Getting Back Into A Routine
A full month of excitement through me into a rut…
I started Medium in December of 2021 and really dived into it in January. I gained over 50 followers in January alone which surpassed my goal of hitting 30 for the month. I was so amped on this platform and in my personal life.
I was working out 5 days a week again. I was tracking my money and budget each day. I was doing a full skincare routine. January really felt like I was getting back into my old habits and creating new ones.
Then February hit and I haven’t really done any of those things. I have failed to write one article here on Medium this month, along with not hitting any of my personal goals. Why did this happen? What was the drastic change? It was all in my way of routine.
Creature of Habit
I noticed, especially this last month, that over the years I have become a creature of habit. I used to be the type of person that was always go, go, go, and it didn’t really affect me too much. I could never be home and still be achieving my personal goals. But over the pandemic, I have noticed that I am now such a creature of habit.
A lot of habits are formed by certain triggers in our daily lives. My ideal day is getting up at 5:30, making tea, writing out my to-do list, journaling, tracking my habits, workout, and writing. Of course, fitting work in there somewhere. For a long time, I was able to do this each day. I thought it was just my habit.
But then this last month. I traveled the weekend of January 29, February 4th, and February 18th. I was so busy this past month that I became exhausted. The certain triggers that I needed to start my days were not there. I don’t think I got out of bed once before 6:30 a.m., all month. I barely worked out and I definitely didn’t pay attention to my finances as much as I should have.
Getting Out of a Rut
This has made me realize that my old ways of always being go, go, go, aren’t working for me. I need time to slow down and be home. My good habits are best done when I am able to go through my usual day-to-day without constant interrupters.
I am looking forward to March so much. Not only because my birthday is coming up, but because I will finally slow down. I have one more travel plan which will be next week for my birthday but then I am able to slow down.
My plan is to start to get back into my mindfulness routine and really focus on the things I want to be doing, like writing. It feels like a mountain trying to climb my way back up to where I would like to be. I think the societal “hustle culture” does not really take into account the mental struggle of always being on the go and trying to stick to certain habits.
How do you get out of a rut when your routine is totally thrown off?
