An epidemic is occurring all around us and there is a good chance it has already found its way into some of our lives.  It begins slowly at first, but it grows, and in time it can take over our entire life…and if we don’t act now, it may happen to you.  It’s easy to fall in the trap. Well-intentioned people of all ages don’t mean for it to happen, but that doesn’t matter. It takes much more than good intentions to steer clear of this problem. If all it took were good intentions, the world would be packed with people living their dreams and accomplishing their goals.  But that’s not how it works and this trap is one of the most common reasons why it has happened too often in the past and will continue to happen in the future.  What exactly are we dealing with here?  What is so deadly to the goals and hopes we have stored away in our head?

Routine!!! More specifically, a BAD routine.

What am I talking about you ask?

The routines I’m referring to are much deeper than a morning process of a shower and shave. I’m talking about turning off our brains and letting autopilot kick in. Doing the same things we did the day before with no plans to change the pattern any time soon.  You know the drill – wake up, shower, work, home and sleep.  This is no way to live, and you know that.  But it’s still hard to break free once the bad routine has gotten hold of us. All hope is not lost. If we want to turn off the autopilot and start taking control of our lives it takes only one moment to make the decision. And then everything changes. You’ve heard it a thousands times, and it’s a good thing, because it’s true. If you keep doing what you have always done in the past you will keep getting the exact same thing in the future.

People experience a partial insanity when it comes to routine. Perfectly logical people believe that doing the same thing again and again will get different results. That’s crazy!  If we want to lose weight but continue with the same eating habits, we won’t lose weight.  If we want to make more money but keep doing the same things day in day out, it’s not going to happen.

We have goals, but if we are stuck in a bad routine we won’t accomplish them. Be honest with yourself about this one. It’s the only way we’ll realize the need for a change before we can enjoy improvement.  Create a new and improved routine, which is in alignment with what you want in life.

What does it take? It takes a decision. A choice of what we really want to do with our life and the actions to make it happen. If we know where we are going, how to get there and have a good new and improved routine to make it happen, we will not be disappointed in the end.

Check out the results of this amazing experiment:

A very unusual experiment was conducted by Jean Henri Fabre, a French entomologist, consisting of processionary caterpillars, a type of caterpillar that blindly follows the one in front of it. The experiment consisted of several of these caterpillars, a flowerpot filled to the rim with dirt, and pine needles.  The caterpillars formed a complete circle around the rim of the flowerpot, with the first one touching the back of the last one. The pine needles, the food of the processionary caterpillar, were placed in the center of the circle. The caterpillars began their procession and continued on the same path hour after hour, day after day, for an entire week. In the end, every one of the caterpillars dropped dead of starvation. The one thing that could have saved them was only inches away, but without purposeful thought or action, the caterpillars continued with a habitual routine that eventually proved too much to endure.

This is happening to people we know…maybe even you.  Get stuck doing the same old thing every single day and your goals, sitting only inches away, are as good as gone…plain and simple. You might think it’s a little too simple, but falling into a bad routine can destroy your life.  People start off with bright hopes for the future, but their bad routine begins to take their place. “No time…no time,” is a common excuse. After seventy+/- years of having no time to do the things you have always wanted to do, you’ll end up with nothing but a good excuse in the end.

This is your life we are talking about here. It’s worth taking the time to break the pattern of habit and creating the changes you wish to make.  There is little more that is as important as the life you create and the good you leave behind. Recognize if you are in a bad routine, break free and get into a good routine.  Sometimes it’s a matter of what we all seek in life – confidence.  Permanent change requires courage and a strong belief in your ability to succeed, something that we all doubt from time to time.

Break your old routine, get a new and improved routine, and then have a GREAT week and a GREAT life!