Vary the Routine Every Now and Then

Here's to varying the routine every now and then to keep life fresh, the spirit spontaneous, and the mind awake ~ Jill Badonsky

Routines are essential to achieving most of life's tasks, professional or personal.  The idea of creating person routines was introduced to me nearly fifteen years ago when I worked in cash services for a large commercial bank.  We always coached the employees to develop personal routines to help them achieve their accuracy when handling large amounts of currency (upwards of one million dollars per day!). 

I took this idea of developing a routine and applied to my job at the time and have employed it every position ever since.  As a corporate trainer, I had certain administrative duties that had to be completed after each class and usually only had Mondays to complete them.  As a call center supervisor and manager, I created routines to ensure all my tasks are completed in a timely manner.

Routines are important when you're working on a dream journey.  Since many of us on a dream journey are also juggling other responsibilities like a full time job and family responsibilities, routines help ensure our dream journeys continue amidst our everyday lives.  Routines also help our family, friends, and supporters understand how important the time is to you and understand that their time is coming soon, and in your plan.

At the same time, sometimes it's just fun to mix things up every now and then.  For example, instead of setting a goal to just sit down and write, I am breaking up my writing time into bits and pieces.  This morning, I went ahead and did my workout, sat down and completed half my writing goal on A Place to Call Their Own, took a break to play on Twitter, wrote out this blog, and then I will return to the novel to complete my writing for the day. 

For me, sometimes it is just easiest to get the writing done and out of the way.  Sometimes it's nice to break it up, either because I'm struggling with a section or because during the breaks I might be doing something else I don't like, such as chores around the house.

I hope your routines are helping you achieve your dreams and goals this year.  Vary them every once and a while and I'm sure you'll get a new spring in your steps towards your dream journey.

What are your thoughts?