Cruising on autopilot...?
Take a moment to think about your day. What does your routine look like? Have you gone beyond routine into something that looks like Groundhog Day? The same ol', same ol'. Every day the same, with minimal variation. Routines can be comforting. But they can also dull your senses and close you off to new experiences.
Worse yet, the sameness of each day can lull you into an emotional state where you stop registering how you really *feel* about your life day to day. The emotions you have about the aspects of your daily life may be so integrated that they are just part of the routine now, and you scarcely take the time to register them.
One of my biggest wakeup calls was when I realized that my morning routine was sucking the life out of me. With a toddler and elementary school-aged kid, things were a little chaotic, to say the least. My older one (with zero sense of urgency) would meander through the morning, requiring constant herding to do the same things she'd required herding to do every day for weeks before, as if she was the slow-moving person in the Sprite commercial, not a care in the world. My strong-willed toddler ran around, resisted getting dressed, yelled at the dog, picked fights with her sister, and generally made as much noise as it's possible to make when you are 2 feet tall. In the meantime, my husband and I tried to do all the things while I had an eye on the clock because I had a meeting, dammit, and FOR ONCE we were going to get somewhere on time. Yeah, right.
It wasn't uncommon for me to raise my voice in a final, desperate attempt to get everyone into the car so we could finally go. What also wasn't uncommon was that my older daughter would be in tears by the time we were finally on our way to school, because she's a sweet, loving, sensitive soul whose morning was ruined by her harried mother with a near psychotic sense of time. Then one morning, it hit me.
What was I doing to my children??
I had always believed my family was my priority, but I sure as shit wasn't acting like it. I was letting outside forces dictate what I was prioritizing and proverbially running over my own family and values while I was it. Not to mention the self-induced stress I was putting on myself, getting my day off to a terrible start. It was time to hit the reset button.
Do you need to hit the reset button in some aspect of your life? Take some time to raise your awareness around your routine and identify one thing that's out of whack. Figure out why it doesn't feel good, then take commit to changing it for the better based on what YOU value, not someone else's priorities.