“Get up at a different time every day. Take a different route to work. Do not check e-mail first thing, but only twice a day. Fast for a day or do a juice cleanse. Make a new routine out of shaking things up. This will forge new pathways in your brain, help you avoid blind spots and rutted thinking, and spice up your life in general.”
Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal
When you feel like you’re stuck in a rut—it’s time to shake things up! Routine can be a powerful tool for getting things done and overcoming resistance. But, too much routine can also lead to rutted thinking and, as Divine mentions above, blind spots. Certainty is what gives us our sense of security, comfort, and safety. Uncertainty is what gives us our sense of surprise, spontaneity, and adventure. As humans, we need to feel a sense of both in our lives in order to feel our best and perform optimally.
Certainty always comes first as it covers our basic needs for survival and gives us our sense of security for living. Without certainty we will feel uneasy, worried, and fearful—and that’s no way to live. You definitely wouldn’t want to add more uncertainty into your life if you’re uncertain about how you’re going to continue to survive. But, if you feel as though things are too certain, to the point where your days feel predictable, boring, and/ or repetitive (first of all, express some gratitude because what a blessing that is), then you know it’s time to shake things up.
If you’ve ever felt like Phil (Bill Murray) in Groundhog Day then you know what I’m talking about. You wake up, hit the alarm, shower, eat breakfast, go to work, come home from work, eat dinner, watch tv, go to bed, and repeat—day-in and day-out. While this approach might be comfortable and even productive, it can certainly make things feel dull and without spark. We need spice in our lives. We all have that desire inside of us for some spontaneity and surprise. So let’s explore some ways that you might be able to add some uncertainty into your life to keep your days interesting.
How To Keep It Interesting
Let’s start by exploring ways you can add “spice” to the daily routine we outlined above. “Wake up, hit the alarm, shower…” What if, as Divine mentions in the quote above, you woke up at a different time every day? What if you went to sleep at a different time every day? Don’t want to mess with your sleeping and waking times? What about challenging yourself to get out of bed within 10 minutes of your alarm going off for a change? What if, before you showered, you challenged yourself to do 5 minutes of exercise or mobility work? What if you tried taking a cold shower and practiced the Wim Hof method? Any one of these ideas could certainly add some spice to the start of your day.
Moving on, let’s take a look at how we might change up, “eat breakfast, go to work, come home from work…” What if, instead of taking the same route you always take to work, you took the scenic route? What if, instead of driving you took public transportation (the environment would thank you)? What if you rode your bike or, if you lived close enough, you tried running to work?
Live too far? No problem. What if you tried going for a run before work? Or right when you got home after work (momentum can be a powerful force to utilize)? You could even start taking walks on your breaks from work and practice mindfulness. Or, you might try eating at a different restaurant or packing a different type of lunch every day? Now you know how you might switch up the middle of your day.
What about the final part of your day? “Eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed…” What if, instead of eating dinner every night you tried Intermittent fasting and skipped it? What if, instead of watching TV, you transitioned to a different kind of screen time and learned how to build a social media presence around something you’re passionate about? What if you started your own side hustle?
Comfortable with your job and sick of staring at screens? Alright. What about reading old fashioned books? It blows my mind how many people have forgotten the magnificent power that’s hidden within books. Maybe you’ll pick one up and remember? Or, if you’re really not up to reading, why not try audiobooks or podcasts instead? You could even walk on the treadmill and get a little workout in while you do? And before you go to bed at the end of the night, what if instead of scrolling endlessly on social media, you tried journaling or doing some light meditating? This could change your whole mindset and radically shift how you feel.
Still hunkering for new ideas? Let’s take a look at things you can do from a broader perspective. What if, instead of thinking about work before you go to work and thinking about work after you got home from work, you learned how to compartmentalize and you spent that time away from work thinking about… other things? What if you spent some quality time with you family and went on spontaneous adventures with them? What if you randomly stopped over at a friend or loved one’s house and chatted with them for a while?
What if you tried doing a 24 hour fast or juice cleanse once a week? What if you joined a new community and contributed to the conversation? What if you tried one of those free online LIVE workout classes? What if you started a blog and tried writing every day? What if you tried becoming vegan and changed your perspective on food? As you can see, the ideas for more uncertainty are endless and are really only limited by your imagination. Now that we have ideas, what about strategy?
Making Uncertainty… Certain?
When you’re really stuck in a rut and have deeply embedded yourself into a routine, changing things up can be, well, hard. Hence, “stuck” in a rut. But, just like with any other problem in life, the only way out is through. You can’t expect to solve your problem of being stuck from the same level of thinking and understanding that you had when you got yourself into it. It’s a problem because you aren’t capable of coming up with a solution… yet. And “yet” is the key word.
You have to try. You have to do just one small thing that’s uncertain to get the ball rolling. The rest will build from there. But without that initial move? The weight of being stuck will only continue to grow. It’s easier to keep a body in motion once it’s started than it is to start a stopped body. Always remember that.
One trick that might help you with this transition to a more “uncertain,” spontaneous life is by blocking out time for daily/ weekly/ monthly adventures. That’s right, dedicating a specific—certain—time every day/ week/ or month to being uncertain. Sounds paradoxical, right? Well, it works. This is a strategy that I use when teaching Martial Arts classes all of the time. Students need that balance of certainty and uncertainty inside of the school just as much as they do outside of the school and in their lives.
As an instructor, if I want to best serve them I have to give them that sense of both in every class. So how do I do that? You guessed it. I block out time in every class to add some “spice.” I also try and block out times during the week and in the cycle when “spontaneity” would be most appropriate. That way, we know when it’s time for routine and we also know when it’s time to break free from routine.
What might this look like in your life? You might start by blocking out a time every day when you can do something random and different. Maybe when you get home from work every day, you decide you’re going to block out one hour of time that’s just for you. And you decide that you’re going to make up what you want to do during that time on the fly! Maybe you get home and you want to run? Maybe you want to read? Maybe you decide you need to meditate? Maybe you want to go on a car ride and blast good music? Who knows? But the time will be there for you and you can start to look forward to it.
Maybe once a week, you block out time in one of your days to do a random family adventure? Maybe at noon every Sunday, you and the family agree to go to a different park for a hike? Or maybe you guys keep it more open and decide on a random adventure on a week-to-week basis? You get the idea. This strategy has worked wonders for me, not just in the Martial Arts School, but in my own personal life as well. Think about what might work best for you and give it a shot! Remember, the most important step is the first one. Get the ball rolling. Do something uncertain and switch things up. Once you get that far, try blocking out some time and the rest will only get easier from there. I hope it helps. Good luck!
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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