It's amazing to me how maligned routines are. When someone talks about something as being "routine," it means commonplace, everyday, boring. A lot of other people will take out the "o" and the "ine" from the word and just say they're in a rut. Yes, according to much of the world, routines are bad.
For many of us working Creatives, routines are our lifeblood. They keep us going, keep us sane, keep us creating. When we get out of our routine, that's when bad things start to happen.
I have been out of my routine for several weeks now. I had two very hectic, very non-routine weeks that had me conducting two handbell festivals, accompanying several concerts, and trying to get ready for the impeding arrival of a baby, all on top of my other usual activities. That right there was enough to throw the routine off.
Add to that fact that I've taken a six-week hiatus from teaching my regular piano lessons -- again, specifically to give me and my wife time to prepare for the arrival of a baby -- and my routine is messed up even more.
The problems that lack of routine cause tend to be small, but they add up, very, very quickly. Case in point -- this week's Wednesday post here on The Creative is coming at you late Thursday morning. I had the time yesterday, even thought at one point about sitting down and writing a blog post ... but I was out of my routine, and so that thought slipped away, as well as my time to do the post.
The most successful Creatives live by routine. Stephen King has written more books than I can even count, and a great number of them have page numbers well into the quadruple digits. If you read his book On Writing (a great read, whether or not you enjoy writing), he is very honest about the secret of his success: he sits down every morning and writes. Holiday? He writes. His birthday? He's writing. His work time is sacrosanct, and nothing shall violate it.
I look at that sort of dedication and I marvel -- I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment. But, my friends, do you know what that is? It's a routine! Those boring, run-of-the-mill routines that so much of society is so down on are the building blocks of success, even such stellar success as someone like Stephen King enjoys.
The great cathedrals of Europe are marvels of design and execution. They are monuments, structures that have survived for hundreds of years, and which will still be standing long, long after you and I and our children and their grandchildren have left this Earth. How were such structures built? With constant, even dedication, working day in and day out, one brick on top of the next. Most of those structures were built over the lifetimes of two or three generations; they were constructed from three lifetimes of routine work. Just think -- those who started the project, who set those routines in motion, didn't even live to see their great work completed, or, in many cases, even half-completed. Now that is dedication!
Take a look at your own creative life and see if you can introduce some semblance of routine into it. Is there a consistent time -- every day, every other day, once a week -- when you can sit down and do your work? If you already have that sort of a routine, can you expand it, add in another day or another time or another hour to work? Your creative life can only yield what you put into it. See if you can't start a routine, stick with it for a couple of months, and see what miraculous things happen.
I'll be doing the same thing right along with you. I've fallen out of my routine, and with the impending Life Changes coming up for me, I'll have to start defining all manner of new routines. I'm sure you'll hear here of my trials and tribulations, my successes and (many) failures ... but I'm determined to get my life back into a creative rut, because that, my friends, is where true success lies.
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