Excellence is a habit.
Good habits are worth the effort.
Our championships and our successes are born from our habits.
Your brain loves novelty. It seeks out new things. New experiences and learning help it create new connections. Which make it stronger and more powerful.
Routines help you learn and help you grow. Repetition builds habits. But your body and mind rebel when things become too “routine”. Boring is bad.
For instance: Eating right is a good habit. Lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables is an even better habit. But if you eat the same protein, same fruit and same veggies every day, you’ll probably develop a sensitivity or an outright allergy to those foods. Your body needs variety. You can design your meals around a common theme, but don’t get stuck in a rut.
Or take exercise. Exercise is a good habit. Bodyweight exercise is a great habit. But if you do the exact same exercises every day, in the same way, in the same order, your body will adapt and you’ll lose the training effect. It will make you weaker and imbalanced. The body needs cross-training. You can exercise the same muscles, just in different ways.
Getting sick on good food. Getting weak from exercising. These are examples of the life-damaging effects of “routine routine”.
I was given the book The Solitaire Mystery for my birthday. It’s a story about destiny, sacred symmetry and the creative imagination. There is an exchange between the narrator Hans Thomas and his father that warns against letting our lives becoming too routine:
“Do you know why most people just shuffle around the world without marveling at everything they see?”
I shook my head.
“It’s because the world has become a habit,” he said, sprinkling salt on his egg.
“Nobody would believe in the world if they hadn’t spent years getting used to it. We can study this in children. They are so impressed by everything they see around them that they can’t believe their eyes. That’s why they point here and there and ask about everything they lay their eyes on. It’s different with us adults. We have seen everything so many times before that we take reality for granted.”
The world has become a habit. Maybe we’ve seen the forest so many times, we’re starting to miss the trees. Information overload is dulling our senses
Part of Living Enthused is appreciating the beauty, excitement, the Life of every day life. Even in the ‘terrible daily-ness’. Recapturing some of the wonder and amazement you had when you were young.
This weekend, unplug from your normal routine. Turn off the phone, the TV and the computer. Go out in the yard and blow bubbles.
Or hang out for a few hours with your kids (or “borrow” a neice, nephew or neighbor) and actually look where they’re pointing. And listen to what they’re asking.
Experiencing your life is an excellent habit.
Dr. Vince
P.S. When you plug back in, you may want to check out the secret to relaxing, clearing your mind, avoiding the information overload at http://www.drvinceonline.com/qlink.htm But only after you blow your bubbles.
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