Sunday Morning: You hear that alarm, snooze for 30 minutes, contemplate why you have to leave that comfy mattress of yours, only to rush yourself out of it, given that it took you ages to fall asleep the night before. You wash up, shower, wear the first top you find in your closet, have the same bowl of cereal, and take the same route to work every morning.

You reach work, you manage to follow up and finalize all the tasks you were assigned to do, and cramp everything else you had to do all in one day. You force yourself to go to the gym to squeeze in a good workout, go back home, enjoy a good meal, chill with some friends or binge watch that series your currently hooked on Netflix, and go to bed. You then come to realize you wake up the next day, doing the same thing all over again, repeat it for another few days just to wait for the weekend to approach. By the time the weekend arrives, you realize your is brain fried, and your ‘To-do list’ hasn’t been crossed off completely – stalling it for the next week.

What do we call this? Routine.

As humans, we tend to go through a sequence of actions that are regularly followed. Why don’t you set that alarm 15 minutes earlier? Have a calmer shower, pre plan your work outfit the night before, have a sandwich instead, take a longer different route, blast up the music and enjoy that ride gazing into the skyline on your way work.

Easier said than done right? How can you change a habit and routine that has been done programmed in your head for years? Research claims that it takes about 66 days to create and stick to a new habit. Are you sick of repeating the same sentence everyday “I’m bored of my daily routine”? Would you really want to wait an average of 66 days (about two months) to change your Routineand stop repeating the same sentence every day?

Train your mind to do bigger, different things every day. Challenge yourself to learn a new fact every day. Trust me, it will make a difference. Instead of hitting the gym for a quick workout every day, try hitting that 10K stepper challenge on your Fitbit. Go for a run in the morning to cut your ‘To-Do list’ shorter for the day. Choose a different playlist every morning. Try watching a documentary rather than binge watch that series you’ve been hooked on for weeks.

Let’s go back to the Routine issue. Instead of saying ‘I’m not bothered to go to work tomorrow’ train yourself to say; tomorrow is a new, better day with X goals I want to accomplish. Instead of repeating the ‘Not Bothered’ sentence, end your night with a self-meditation session, or with a book you’ve been wanting to read for ages. Even if you read a 100-word article on the newspaper, do it. Switch that routine and habit that’s drilled in your head to experiencing a different day, every day. You’ll feel at ease once you develop a new habit of changing the way you set out your daily routine.

Maryam Turki

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Ron Niebrugge – http://www.wildnatureimages.com