The Importance of Routine

The importance of routine can't be understated especially during the time of COVID where most people are unemployed or working from home. A good schedule is great for your well being and health. Here are some of my thoughts about why a routine is important. 

1) It keeps you on schedule. 

A good routine keeps you going with forward momentum. When l was in quarantine and isolation my routine was simple; wake up, clean up, read, eat, go for walks, and play video games. It kept me busy and engaged during the entire period, leaving me with very few moments where I was watching the paint dry on the wall.  The structure in a good routine can make or break you. Use it wisely. Lose it and everything drops like dominos. 

2) It's important for your well being, health, and mental health. 

A good routine makes you feel good. The fact that I've been writing blogs at the same time every night makes me feel really good. My attitude improves every time I do it. If you're used to working all the time and then all of sudden you're at home in isolation for two months, you're going to have a hard time adjusting. I would say that my time away from work was actually bad for me in terms of mental health and well being. I'm a social person that's used to a certain amount of contact, discussion, and affirmation from others. Of course, when I don't get that, I become a much different person. Not a worse person, but definitely not a better person for that matter either. 

Here's a funny story to show how important routine is for your mental health. 

One time I was chillin' with a couple friends and one of them was wasted. I took a Lyft home that night but my drunk friend wouldn't let me go home because he said he had to sober up and give me a ride home. He said he couldn't let me go via Lyft because he had to go through the routine of giving me a ride home. It was an interesting moment because although he was pretty buzzed he knew he still had to stick to what he was used to in order to feel right and/or good. Very important.

3) It improves you and everything you do. 

This is commonsense but it should be looked into. Every routine you adhere to improves you in some way. Cleaning the dishes at a certain time every day? That's an improvement on the character of the individual. Practice the guitar every day. That's +10 guitar skill ability. Work four or five days a week? That gives you money in your bank account. Going for a walk three times a week? That reduces stress and reduces calories. The point of doing all these things is to do them often enough so that you develop a routine. Once the routine sinks in you get those much sought after number of hours. Once you develop the fabled 10,000 hours in any one skill, you've begun to climb the stairs of excellence towards mastery. Of course, you never really master anything in life, but you can get better and better even when it seems like you've plateaued. An amazing feeling.     

4) You can find out what works for you in life and change as needed and accordingly. 

A routine helps you figure out what works for you in life and allows you to change your routine as needed and accordingly. With a good routine, you can truly be yourself, find yourself, and even do soul searching. Without it, you are aimless, adrift, and hugging the shore, meaning you'll be too afraid to try new things or change up your same old, same old. Are you still the same person year after year but want to change? Change up your routine and create a new one. That is an easy way to improve and/or change your character. Remember to find out what works for you. Stick to it or change up it as needed. Rinse and repeat.

Holiday riffing and staying motivated

Yo, readers and friends! Here I'd like to riff about the holidays, and staying motivated during said holidays. 

Holidays at my job can be pretty stressful. In fact, I was elated to enjoy two days off from work this past Thanksgiving week. Normally I only get one day off a week, and that's cool with me, because more money is the best! That's the right attitude for a young guy, don't lose any of that money, get as much hours of work as you can, work hard, and earn your paycheck, like anybody else at their job. But sometimes its nice to relax. However, you don't want to be too relaxed because things have to be done-guitar playing, writing, reading, and possibly even gaming if I can squeeze it in. 

You have to stay motivated. Stay up as the 'woke' millennial kids say. For me this means getting guitar practice in almost every day (I try to only take one day off a week), posting ads to find jazz musicians to start a trio with (looking for a bassist and a horn to play straight ahead jazz), reading lots of things from novels to news, and writing blog posts like this one. Writing for the blog keeps me motivated. I get to write down all my ideas I've had in my head for a long time and unload all of it in type-press fashion via computer late at night. Its a great form of decompression, relieving stress and giving me new insight on any particular ideas. 

