It’s Life Changing, Changing!
Have you ever found it interesting that everyone wants to change the world…but yet no one wants to change? Most of us HATE change. Let’s try it! Maybe change isn’t so bad! You start….
Humans are creatures of habit. As creatures, we have basic survival needs: food, water, shelter. In terms of cognitive thinking, we are at the top of the animal kingdom. Refined as we are, intelligent and social as we are, we’re still animals. As refined, intelligent, social creatures who have created this multi-faceted existence here on earth, we have to form habits and routines that become almost autonomic just to survive. Our daily requirements are such that, in our fast-paced societies, we would wither without routine. There are things we need to do each and every day. Things we don’t want to have to think about while we do them so we’re allowed to think of other things that are more important. Things that require active cognitive attention to be accomplished successfully.
We form these routines, we lock them in, and we stay there. We form patterns of behavior that we engage in and refine until they are time and cost effective; requiring a minimum of thought and action, getting us to our goal with the greatest expediency. We do this because it is not only expedient, it is also comforting. We all find comfort in regularity. Regularity means the routine of our lives is operating smoothly. The pattern of our existence is unbroken and needs little to no attention.
To put it bluntly, we live in love with our ruts! Most of us live the majority of our lives in a routine of ruts.
“But wait a minute,” you say. “Not all routines are ruts.”
I’ll give that to you. Rut is an ugly word. It carries a negative connotation and not all routines are negative behaviors. But, it’s my contention that all routines can lead to negative behavior, because a routine is just that, a routine. It requires little to no thought, it’s easy because our muscle memory automatically defaults to a pattern of behavior that promotes laziness in thought and action.
Examining our routines is like looking at our possible imperfections under the microscope, magnifying them many times their size. Yikes! Making a habit of self-examination is not healthy. But an occasional peak here and there can reveal to us areas in which we can improve and grow to be better global citizens.
Let’s all try it. Ready? Begin!
