habitudo interruptus

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
– Mike Murdoc

Two forces are at play in every day life, the attempt at a consistent routine — which mitigates thrash on the way to success — and that which interrupts that attempt.

I lost my wallet! If there is one thing I would consider the largest of small losses, just one step above loss of time and one step below loss of money, it’s loss of one’s wallet.

In accounting for my loss while looking for my wallet, there is:

• cost of wallet; good thing I don’t carry cash (plus the sentimental value of the wallet since I bought it on vacation in Fredericksburg, Texas with family)
• time and effort it took me to trace my steps back through everywhere I’ve been since I last remember seeing my wallet
• the time and effort it took me to call banks and credit card companies to report my lost cards and request a replacement
• the inconvenience while I wait for all the replacement cards to arrive
• lost drivers license — inconvenience of not being able to drive until the replacement arrives
• lost mil ID — time and effort in getting a replacement (this was a whole adventure in itself)

Sure sounds like a huge headache for an object so small. THANKS A LOT, shallow pockets!

In the grand scheme of things, the costs of lost time, effort, and inconvenience are not only an inevitability of life, the task of responding appropriately is also part of life’s challenges.

Lessons learned?

1) Run a mental checklist every time I get into the car — cellphone, keys, wallet! (a lesson I find myself relearning over and over again… )

2) Invest in those tiles?

Either way, the theme of these thoughts are Routine Interruptions.

Routine interruptions, better known by their euphemism “vacations”, are neither good nor bad, in that both good/bad aspects cancel each other out. Positive thinking dictates that one focuses on the good aspect of things, however, so the perception of good from vacations remain after all. You could, after all, choose to view most of life’s setbacks simply as a “vacation” from the plateau you were just riding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUDXCkgDVFt/

Some vacations are, of course, better than others. I’d take a trip to get some good food over losing my wallet any day. That said, I DO love non-vacation days. And if a majority of your life consists of non-vacation days, then the art of life is learning to love those days right?

One thing I love about non-vacation days are the routines I am able to set. I figure that life is not much more than a series of routines and rituals that we can either loathe, learn to love, or strive to make more pleasant.

My morning routine (a sample)

I wake at 0345, when everything in the world is dead asleep — even the early birds. The quickest and easiest way to fight the urge to go back to sleep is grab my cellphone and stare at the screen — it’s what keeps most people up at night, so it works perfectly for starting my day when the sun isn’t up yet.

“Staring at my screen” consists of checking for any urgent messages, checking the weather forecast, r/worldnews, and reddit in general. Then I go workout.

Kaytranada’s The Weather Report Mixtape has been my workout music these last few weeks.

They say fake it til you make it, so I’m faking an unquenchable love for routines. If it were possible, I’d live the rest of my life executing a perfectly constructed routine, but that’s no way to live, right? We aren’t robots (though I’d like to consider myself an organic android), we voluntarily and involuntarily must be interrupted by the “vacations” of life.

Another Garden State Vacation

I went to New Jersey to attend a wedding recently, and you can’t imagine how destructive it felt to drink and eat away all my routine gains — so fun. So much Italian food, so much wine, so much cake… so much dancing.

But that’s what’s so beautiful about routines, they can take away any “debuffs” you’ve accumulated from vacations without you thinking too much into it… they just… happen.

They mitigate the costs of vacations (except the financial ones) so you can have as many as you need, and the gods know some of us need quite a few.

Til the next vacation…

Write me back!

I love getting feedback and want to hear your thoughts!

Here are some things you can write to me about —

• What does your morning routine look like? Workout playlist?

• Have you ever lost your wallet? What was that like?

• Anything you want to talk about…

Send me an email stephenlabit@gmail.com (I’ll try to come up with a clever reply :p)

Leave your thoughts on the FB page, or comment below!

featured img src: karlsimon.com