How Breaking Routine Can Add Value

Recently, I took a short trip away for a few days.   Upon returning, I realized that breaking away from my daily schedule brought me back mentally to a different place.  No problems had magically resolved themselves nor was there any major change in my environment.  And yet my attitude was refreshed and my outlook turned positive even in the face of life’s daily adversities. What had happened?

I discovered that the very act of just stepping away was the catalyst.   It wasn’t the aftereffects of a tropical vacation but rather the mere escape from routine that re-invigorated me and brought greater value to my life without any other fundamental changes.  I had changed, that’s all, and that was everything.

New Thoughts Drive New Inspiration

Getting outside of our “zone,” can lead to unexpected revelations that can inspire us to re-frame a problem. Every experience adds to our perspective.  It adds new thoughts, new contemplations. When exposed to something new, we jump-start elements of our mind because we have to, because the routine has changed.

Emerson said, “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”  But it’s up to us to find the way to stretch it.  Start by breaking your routine occasionally.  Allow the genesis of inspiration to come from the unanticipated.

Change the Perspective, Change the Lens

Sometimes, it’s not even a new thought but rather a shift in our perspective that does the trick.  Changing up our routine can facilitate that as well.  Remember that every situation is seen through our own eyes.  To see something different in the same set of circumstances, we must change the lens.  By observing and translating situations differently, we can uncover alternate vantage points.

For example, just interpreting a situation as “positive,” versus “negative,” is a simple adjustment that can recalibrate our thinking.   This modification creates a new lens through which we can see and subsequently amends our attitude and approach.  It may be tough to make the change instantly, but given some distance, it’s entirely possible.

Let Distance Do the Legwork

Being engulfed in a problem will not drive to a solution.  The problem and the solution are rarely, if ever, on the same plane of thinking.  To resolve something, we must get outside of it.   By leaving a frustrating issue be on its own for a while, and doing something else gives the unconscious mind an opportunity to work the challenge “off-hours.”  And when least expected, a probable resolution offers itself.  Distance allows us to release strong feelings one way or another, and creates space for answers to germinate on their own.

Routine Dulls.  Change Drives Growth.

Breaking our own routine, in any way, forces the brain to think versus running on autopilot.  It is estimated that we have approximately 50k-70k thoughts per day, out of which a significant number of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday.   Repetition & predictability create fixed pathways through the brain.  They provide virtual shortcuts that lead to the same place as yesterday.

This is precisely why any deviation from the routine, which forces the brain to open new pathways, and think “differently,” than the days before, can augment creativity in ways that we cannot imagine.  As much as it might be painful for us, change effectively promotes a level of personal growth.

Practical Methods

If you can’t travel, then strive to make some minor change to escape the routine.  Change that dreaded weekly 9am status meeting to 2pm in the day and see what happens.  Grab lunch with the first person you see in the office.  Kick off a meeting with a brainstorming session first, instead of updates.  Go to a different Starbucks.  Shake things up. Do something different to get your juices flowing again.  Stop cruising on autopilot and make yourself think!