It's 9AM
Predictable, she said.
And she was right.
I am.
A lot of us are.
Especially creatures of routine and habit.
Almost every morning before the sun comes up, you can find me in the same spot.
Drinking from the same coffee mug.
After a very same get up, get going routine.
Open eyes. Go turn on same two lights so I don’t disturb everyone else.
Cold water across the face. Make coffee.
Turn on computer and wonder where the day might go.
Fairly predictable, for sure.
I’ve long argued that habits like that, like daily pushups and walks and sitting ass in seat are how to get after it and get done.
Except…
I’ve also been argued at that once a pattern is established, it is easy for someone to find you.
Something I don’t worry about much in my day to day now, but an old thought pattern that is hard to disrupt.
Sometimes.
I suppose wondering if the routine is rote is a pattern breaker though.
In conversations outside this one we have, most people don’t think about the way they spend their mornings.
I suppose I’d rather be predictable than thoughtless, though I have been accused of it before.
I blame it on routine, because we do the same things over and over so we don’t have to think about it.
The human brain tends to lean into energy consumption, and routine is one of the best ways to save brain space.
Because nothing out of the ordinary means no threats, and no threats means saving synapses for another time.
But…
What if you put some MCT’s into your coffee to give your brain fat and protein for extra energy and went outside your routine?
What then?
I use butter as an MCT (medium chain triglyceride) and put it in coffee instead of creamer.
Stand instead of sit to write, which takes away the ass in seat rally cry but accomplishes something new.
Turn left instead of right to take the long way to work.
And switch up just enough little stuff so my brain can’t zone out and I’m awake and aware and thinking.
I don’t know if we do enough thinking.
Though it may be easy to predict that thinking isn’t enough.
New action is though.
I saw a quote from Game of Thrones where Littlefinger tells Lady Sansa to fight everyone, do everything, plan for every outcome in her mind.
And I thought that made perfect sense.
Practicing the what if scenarios that make us predictable.
Considering the what if scenarios if we weren’t so much.
There is a guy on Tik Tok who had a quick blow up in popularity over the summer because he changed up what he was talking about doing and started just doing it.
The action begat criticism, begat defense, begat him building something.
Which turned into more people offering to help and more opportunities coming his way, and more people following and hearing his story.
And the only way he started seeing the kind of success he wanted was through taking massive action.
AFTER breaking the routine that wasn’t delivering what he wanted.
Action toward a goal will always yield a success.
Sometimes it’s not the success you want, but learning how NOT to do something so you’re one step closer to where you want to be.
The key is simple.
Thinking about the things you do, measuring if that thing you do will take you where you want to go and dropping it if it doesn’t.
Pick one big thing.
Built your routine around getting that thing done.
Then do it.
Simple ain’t always easy, but it does get the job done.
Mostly.
If your routine isn’t working, change it.
If your goal doesn’t make your private parts tingle in fear and anticipation just a little bit, it may not be big enough.
Or right enough.
Adjust it.
I am.
And trying today, and every day to rethink and reconsider and readjust to reach the result I want.
I predict it will work.
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Love your daily mesages, But change my routine r? I go off the rails.
Had a VA appointment, which in itself is change., they lost it, couldn't find it said they'd
Make some calls. By that time I was headed out the door. I didn't come out of house for 2 days. But Coffee with Vietnam vets I never miss. So I'm back on track.
Thanks for spending time on these dailies. They are appreciated. G