Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 02:27 am
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
–Albert Einstein, (attributed)
US (German-born) physicist (1879—1955)
The reason why we get into ruts and never seem to clear all the junk off of our desk and out of our heads is that we’re stubborn. We try so hard to do something that we may have decided on years ago that we miss the opportunities to change our approaches and perhaps discover new ways to use the resources, skills and knowledge that we’ve managed to stockpile with the passing of time.
Sometimes it requires a little thinking outside of the box—everything’s interconnected, though we might not always see it. For example, notes I take on self-improvement often find their way into my blog posts because they remain entirely relevant, even years later. Unfinished and barely used daily agenda books become notebooks for capturing ideas, old shirts become rags and chocolate tins carry loose odds and ends that’re found around the house. If we continue using things as per their originally intended purpose forever, we’ll find ourselves buying things needlessly to fulfill their secondary functions!
Many of the things I’ve bought and brought into my life over the years—I couldn’t tell you why I got them in the first place; it’s been too long. Oftentimes, if I don’t see it, in my mind it doesn’t exist until I see it again. Not literally, but if something’s not in my line of sight, I’m probably going to forget about it. Just ask Sarah about the number of times I’ve forgotten something even after swearing up and down that I wouldn’t. This happens to all of us to some degree, mostly because we all have a little pack rat in us somewhere.
It’s part of the reason why I’m always purging. Collecting without thinking. Amassing without reason. These are things that can drive you nutty if they get out of hand! (Please see the TV show Hoarders if you don’t believe me!)
In the end, it all comes down to a choice when you’re dissatisfied with the way things are going. You can always continue to do what you’re doing—continue to buy things in the hope that they’ll make you happy. Continue hanging out with people you don’t really like because you’ve always hung out with them and the years of familiarity should overrule whether any of you are actually GETTING anything from it anymore. Continue with your vices, continue doing things you know you shouldn’t be doing—continue living your life sub-optimally.
OR you could make a change. Today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. TODAY.
Routine is the bane of my existence. Doing the same thing day in and day out, trying to keep your sanity while your creativity, drive and imagination slowly evaporate away, leaving most of us as mindless worker drones, never daring to dream again. While this may sound a tad melodramatic, it’s how I see it. So if you’re anything like me, you’re constantly trying to find ways to escape the rut of routines. You seek ADVENTURE. A PURPOSE to your life. While many of us haven’t quite figured it out, still searching for these things, I think we can at least identify some of the steps we can take to CREATE the correct circumstances for change in our lives:
- discovering something new every day -doing things you wouldn’t normally do
- being open to opportunities/the power of “yes”
- meeting someone new
- taking a different path
- figuring out why you do what you do if you don’t want to do it
There’s so much out there that we can do to nudge our lives in the right direction if we dare to look for them. Life is designed to keep us unhappy. Looking at any media around us, there’re constant reminders that we’re not rich enough, smart enough, strong enough, great enough, sexy enough, fit enough, tall enough, small enough, quick enough, or us enough.
But do you know what the real secret to happiness is? Living your life as best as possible. Don’t get stuck thinking that this is the best it’s going to get when you can make just one change, and have it enhance your life in ways you never could have imagined.
Be the change. You just might not regret it!
“If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change”
–Michael Jackson, “Man in the Mirror”
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