Growing up, my biggest personal
fear was redundancy, waking up every day and doing the same exact
thing I did days prior. The dreaded routine! My work was
repetitive, my relationships were repetitive, and all of the
clothes in my wardrobe even resembled each other so it started to
look like I was wearing practically the same attire every day. Even
when I was sick of my job and wanted to unwind on the weekend, my
circle of friends were also stuck in this same redundant pattern
and would want to hang out in the same places that we would
frequent for years. That was my big reward for a hard week's work,
48 hours simply known as the weekend, which was really more like 24
hours because by the time Sunday came I spent most of the day
depressed that I had to return to work the next day. This
monotonous pattern became my worst nightmare and for a long period
of time my reality.
We are, by nature, creatures of
habit and we often feel comfortable in life's repetitive patterns.
It is the comfort that attracts most people to this lifestyle, the
comfort of knowing that you are settled-settled into your routine,
your union job, your apartment or house, your whole life is an even
keeled, repetitive process, and that's not even the craziest part.
What puzzles me is that, for all of our repetitive ways we actually
expect to experience drastic change in our outcomes. We expect to
meet different people, even though we frequent the same places. We
expect to have a different lifestyle, even though we apply to the
same type of jobs and have yet to improve our self-worth. Then we
turn around and expect more from our own children even though we
send them to the same schools that we attended, and expose them to
the same lifestyle and thought processes that we were exposed to.
The truth of the matter is they are set up to repeat their parents'
fate, and even mimic some of the same habits.
It is important to remember that
your habits become your daily routine and your daily routine
becomes your life. We mentally and physically begin to identify
with our habits until they become a part of our attributes. Our
lifestyle even starts to resemble those with similar habits as
ours. Simply put, if you want to change your life you must first
change your habits. When you develop the
#newyou, you must create new patterns. Start by
making smaller changes that will help you identify with your new
persona, something as simple as drinking tea every morning instead
of coffee, going to the gym more often, even change your
appearance. Discarding the type of clothing that you would usually
wear and ridding yourself of the style that people associate the
old you with will help open the door for opportunity to arise. Once
you rid yourself of the old, you will leave room for the new to
creep in. Make sure to develop routines that you will do
religiously on a daily basis that will affect your life in a
positive manner. These routines will eventually become your new
habits and your new habits will form your new life.