When I go throughout my day, I often times do things differently. I deliberately walk different paths, I deliberately drive different routes to the same place, and the reason I do this is because years ago, in fact, maybe even a decade ago, I recall hearing someone speak and what they were talking about is how your brain functions; it functions with creativity. Often times as humans, we’re creatures of habit, even though we don’t know it, right?
How often do we drive home or to and from work on the exact same route each and every day? Our minds just turn off. It’s kind of like an automated meditation, but often we do this in relationships and with other areas of our life, with our body. Some people have a runner’s meditation and that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about now is actually going through and shaking up your routines, so if you go for a run and you run out your front door and you take a right each and every time, take a left every once in a while. Shake things up.
This is going to spawn new creativity within the inside of you. When you’re driving, so for me, I drive to the gym and I leave around 5:30 in the morning to get there, I try to take a different route periodically. They’re slightly different. Sometimes I go straight through one lift and a left at another, and sometimes I bang right a little bit later, and so I do this and when I’m doing this it causes me to really focus and pay attention and be in that moment.
What I find that that does for me is sparks new levels of creativity and that new level of creativity spills over into my work. It also spills over into my relationships. In the areas of my work, for example, I might be working on a creative problem that one of my businesses is having or maybe it’s a problem one of my coaching clients is going through and by taking that turn all of a sudden, for some reason and I don’t know the answer and if you do please let me know, but for some reason a spark comes up and maybe 5-10 minutes later that answer to that idea comes forth.
I believe it comes forth because I’m actually shaking things up. I’m getting out of my routine, right? We all know that growth happens outside of your comfort zone, so I deliberately put myself a little bit outside my comfort zone, kind of what I would say micro progressions, where I’m just shaking up my day. This also has to do with the food I eat, the clothes that I would wear, although I’ve tried different methods, I’ve tried the Albert Einstein method with clothes where you wear the same blue shirt or black shirt every single day.
It’s said that he had just one suit, multiple of them. I know other people, professionals, that do the exact same thing and that’s interesting, but sometimes I think you just need to shake it up. This could be my personality and maybe try it on for yourself. What I’m going to encourage you to do today is look at your daily routine and it’s easiest to think of the way you drive. Now, do you drive the same way to work, the same way home, the same way to a friend’s house, to drop your kids off at school? What are those things? Shake it up.
Can you take a different turn? Can you go a different route? Instead of going out your driveway and going left, can you go right and circle the block maybe? Just try something different. Yeah, maybe it’s going to add an extra 30 seconds, maybe even a minute, oh my gosh, to your drive and commute time, but if you’re doing Automobile University and you’re listening to things like these daily growth hacks to help you uplevel your life, then that is time well spent. You’re just bettering yourself, so good for you.
But you know, also do this in other areas. In your business. Shake it up, try things differently. Do you always check e-mail? If you always check e-mail in the morning, you’ve been listening to any of these daily growth hacks or following me on other channels like Doug Holt online, if you’ve been following that you know you shouldn’t be checking e-mail first thing in the morning, right? Your first thing in the morning should be your time. That’s for you.
When you get into the office, try something different. Maybe instead of sitting at your desk and going right to e-mail, especially if you’re a business owner, walk around, talk to people, or maybe go to your office and right away start writing down in your journal. Whatever it is, shake it up for yourself, and in relationships. Gosh, how many of us talk about relationships getting stale? This is intimate relationships with your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend, also with your friendships. Shake it up.
Do something completely different, something out of the world they would never expect. This could be a gift and if you don’t normally give gifts, give one. If you give gifts all the time, spend quality time. Do something different and shake it up and do this throughout your five to thrive. That’s what I’m going to put to you to a challenge and I want to hear from you.
If you like listening to these daily growth hacks and you want to go a little bit more business focused, as you know from listening to these, I coach business owners and I help them bridge the gap from where they were or where they are today to where they want to be. You can follow me online personally at DougHoltonline. You can look for me at any social media, you’ll find me there and I’d love to hear from you. For Author of Your Own Story, we’re going to bring in other experts more often this year 2018 so you have different voices to hear from, but if you want to keep going and you’re not in the Author of Your Own Story University, that’s a mistake, but if you’re not in there, you can find me on social media. We’ll be putting out more content specifically geared towards business owners and entrepreneurs.
That’s it for me today. I’ll see you tomorrow. As always, go out, inspire someone by being the author of your own story.
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