I hate breaking my routine. It makes me anxious, and I have to spend more energy motivating myself, and in general it’s hard. I tend to only depart from that routine when forced.
One of the most important things I consider myself to have ever done is break out of my routine. It is scarring in a serious and personal way, but it’s necessary if you want to excel at anything you put your mind to.
Besides, what can guarantee that some catastrophe might break your routine against your will? Pre-empting the break is a way of ensuring that you’ve got a thick skin in case catastrophe strikes.
This is one reason why I’ve focussed on improving the things I’m bad at, like my ability to react in stressful situations, or do teamwork under time pressure. Obviously I haven’t covered every possible variation of “something horrible could happen and you’d be screwed over if you didn’t have this particular skill”, but bringing as many scenarios as possible from the realm of the Scary Unknown to the zone of “things my brain has a script for” has done a lot for my peace of mind. I’m maybe 50% confident that, for example, if I was right there at the scene of a car crash, I could force my brain into “Lifeguard: First Aid” script instead of “panic and run away screaming.” Which is something, I guess.
One of the most important things I consider myself to have ever done is break out of my routine. It is scarring in a serious and personal way, but it’s necessary if you want to excel at anything you put your mind to.
Besides, what can guarantee that some catastrophe might break your routine against your will? Pre-empting the break is a way of ensuring that you’ve got a thick skin in case catastrophe strikes.
This is one reason why I’ve focussed on improving the things I’m bad at, like my ability to react in stressful situations, or do teamwork under time pressure. Obviously I haven’t covered every possible variation of “something horrible could happen and you’d be screwed over if you didn’t have this particular skill”, but bringing as many scenarios as possible from the realm of the Scary Unknown to the zone of “things my brain has a script for” has done a lot for my peace of mind. I’m maybe 50% confident that, for example, if I was right there at the scene of a car crash, I could force my brain into “Lifeguard: First Aid” script instead of “panic and run away screaming.” Which is something, I guess.