Yesterday I found myself upset because I wasn’t able to wake up and write in my journal. This is a routine that I’ve grown attached to so much that I make the time to do it even when it seems against all odds. When I found that I couldn’t write in my journal, I moved the time to another point in the week, but this didn’t keep me from being perturbed. It made me examine the things that I do regularly and wonder if I was becoming the archetype of someone set in her old ways.

We all know someone who is set in the routines they’ve created. These individuals get up at a certain time, go to bed at a specific hour, exercise, relax, eat, etcetera; all at given intervals of the day, week, or month. It may not be a choice—this routine construction. It may simply be a human characteristic, a sociological and psychological way for them to seek comfort in their lives.

Soon after I started to examine my own routines, I started to find friends and family who had one or more of their own. The discovery surprised me. Everyone had at least one discernible routine. Everyone seemed attached to one pattern in their life.

I also started to ask the question, which of these individuals is more prone to get over a routine dismissed and which was not? I certainly created a bit of internal angst when I couldn’t write in my journal but it subsided, and the thought of how individuals recover was an inevitable segue to my train of thought.

I know individuals that will not break a routine. Life becomes a routine’s roadblock when it starts to curve. But these individuals have become clairvoyants to the moments that threaten the regular occurrence. They’ve learned to plan around life’s turning points. In this way, they maintain the continuity of the routine. It is not that the routine gets rescheduled; on the contrary, life gets straightened out before it becomes the hinderance.

A part of me enjoys the routine of tea and my journal. It is a relaxing moment in my otherwise hectic life. I find myself slowing down the older I get, and in the process I find myself holding on to certain routines. To maintain a healthy perspective however, I realize that routines sometimes get postponed, but they return in due course.

Copyright © Tyler Gant 2010 for Just Moving Along .com