Introduction
We all make broken promises to ourselves on a regular basis. There are a million and one reasons they ultimately fall through. However, the absolute best way to empower yourself is to master the power of routine. Why? Because routine makes all the hard work autonomous and as easy as it is ever could be. The presence of a good routine has the ability to transform our daily lives. Inversely, a lack of routine sets no expectation for the day, leaving it very little potential. Routine is the vehicle by which our behaviour snowballs in the right or wrong direction. Think of yourself as the machine, and a routine as the software you hold all your programming on. Routine is infrastructure, it’s the foundation from which everything great was ever conceived. And by uploading the right routine into your hardware you enable it to function optimally. With a strong routine there is no considering when you should do something. Life’s heavy lifting is not consciously considered – you don’t need to consciously decide to take an action if you don’t consider taking any other action. Routine removes the struggle of trying to be mimic the actions of the person you’re trying to become, and helps you embrace becoming the person instead. I acknowledge you can define ‘routine’ for yourself. But there is a huge difference between it’s definition and mastering its potential. The devil is in the detail of routines. There are subtle pitfalls where the power of routines are lost. But once you discover your own powerful routine your goals and ambitions will cease to be wishful thinking. Instead you will be in the continuous process of seeking perfect harmony with yourself. Everyone who ever did anything worthwhile did so via the power of routine. Technically, we all have a routine resembling some form. But those who are unable to harness the power of effortless consistency will never be able to fulfill their ambitions. My advice should help anyone who, like myself in the past, aspires to do more but after many failed attempts to implement permanent change needs the foundations of routine explicitly explained. Failing to change is part of the process of change. What matters is the intention to change lives inside of you, and is persistent in its attempt to actualize. You have the willingness, you just need some direction with the application of it. Hopefully the following advice can be as useful to you as it has been to me.
More energy through sleep
You have heard this a million times, sleep is good for you. If you’re not living up to your own expectations start with sleep. We are used to thinking of waking up as the starting point of our day. However, in my experience, sleep is so critical to regulating your energy and focus it should be the starting point of the day. We all like plans that later, next year, next quarter, the next day. However, if you mark the beginning on the day from when you wake up you fail to account for one the biggest determinants of that day’s quality – sleep. You therefore need to consider the starting point of the day from it’s very foundation, when you go to bed. So next time you’re procrastinating whether you can stay up that little bit longer, acknowledge you will be sacrificing the whole of the next day, not just throwing away the end of another failed day. You need to set a strong precedent for the day ahead going to sleep at a reasonable time so you can wake up and compound positive actions. Especially given most of us only have the ability to work towards our ambitions only after we’ve finished working a day job. With the majority of the days energy, focus and enthusiasm forfeited to our main responsibilities it’s important you retain as much restfulness as possible to dedicate to your long term ambitions. If the lights are on but nobody’s home, you’ll be less likely to attempt any extra curricular work, and your output will be worse even if you kind the find the willpower to invest in yourself. This isn’t a magic bullet; sleep will not solve all your problems. You can of course be well rested only to commit your exuberant state to absolutely nothing. However, don’t think of this as a failure, it’s progress. If you fix your sleep first, even if you don’t do anything with it, at least you have potential now. Think of it as setting a foundation. So set a reasonable time at night to get some shut eye, we can worry about what you do with your replenished time later. I appreciate drifting off to sleep can also be challenging. If you cannot get to sleep easily then you’ll need to work on that before you can concern yourself with using it appropriately. Restlessness could be for a number of reasons: waking up too late, going to bed at an inconsistent time or being too stimulated late at night etc. Here are some tips if you’re struggling to get to sleep: meditate before bed, no screens before bed, setting alarms to begin a winding down routine. Hopefully after all my sleep you’ve been able to buy-in to enough of my advocacy to consider making some changes to your own sleep routine. There’s a lot to consider and try-out, but by implementing new sleeps habits you’ll unquestionably be able to supercharge the output of your routine. From whichever angle your sleep routine needs to be tweaked from it’s essential you do it. Sleep represents a third of our day. Messing it up sets a challenging precedent for the remainder of the day. Sure, once you’re up and running you’ll of course be able to compensate for unforeseeable circumstances that disrupt your energy levels, because at that point you’ll be well drilled and trained. However, when you’re still in the process of transforming your life there are no excuses to not begin with the marginal gains of sorting out your sleep routine. Figure out how what suits your individual needs and repeat it until you can’t imagine any other way of life.
