a boring life is an amazing life
Let me start off by saying: I don't consider my life boring. However, on paper (or in a digital calendar), I realized that my daily habits might strike many as dull or unexciting. I've begun to embrace this because I'm aware of the benefits that come with predictability.
Thinking back to various periods of my life when I've been the happiest or made the most progress, it was usually the times with a repetitive schedule. "Boring," it turns out, is amazing.
To be honest, my first memories of strict routines that yielded immediate, noticeable benefits were from basketball camps/schools as a kid. These were typically 3-5 days long with nothing but basketball from sunrise to sunset. The instruction, competition, and repetitive practice all while being away from home made me a much better basketball player.
I rarely play basketball nowadays, but I'm playing the game of life, and the beauty is in the repetition. I listened to Lance Armstrong on The Kreatures of Habit Podcast a couple months ago, and one description of his mornings really stuck with me about how he carves a path in the carpet from the bedroom to the coffee maker by taking the same steps every morning. He wakes up early and takes that time for himself to calm his thoughts and get in the right frame of mind. As he's someone who's had a rollercoaster of a life, I don't underestimate the value of small routines for Mr. Armstrong. In that same pod, he says at one point how frustrating politics and media can be, but at the end of the day, HIS job is to focus on his family and make sure things are good at home—now, more than ever before, this sort of mindset strongly resonates with me.
When a person's house is closer to being in order, life is boring, and it's amazing. One of my absolute favorite parts of the day is when my family wakes up after I've already worked out and I start to make coffee because I get to take everything in—a simple, uneventful start to the day, and it's magical for me.
There is a catch to all of this: as we accumulate more responsibilities, it can be more challenging to maintain a specific schedule. While your life can hopefully still be boring when you'd like it to be, routines may still fall apart. However, the daily tasks you set for yourself can be maintained even when the order or timing of events vary.
As Ryan Holiday points out, routines fall apart when you have kids, but practices can be maintained. In other words, I may not wake up and go straight to the gym every single morning, but I can still make sure I work out every day—even if that just means a fast-paced walk for 40 minutes and some stretching.
I personally have a list of things I try to do every single day, and when a high percentage of them are completed at the end of the day, I know I'm moving in the right direction. To be clear, the things I do are data-driven—not just backed with science in the modern world, but also with the consideration of what has worked for me in the past. My definition of "works for me" apply to things that help me be successful and be of better service to others.
Make a great week, my friends! Make sure it's at least a little boring.
—Thomas