It doesn’t matter how much it’s for our own good, how much good it does us and those around us, sometimes we just need to break free of the routine. Most people complain about the routine when it’s rubbing them the wrong way. When it’s strangling them, keeping them from being who they want to be, forcing them to be someone they aren’t, etc, etc. And complaining is good because it’s proof that we’re aware of the problem, the we can articulate it, and it allows us to get feedback from others because there are probably aspects of the situation(s) we can’t see from our side of things.
Of course complaining isn’t where things should end. Complaining is not a state of being, it’s a station on the track that leads to action, remedy, resolution, and life improvement. So once complaining has happened start making changes even if they’re small. Or stop complaining and put your head back down and keep plodding the same way you have since….ahem…
But what about the routines we’re not aware of? The routines that we think are “just the way we are” or that “make things go smoothly” for everyone? Assumptions make and ‘ass’ out of “u” and “me” so it’s sometimes a good idea to stop assuming that these routines are good or even neutral and see if they are holding us back or causing problems. It’s amazing what we don’t know we don’t know until we start looking. Aha moments can come from the most mundane of things like looking at our habits.
And then there are the routines we know are a safety zone. We have created them to form the box we live in and we’re very happy with our box, thank you very much. But what if the box is preventing us from seeing the rest of the world or participating in life? What if good enough isn’t? What if happy is just status quo without drama? What if the longing is just out of reach beyond this box that we’ve created?
Sometimes it’s not the imposed routines or habits or have-tos that are holding us back, it’s the routines we’ve built to define our world. Change your definition.