At the beginning of 2020 I planned for a year of new experiences, but instead, it became the year of routine. Wake up at 5am. Meditate for an hour (or rather set an intention to follow your breath for an hour but end up lost in thought instead). Write or exercise for another hour. Make a couple of phone calls. Breakfast. Go to work. Lunch. Back to work. Dinner. Read. Write some more. Sleep. On weekends, replace work with a long walk, tai ji class, and longer writing sessions. Sprinkle in a few chores and appointments and add a hefty dose of reading. Yesterday, today, tomorrow – what’s the difference?
Routines are important. They are the skeleton that gives our lives stability. They obviate the need for decision-making and can thereby nip procrastination in the bud. They’re great for efficiency and productivity. And yet even for a self-professed boring person like me, too much routine eventually becomes stifling. Limiting. The comfort zone I’ve been so painstakingly expanding is starting to shrink again.
Of course, with a pandemic still raging (and don’t get me started on the Covidiots who can’t be bothered to wear a mask), finding new experiences isn’t so easy. Sure, there are plenty of opportunities online. I’ve “gone to” a few authors’ talks and workshops. I attended the virtual Nebula Conference. Yes, it was fun, but when you’re staring at a screen for eight hours at work and then for a couple more hours at home, another online get-together is the last thing you want to do.
So what to do instead? Just hunker down for another year or more of groundhog days until life goes back to normal – or to that vaunted “new normal” that everyone’s trying to sell us on these days? Or fight tooth and nail for new experiences? I don’t know. Probably I’ll do what I always do when I’m stymied: I make lists. (Hey, I told you I’m boring). Lists of possible things to try. Little things to bring spontaneity, serendipity, and curiosity back into my everyday life. Huh. I better make sure that there are only one-off things on that list, though, because my new experiences have an unfortunate tendency to morph into new routines.