Why does routine exists?

Posted in Creativity

The dictionary defines routine as dull, uninteresting and unimaginative. What the dictionary does not says is that everybody hates routine. So why does it is part of our lives?

We expect routine from each other.

Imagine your girlfriend decides to change her name every day. Today she is Jane, yesterday she was Anne. How stressful that would be! Have you ever made the mistake of calling a girl with a different name? Or even worse, forgetting her name? Honey, I love you… so.. what was your name? Who we are is the routines we have. My name is Luis, and it will be the same for the rest of my life.

Routine makes things reliable.

Imagine you are having a big mac and a coke in your way to the Calgary Airport. You take a flight to anywhere at the other side of the world, and you go MacDonalds. Then you order a big mac and coke. To your amazement they taste the same, I mean they taste terribly. And they taste awful anywhere in the world. These companies make business because they found a way to produce the same product anywhere, so you can choose between an unknown restaurant and try to order something by pointing out at the menu or play safe and have the same unhealthy food you had before. Routine, I’m loving it.

Routine is predictable.

Imagine you have your pay cheque, you go the bank and the teller tells you in a very deep voice that the economy crashed and from now on instead of dollars you are going to get bananas, and you will start hearing the benefits of a fruit based economy. Of course in real life when it happens banks do not offer bananas, but they come with similar stories in some countries. At least in Canada, we can say that if I try to cash a cheque I will get money in exchange, and we count on that whenever we buy a house, a car or even fruits.

So if we cannot escape from routine and the dictionary defines routine as something extremelly boring, what we can do? Do not let the dictionary define routine for you, let’s be grateful for what we have, work hard on having one amazing day right after the other.