All part of my routine

Preamble

I’m not sure why I do this to myself. There I was flicking through my Twitter feed, engaging with tweets when I see a post for a blogging challenge! These are the two words that actually motivate me into action. 

So, I quickly signed up and decided to give it a go! The first topic for today is ‘Routine’ – so here goes!

My life is a rountine!

I’m one of those people who live their life as one big routine. It is something that keeps me sane and actually motivated and productive. From waking up to going to bed, my day is segregated into time periods each of which has designated content that needs to be completed. Everything fits into this rigid order, even the writing of this blog post.

When I saw the challenge my brain went into overdrive and started to re-organise what I still had to complete before retiring to my bed. Just like one of those puzzles when you had to slide the tiles around to form the full picture, the mentally moved the blocks of time around in my head to allow space for this writing to take place. I have to say, that with the content or the activity adequately planned for, please do not judge my writing skill or the content of this post. Within the allocated time slot there will be little room for writing let alone proofreading!

Living a routine does make me appear to be very productive and efficient. I always wanted to be called two letters as my known name. Not because it was easier to spell or even write. I just felt it sounded more productive. The options were varied – ‘AJ’, ‘TJ’, ‘TC’ being some of my favourite ones, although TJ reminds me far too much of an aged William Shatner ‘rolling’ over the bonnet of police cars and ‘TC’ just of a self-opinionated cat! But what people are not aware of is the turmoil that a life in a routine can induce.

Not now!

I have long since accepted that I am definitely on some spectrum somewhere. I don’t really want to mention it in my first blog post, but I think it is important to know something personal about me in order to place this content in perspective. Suffering from anxiety for many years has made me seek and find solace in the world of routines. I feel safe and secure when the routines are in place. I feel that I know what is going to happen and that I am in complete control. Life is perfect with routines apart from when they are changed!

I’m not a very spontaneous person. I’m trying to change this, but being a ‘routineist’ doesn’t really support this. In my private world, everything happens at a certain time and lasts for a pre subscribed period of time. Before the lockdown, Saturday morning coffee at Costa (other coffee shops are available) happened at 9 am. Not before and not after. Once, I actually arrived at 8:55 and the barista actually looked at their watch and asked -‘ What are you doing here, it’s not 9 am yet!’

I become agitated when people change the order of things. I can become short-tempered or even dismissive if people start to change my routines. I usually run three times a week in the morning. To consider running in the evening causes my heart rate to increase and excuses to start to flow out of my mind. Even at this moment, I am looking at the clock thinking about the time and what I should be doing within my routine. And that’s probably why I accepted this blogging challenge.

Onwards and upwards

You might be saying, don’t do it, just keep in your safe little world. But please don’t give me this option. I need to challenge myself and accept challenges to move me away from where I feel safe and secure. It is only pushing boundaries that allow us to grow!

So, rearranging the tiles of things to do today I have made it. I’ve not only accepted the challenge but I have started to take a break from my routine life – so thank you!

Outro

You might be saying, don’t do it, just keep in your safe little world. But please don’t give me this option. I need to challenge myself and accept challenges to move me away from where I feel safe and secure. It is only pushing boundaries that allow us to grow!

So, rearranging the tiles of things to do today I have made it. I’ve not only accepted the challenge but I have started to take a break from my routine life – so thank you!

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