Be in alignment with your goals
To be doing your best work in life you have to be playing the right game. If deep in your soul you love yatzy don’t force yourself to play scrabble. Your natural preferences of the type of work you do, where you do it, and the skills applied need to be in alignment with the work you actually do. This may seem obvious, but It’s a common pitfall to become disillusioned chasing the outcome rather than the process. The most challenging aspect of alignment is denial. Essentially meaning, deep down you’re not invested in what you’re doing. Perhaps you’ve invested years of your life, absorbed it as part of your identify and pride. But still, denial of yourself to yourself remains the invisible shackles of the alignment. You want outcome A so badly you convince yourself you need to commit all your time and energy to figuring out process A. You may therefore need to consider some wider perspective, that you’re better suited to a different process that the one you’ve idealised for yourself. Ultimately you’re going to have to commit thousands of hours to your craft, so you’re not going to be able to use will power to force your way through it. Don’t be a square peg in a round hole. Denying yourself authenticity in pursuit of other outcome related goals will inevitably cause you to fall out of routine because you’re unconscious of your inability to draw genuine inspiration from the required tasks. Unfortunately I’m unable to offer your little advice if finding true alignment, but you’ll know when you find it. All i can say is stay open minded. If you can dare to be radically honest with yourself you’ll know when you’re not in alignment, and can therefore, pivotally continue to strive for true alignment. If you can overcome the obstacles to confronting yourself and acknowledging your true life’s purpose, in the end knowing yourself has a satisfying liberty beyond all others and enables you to live a routine met with as little resistance as possible.
Address all areas of your life: health, wealth, family, social and love etc.
People who get things done are generally well rounded. Yes, partially because of discipline but it also helps to be well rounded wellbeing in all areas of your life. Being severely depleted in one area of your life causes a loss of wellbeing that is toxic to all other areas. If you carry the weight of severe underdevelopment in one area of your life it will bleed through into the others. I concede, a lot of people near abandon their families to work. Others prioritise their social life over career prospect. But for those invested in themselves enough to be actively considering their personal growth, just know each area has an in-direct affect on the others. Don’t ask me how, it just does. Career prospect improves all other areas of your life. Equally a loving relationship with a significant other will affect your health. Again, I can’t explain how this phenomenon works. I’m not saying it’s a perfect science, but it true enough you need to strongly consider your own livelihood holistically. In a similar tone to improving your alignment to your own goals, you need to be assessing your development in every area of your life. It’s easy to deny you have any areas for growth, or that they’re unimportant, or maybe you’ll deal with them later. Well, how far has that thinking got you so far? Would you consider that whatever area you find challenging, you find so challenging that you’ll do anything to avoid fixing it. Unfortunately the areas of our life we’ve most neglected are the ones we’re most hesitant to engage with – we’re resigned to the acceptance. Sorry, personal development in tough; it’s trial and purification by fire. An abundance of positivity, liveliness, love and encouragement strangely (i am being sarcastic) has a profound impact on your ability to galvanise a routine. To live the life you want to live, you’re going to have to become the person that wants to live it. That’s just how this works.
