We have all heard things from our peers, our seniors , our elders , we had read in books that we should get out of our comfort zones and we need to break our shackles. Monotony does not always mean that you are doing the right thing.
This article “Break the Routine ” is going to emphasize on breaking the shackles and why is it so important to break the routine ?
When I say break the routine that does not mean that you break something which is involved with discipline and doing the same thing day in day out. They are two different things we can be doing, great things which generally fall into the category of good habits like Exercise on a daily basis, reading and similarly we can be doing things like drinking , smoking, excessive eating which fall under the gamut of bad habits. These are two very different things so discipline has got to do nothing with this. That’s a separate topic of discussion.
There are four major aspects my article focuses on:
- Why is it important to break the routine ?
- Why are we unable to break the routine ?
- Five changes as to what happens when one changes the routine ?
- What it actually takes to break the routine ?
Why is it important to break the routine ?
The reason why we are not able to break the routine is because we are stuck in the routine the monotony of life on a daily basis. We do have goals , however, we do not have the necessary tools to achieve those goals. We keep doing the same things every time day in day out. This happens when we don’t incorporate certain habits to achieve those goals.
Objects –certain habits that we feel are difficult to achieve we tend to delay them and get into a procrastination mode.
Why is it important to break the routine and what happens when we are unable to do it?
There can be many reasons we are unable to break the same routine.
Majority of people are YES, people in this planet and they say a yes to everything in life, be it with friends , situations. Secondly, we are brought up in a certain way, be it our parents and family , society and friends , the way we live , we get used to a certain way of living and being repetitive. One tends to become rigid when you are used to doing things in a certain manner.
- Stuck in a Routine
- We have goals but do not know how to achieve them / no tools
- We brand ourselves as “Yes” people and say “Yes” to most situations in life
- We are like the frog in the well who can only see the walls and not beyond
- We are the champions of rigidity and Fear
Five changes to our lives when we change our daily routine ?
- New Lease of life-> we look at life aspects from a brand new lens.
- Our goals are achieved more often and we have less failures in life.
- Balance between saying a Yes & a NO (We no longer get clubbed as yes and no people but we take our life called by same judgement)
- Positive mindset -> Flexibility, adaptability become our new mantras in life and nothing is impossible now.
- No fear-when there is no fear there are no ladders of self improvement and success that cannot be climbed.
What it actually takes to break the routine and the ways to do it?
- Realization
- Patience
- Practice
- A way of life / becomes a Habit
- We respect the “Importance” of doing the same
Realization , is what it actually takes to break the routine. Realization is coming to a conclusion that our lives are not given the fruits that we deserve because the problem lies within us as we are continously repeating things. Realization of , that if the same input is delivered everyday, the same output will be produced, so realization is not a new word, its going on since ages.
Siddharth had a realization and he became Mahatma Buddha, so realization is the core of change. A person will only change certain things in his or her life, when the person realises that is the first ste. When somebody, who’s an alcoholic decides to leave alcohol, so realization sets in that the person and he decides to leave the ill habits.
Second is patience; as the word patience suggests, things are about to change, though not overnight. It takes ages and it takes time to happen and sometimes when you are stuck in a routine , despite the realization you keep doing the same thing , because your body is in like an auto –pilot mode, you know you keep doing the same thing day in day out , despite knowing that you are on the wrong path because it takes a lot of will power and lot of determination to break the jinx that we are in so we have to be patient to make changes and have different approaches to life.
Third related to patience is practice , we have to practice it like a regular thing happening in our lives to make it a habit to continuously do the things if we want changes to our lives, so that we don’t go back to it.
Fourth point is Habit , once you do certain things and it becomes a part of your life, a way of your life , you never would go back to the same routine. So why is it that the people on a weight loss journey, shed weight and gain weight again? The reason is that these people are determined and motivated for a very short duration of time they wanted to shed weight, but they dis not change their overall habit in their life and they again went back to gaining weight, so when ever you do something it has to be a habit.
The fifth point is the significance , the importance of thinking out of the box and doing things differently, adapting words like flexibility, adaptability in our life, getting rid of negativity, rigidity , once you realise how we can change our life for better, how can we be an excellent professional in an office ? How can we be excellent in our personal life ? We will definitely make those changes.
Even Japan is not perfect.
This may surprise you to know that though Japan has a very workaholic and hardworking culture, people work really hard and it seems like a good habit but they also say that there is a word in Japanese for work to death which is “Karoshi”. The polite and impressive people of Japan follows a social order and less of a chaos which sometimes also leads them to not sharing even their personal thoughts which seems like they are kind of two faced. A clean, orderly and nice country like Japan too has an existence of some people who are really rigid in their thinking and can be very narrow minded too. Apart from Commitment and hard work , they often take it literal at their work place and hence there had been many accounts of people dying from being overworked. Many young Japanese have decided not to get married and though marriage is a personal choice but we all know that living alone can result in depression, suicidal thoughts , unhappiness and many other psychological –mental diseases.
THE SCIENCE TO BREAKING THE SCHAKLES & INCOORPORATING GREAT HABITS –
Baby steps do make a big difference in our day to day life. The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. Breaking it down into 4 parts can help us understand what a habit is, how it works, and how to improve it.
First, there is the cue. The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. The cue could be rewards like money, fame, power, love etc Your mind is continuously analyzing your internal and external environment for hints of where rewards are located. Because the cue is the first indication that we’re close to a reward, it naturally leads to a craving.
Cravings are the second step and they are the motivational force behind every habit. Without some level of motivation or desire—without craving a change—we have no reason to act. What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers. You do not crave smoking a cigarette, you crave the feeling of relief it provides. You are not motivated by brushing your teeth but rather by the feeling of a clean mouth. You do not want to turn on the television, you want to be entertained. Every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state.
Cravings differ from person to person. In theory, any piece of information could trigger a craving, but in practice, people are not motivated by the same cues. For a gambler, the sound of slot machines can be a potent trigger that sparks an intense wave of desire. For someone who rarely gambles, the jingles and chimes of the casino are just background noise. Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the observer are what transform a cue into a craving.
The third step is the response. The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action. Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and how much friction is associated with the behavior. If a particular action requires more physical or mental effort than you are willing to expend, then you won’t do it. Your response also depends on your ability. It sounds simple, but a habit can occur only if you are capable of doing it. If you want to dunk a basketball but can’t jump high enough to reach the hoop, well, you’re out of luck.
Finally, the response delivers a reward. Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: (1) they satisfy us and
(2) they teach us. The first purpose of rewards is to satisfy your craving. Yes, rewards provide benefits on their own. Food and water deliver the energy you need to survive. Getting a promotion brings more money and respect. Getting in shape improves your health and your dating prospects. But the more immediate benefit is that rewards satisfy your craving to eat or to gain status or to win approval. At least for a moment, rewards deliver contentment and relief from craving.
Second, rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector. As you go about your life, your sensory nervous system is continuously monitoring which actions satisfy your desires and deliver pleasure. Feelings of pleasure and disappointment are part of the feedback mechanism that helps your brain distinguish useful actions from useless ones. Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle. If a behavior is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit. Eliminate the cue and your habit will never start. Reduce the craving and you won’t experience enough motivation to act. Make the behavior difficult and you won’t be able to do it. And if the reward fails to satisfy your desire, then you’ll have no reason to do it again in the future. Without the first three steps, a behavior will not occur. Without all four, a behavior will not be repeated.
So go ahead , make daily changes and change your life for the better.
BREAK THE SHACKLES