What Happened to Your Routine?

Could you have lost your touch?

No matter how terrible things go, you used to make sure to read daily. You used to study, meditate, listen to messages, listen to podcasts, see a movie, write, speak to friends, you had a routine that put some sense of sanity in your life, and now it is all in shambles and you have no idea what has happened.

In fact the subject of this letter itself is stressing you out, because it feels like I'm pointing a finger at you and asking, “what the heck happened to your routine? Why have the actions and activities of your life fallen apart? Why is it so difficult to piece things together and live a proper day like you used to?”

You're right, I'm pointing a finger at you, but like the adage says (I'm not really sure it's an adage, but flow with me), "If you point a finger at someone else, the four remaining fingers are pointing straight back at you."

No lies there. This newsletter is also for me. In fact, it is mostly for me, but you'll have to take that one finger too, because it could be for you as well.

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Perhaps you're at that point where you are grappling upon all that you're familiar with. You can't keep up with the routines you used to structure your life with, and it feels like your life is just passing by, you're being irresponsible and you just cannot get out of that rut.

You'd notice that this happens when something big happens in your life; you change jobs, you relocate, you change positions, you lose a loved one, you get married, you finish school, you hit 30, or whatever else falls in the bucket of something big or drastic for you. Life just takes a completely different turn, and things that used to be normal become a little less so.

What's strange about this point of one's life is that you feel like you're messing with your life, and you're less productive. You feel like you've 'lost your touch' just because you've lost your routine, but that's not the case. Not always at least.

It could just means that you're finding your footing again. You might be less productive than you used to be in the routine that you lost; the one you're trying to get back to, but it's only for a short while. It is completely normal.

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When a part of our lives shift, or when the whole of our lives is suddenly forced to morph into something different, routines become like an old skin that we have to shed to come up higher and shine brighter, no matter how much we are trying to hold on to it.

Many times, the trick isn't to get back to the routine we lost as a result of the big change. The trick could be to find new routines and develop new habits that better suit the new person you have become.

Routines are supposed to help us grow and allow us track our growth over the course of time measured. It becomes an irony if they keep us from growing into new routines and higher versions of ourselves.

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If you're like me whose routines are changing, who feels like he's lost his touch — I mean, you are receiving this email at 10 o'clock PM Nigerian time, that's so not the routine you're used to from me — and you feel like you need to get back to a specific routine before the big change, perhaps the answer is that you should find and pick up the one anchor habit that helped you put the routines together again, or your answer could be that you need to own what you are now, own where you are now, and develop newer and better routines that perfectly fit the person you're becoming.

Either way, as you figure out what happened to your routines, make sure, everyday, with all your might, that you record one forward step on the course that you have chosen for your destiny, no matter how tiny.

It is the tiny little daily progress that counts.

To your growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