Don't Fear the Assassin
The Turning Feral Journal - Day 29
Day 29: Routines are rote and boring – the same thing every day at nearly the same time makes Zach a dull boy… or, so I used to think. For the longest time my mind was set that adhering to a strict routine was at its best ‘boring,’ and at worst would lead me to be patterned and killed by an imaginary assassin. Well, thankfully I got over my fear of routines and I can attest that my life is not boring and I am still writing this blog on a daily routine, which means the assassins haven’t caught up to me (yet).
Tongue and cheek anecdotes aside, routines are amazing. They allow for a quiet comfort of normalcy and centering each and every day. Since moving out west, my daily routine is centered around writing and reading. Each morning I wake up, turn on my coffee pot, and sit down to read for a short period while I stretch on the floor. Depending on the length of the devotional or chapter I read, I finish it up quickly and open my laptop to start writing (which you are reading now!). The interesting thing about this routine is that I am not militant about it. If I miss a day, I miss a day. Sickness, kids, and travel sometimes get in the way. However, it has become so ingrained in my personal makeup that when I do miss a day, I feel off and get showered with a mental ick that I can’t shake until I get the train back on the rails.
I’ve also found that I have a hierarchy of routines in which I prioritize… Writing and fitness are at the top and have the least room for outside impingement. My diet, cleaning, home projects, finance, etc. all have a looser collar around their necks and tend to be more amebic-looking in their regularity – these are driven more by discipline than well-defined routine.
If you have carried a fear of routines you are not alone – but, you are certainly missing out on the benefits. Routines become a known expectation in our chaotic world and can open up new avenues of creativity. Why? It’s because with routine our brain has clear expectations of what’s to come and has the comfort to relax in that. So, if you want to start a routine, use your discipline to force that daily pattern until it becomes second nature and something that you miss when the pattern is broken.
Daily Prompt: What routines do you follow every day? Do those routines bring you a sense of peace, comfort, and accomplishment? If you don’t have routines, how can you start? What could you do daily to enhance your lifestyle and attain your goals?:
Motivational Passage:
“We are what we repeatedly do.”
-Aristotle
Rewilding Action: What happens to your house when the power goes out? Do you have a backup plan? For many folks I know in urban areas the answer is ‘no,’ which is a scary thought. My challenge to you is to look into backup power generation. At our cabin we have a 7000w running generator that can power the whole house for a few days in the event of our co-op power going failing. We had a transfer switch installed last year, which allows us to switch over seamlessly over to our generator if and when that happens. Outside of gas/propane backups, solar and chargeable lithium batteries (think Tesla Power Wall) are also options. Take some time to see what options are out there for your home today and what an investment in that security may look like (fair warning – none of the options are cheap).