Staying motivated is difficult. Sometimes after a long 1 AM shift I don't feel like reading Don Quixote, Candide, or Aristotle on my Kindle (popular reads for me lately), instead I feel like falling asleep, only to miss out on what would've been great prime time reading time, in complete silence in the middle of the night where nobody will bother me or force me to go back to work (I read on every 30 minute work break to get more reading time in). 

What keeps me motivated? Music mostly. But also novels, great writing, journalism, poetry, classics, science fiction, video games, friendship, and probably last on the list-money. The holidays can be pretty brutal for most workers but I also think it helps put things in perspective. It took 28 years this holiday season before I realized that I don't need to buy luxury items I don't need, and that I should instead save my money, and only worry about getting gifts for others. The new Smash Ultimate game? I'll just play it at my friends' house. Dragon Ball Fighter Z? Been playing it at a friends' house. All those new holiday games? Forget about it. New guitar pedals or new music equipment? I should enjoy the stuff I already have more before I look into that, etc etc. (On second thought I do need a hollow-body jazz guitar)

It was my St. Francis of Assisi moment. At first I said to myself, "I don't need to buy anything for Black Friday or Cyber Monday". Then it turned into I don't need to buy anything for myself for Christmas. And now I've reached that zen state where I realize Christmas gifts for others is the only importance in addition to goodwill to fellow man.

Its a lot to think about but its also good to think about things like this. What motivates you makes you stronger. The moment you lose that motivation, and don't read, don't play guitar, don't write (in my case, yours will be different), then you're losing out on something that makes you happy. Of course there's always exceptions. Nobody wants to get stuck in a rut, reading until 4 or 5 in the morning every night--but its pretty damn fun. 

I've got to keep pushing myself. -Buckethead

Unleashing Your Inner Zen

This is part of an ongoing series that I've been writing, which has been more part personal vlog-style and part inspirational thinking. Here I'd like to discuss how I've changed my mindset, and become a more jovial person, at least for now. 

The beginning starts with my attitude coming back from vacation and going back to my retail job, where I sometimes work over 40 hour weeks. My friends that work there are always stick-in-the-muds about working there, meaning that even though they have cushy top positions there (and low like myself), they still feel like the job is letting them down, and that perhaps they would be happy doing something else, etc. 

For a while I got trapped in that line of thinking. These people aren't happy so I should be unhappy too, right? Wrong. It all starts with my boss asking me to come in early on my late night shifts. At first I was saying no and using my time to just relax-game, read, guitar, my usual activities. But then I started saying yes, all the time. 

Wait a minute. You're probably thinking you'd rather relax and have fun than go in early to work retail. Or maybe you think you'd rather have free time over money? Once I started saying yes I realized that I actually didn't mind going in early, and that I'm getting paid more money, so that's a plus. The other upside is that management likes me and (hopefully) has my back in times of trouble. 

Now to the jovial part. Work can be stressful but once you 'get over it', you realize that your life is actually quite amazing, and good things even happen to you, even at work. I got over my job, which means that I'm willing to help out in any way I can, even if I don't need the extra cash. I'm happy to help, and be a team player. Its no skin off my back and I don't attach any negative energy to my occupation. Its a blissful realization, inner zen unleashed.  

I had about a month lead up into this from my vacation in October. I don't think I would've realized it if I didn't start dividing my time into organized sections-music, guitar, reading, hanging out with friends. I've been using my time more wisely. It even affects my eating habits. I realized in order to lose weight I have to stop eating late at night, so once I started doing that, I started losing weight again. 

The mindset problem is very difficult to overcome. Most people don't. A lot of people are whiners and complainers their whole lives even though they have everything handed to them on a silver plate. I'm a lucky guy, I have musical talent, a job, and intellectual curiosity that leads me to a lot of interesting books. Most guys would be lucky if they just had a job. So maybe your crappy attitude makes you think things suck when actually you just have to change your outlook to realize how great life really is. 

Perhaps I should become a zen monk?