Change Your Routine and Get Better Results

How many times have you had someone recommend that you develop a routine?  Routines really can be great and they add structure and process to our lives. They keep us on track and help us make certain we are always taking care of things and handling what we need to.  And, it is easy to just become comfortable doing things the same way over and over again.

We figure out what works best for us and integrate those things into our daily routine. We know what time we should wake up, we know how many hours of sleep we need, we know the best place to go to get work done…the list goes on and on.

If you are happy with the results you have been getting and are not looking for something more, then there may not be anything wrong with keeping your exact routine.

But…What if we want to accomplish something different?  What if we want something more?  What if we want to have a major breakthrough or take a quantum leap?

Charting a New Course: The alternaview

The alternaview is that when we are looking for a breakthrough or to accomplish something more, we may need to modify and even possibly abandon our routine. It is probably time to find another approach, to think differently, to live differently and to make new choices.  It is time to push ourselves beyond our comfort zone and what we have become accustomed to.

Albert Einstein coined the definition of insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

And this definition most certainly has relevance when we are looking to accomplish more and more.  When we are reaching for something even bigger and better, we are going to have to be open and willing to doing things differently.  It is not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the way we have been doing things, but rather that we have adjusted our goal posts and consequently, we must also make adjustments to what we are doing and position ourselves to accomplish what we have sought out to do.

Big breakthroughs and quantum leaps require big ideas, dedication and a high level of engagement. We can’t get caught up in our normal routine and just charge through our day on autopilot expecting that will ever get us to where we want to be.

We need to do things differently and that requires that we think differently and find new approaches that will allow us to continually take steps in the direction we desire and make continual progress. Perhaps we start going into work earlier and we increase our productivity, or maybe we wake up a couple of hours earlier and use that time to write or work on our big idea, or maybe we stay up a little later and give ourselves more quiet time.  Whatever the case may be, we have to be willing to change our current routine so that we can allow our life to expand in ways it really never has done before.

So, if you are trying to accomplish something, or if you are looking for that next breakthrough or quantum leap, take a look at what you are doing and your daily routine. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then presumably a definition of sanity is doing things differently over and over again and getting a different result.  Figure out a way to change things up a little (or even perhaps a lot) so that you can do the things that will help propel you forward and take a quantum leap in the direction you desire…that is the alternaview.

Is your routine working? Do you agree with this alternaview?