Friday, February 6, 2009

Routines... Comfort Zones... Boredom...


So here's the thing.


Sometimes in life, things can get a little bland. You know, you wake up in the morning and say hi to your kids, you take a shower, put on your clothes and make up, get stuck in traffic on the way to work, have your morning coffee and start dealing with crap at work. Before you know it it's lunch time and you go out for an hour and come back and also deal with crap. Then everyone leaves the office and you're the only one left still typing away, and you pack up and go home too - only to find yourself stuck in traffic (again!) and extremely exhausted. You get home and all you want to do is have ten minutes to yourself so you can just have some quiet time and forget everything. But then when you get home and see your kids, you realize that you missed them like crazy and forget all about the "me" time you wanted to have. One, two, three hundred days go by, you age another year and you suddenly find yourself asking this question: what the heck have I done all year?


No, it's not my birthday and I'm not having a midlife crisis or anything. I'm just in that mode, you know, when you're thinking, wow - time has passed by so quickly, what have I achieved?


My daughter, who was born last year in February is approaching her 1st birthday already. She has 5 (and a half) teeth, has started nearly running, can say "Mama", "Papa", "Barney" (yeah, the purple ugly dinosaur) and can pick up the phone and say "Hello". I look at her, completely amazed, and I'm thinking to myself, "Didn't I just have the painful c-section like a month ago??" Hell, I still have all the baby fat on me, and she's already turning one!


Matthew - my eldest, is one year shy of primary school. PRIMARY school, people! No longer is he going to be a toddler running around in diapers and just playing around at "so-called schools" that teach him to color and write his name. He's going to be in a serious "big-boys" school, and will pretty soon out-smart us all! Well, he'll definitely out-smart me, because this kids seems to be good in numbers, and we all know how much I suck at numbers!


Here's my theory about all of this: we get sucked into routines. Everyday just becomes a habit, and we sort of just go through the motions without really thinking or enjoying things anymore. We just... do them. No questions asked, just do it. And when we get attached to this full of routines lifestyle, we create a comfort zone for ourselves. We never want to get out of it because it's just much, much easier to follow the way things are "normally" and "usually" done. Every little thing that seems out of the ordinary becomes the "unknown" which then creates a sense of fear. Every now and again, that "experimental" part of us wakes up and says to us, "OMG, I'm doing this again?!" - and all of a sudden, we get bored of what we've been doing, think that our life is soooo insanely boring, so we get all gloomy and miserable, then we update our Facebook status saying "feeling lousy..." (oh wait, maybe that's just me!).


But when an exciting opportunity arises, we go back to that stupid "fear" and the circle of routines comes back again, and we're back to square one. I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of this.


I think it's time to step up and live a little. Forget routines once in awhile and just allow yourself one freakin' day to let lose and do something out of the ordinary. A song I heard had some interesting lyrics that I thought were inspiring:


One more year has come and gone

But nothing has changed at all

Wasn't I supposed to be someone

Who could face the things that I've been running from

Let me feel, I don't care if I break down

Let me fall, even if I hit the ground

Let me cry a little, die a little

At least I'll know I've lived

Just a little


Why are we so scared of doing things out of our routine? Why are we so afraid that we might fall and bruise if we even attempt to go crazy and live a little once in awhile? Who knows how long we have to live. Who knows if the opportunity to do something exciting for a change will ever come again. No one really knows. So then, why not once in awhile, take the leap and just do it? Close one eye, make the jump, no questions ask, just do it. You only live once, right?

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