Limit the bad routines as well as add the good ones
We all have our own vices. And the future, all singing, all dancing, supreme routine based version of yourself will very much continue to have many of the same self-destructive tendencies you have today. Nevertheless routine must be considered from limiting our worst tendencies as well as embedding better ones. It’s all well and good slowly embedding new habits, working on your assertiveness, reading, writing, working, whatever. However, similarly to ‘you can’t outrun a bad diet’, you’re going to make things very difficult for yourself weighed down by your worst habits. You may even find addressing the worst parts of your current routine more beneficial that efforts to add new practices. That’s what therapy is so effective after all, professional servicing of the relief from negative emotions. But how might you do this for yourself? I can’t offer you all the useful detail you’d need in a brief blog post, especially considering it’d be generic. Essentially, have some humility. It’s a question of your self-awareness. Knowing what you don’t know makes you supremely less arrogant than being disillusioned with the idea you know all there is to know. Acknowledge the things you can’t do, won’t do and are scared to do and begin wrestling with them. If you can acknowledge your weak spots, wherever and whatever they are, and you address them, you’ll find your way. You just need to be radically honest with yourself. I don’t expect you to give up your vices overnight, but tiny, almost insignificant offerings towards them compounding week after week can make you a completely different person in years to come. And yes I said years, sorry this doesn’t happen overnight. Discontent for life’s journey is an obvious starting point to reflect on if that’s you. Slowly devolving your worst behaviour and habits naturally creates more time to be filled with good ones. Building a strong routine feels like less of an uphill struggle when you stop working against yourself. And as hard as that may be it’s unfathomably beneficial, whichever direction you find your life moving in after.
Well timed energetic breaks – coffee, exercise, different kind of task
Setting up your routine to include large blocks of time to be very productive requires appropriate spacing of food, drink and a healthy variety of daily tasks. If it’s not obvious to you don’t eat a huge lunch expecting to be useful straight after. If you start to dim towards the back end of the day have a coffee. I can’t explain your perfect routine. One, it will change over time, and two, I obviously can’t account for all your preferences and needs. So let me tell you mine to give you an idea. I hate waking up early to do anything, so when i have work the absolute minimal amount of waking time is used up to get me to work on time. However, I’ve made breakfast the night before or have healthy options to replace it. I feel the difference drastically without food so I make sure I have it. I don’t want to derail the day before noon. I eat lunch early, but too process or not too much or I get sleepy. I want just enough to keep me feeling good. I appreciate like this sounds like a strict military regime of timings, but when you feel great they energy inducing actions reinforce and propel themselves. I exercise immediately after finishing work, then shower and eat again. Then my prime evening hours of work continue. I will to work late, right up until I fall asleep. That’s just me, that’s just how I like to work. Through trial, error and persistence you’ll eventually find yours. I don’t expect your routine to fall perfectly into place. You might have other things you need to deal with first. Just bear in mind you will need to slowly progress your self-awareness for how you like to operate over time. That way you’ll be able to see the full picture of your day in terms of energy levels and motivation. You’ll know exactly what breaks and changes serve your routine and which don’t. These will become self-reinforcing as you experience their benefits.
Conclusion:
That’s more than enough to get your started. I know a lot of what I have offered you is vague. You need to hold a lot of these ideas in your mind’s eye as you’re growing to gain deeper and deeper insight from these lessons as you learn from your own experiences. Overarchingly, the point of all my advice is to remain open minded to change. Ignorance holds you back like nothing else. If you know who you are you can enjoy the process and won’t clasp to the egoism of outcome.
Becoming superhuman is hard, so it doesn’t happen overnight. Really you know all my recommendations already. It’s just a matter of inspiring some action in them. Highlighting their significance once again. Taking one small area of your routine, being consistent and nurturing it until you’re autonomously motivated from its felt benefit. And i literally mean feel – I want you to viscerally experience your efforts benefits to create that self-perpetuating cycle. From there slowly but surely you will be able to build a lifestyle and routine that will make you feel like you have superpowers with just how high achieving and proud your life will become. In time you’ll come to realise a powerful routine the framework of an exuberant lifestyle. You just need to build it piece by piece, slowly but surely.