestly he would walk all day and the time doesn’t matter. It was me that needed the prompt of an everyday event and I benefited from the walk as much as him.

Critics of routine state we need holidays and weekends to get away from regular routines to be refreshed and creatives.

Both camps have a case and if the routine is harmless does it really matter?

If routines squeeze out openness and the willingness to embrace new experiences perhaps it does.

Some say we do tend to get more reliable and agreeable with age (debateable) but our openness to novelty can drop.

Certainly, we tend to lose our appetite for what’s new as we age but the ability to make fundamental changes to one’s life does seem to get harder as you get on.

However, it’s also shown this can change after 50 is born by the anecdotal evidence of everyday life.

Then with the burden of perhaps full employment, or at least career concerns lifted, and kids not such a concern (another big perhaps) many of us are more open to novelty.

You see it with participation in sports, travelling far and wide, engaging with the community and generally helping out and volunteering.

So instead of fretting about small changes which might upset our ordinary routines maybe we should focus more of these disruptions becoming an opportunity to try something new.

We all need routines but not too many and not too rusted onto our calendars to stop us creating new sets of habits which may prove even more desirable.

What are you thoughts on routine? Leavea a comment below.