We have just returned from a much-needed summer break with our little family.

We spent some time in the Lake District where it was refreshingly cooler. We love the slower pace and tranquillity that the mountains and hills provide.

There’s only so much adventure you can plan with an 18-month-old-baby. We took her to see some farm animals and tried to accommodate her desire for anything a little bit crazy.

Summer provides a great opportunity to break routines and do something different. I’m a huge advocate for getting away and switching your brain off from the activity which normally occupies it.

You might have noticed I took a break from sending articles for a few weeks. If my theory is accurate, you will hopefully notice a renewed energy in my writing.

I heard a news commentator recently refer to this time of the year as like a second “New Year”.

Certainly in the northern hemisphere, people return from summer holidays, children begin new school years, college towns swell with life.

Even if your life is far removed from anything to do with children, it’s difficult not to notice a shift in energy.

Temperatures begin to cool. The daylight quickly draws in. Very soon leaves will fall from trees and the world around us changes colour.

In our man-made world, we put on different clothes, traffic gets busier, and the food we consume changes. (My girlfriend goes crazy for Wildfleishthis time of year.)

Rhythms of Life

Life is made up of routines.

We wake. Get dressed. Exercise. Work. Eat. Run errands. Sleep.

Your routine is most likely made up a similar version of this. Even the weekends are made up of routine.

Routines keep us organised. They help us feel safe. 

They can also make our lives begin to feel mundane, dull, or lacking variety.

For this reason – and maybe many other reasons – routines are often devalued, diminished, or overlooked. We don’t view routines as being sexy, nor do we associate them with inspiration.

I invite you to view routines differently. Poet, David White says that….

“….routine is the way we worship fully at the altar of the timeless. Routine is the way we step down what is absolutely extraordinary into the miracle of the ordinary – an ordinary day, an ordinary hour. Routine is disguised ritual.”

We cannot escape routine. To do so would be like attempting to re-attach the leaves back to the trees as they fall to the ground every autumn.

Nature moves in rhythms. We are part of nature.

Nature is guided by hidden intelligence. And yet, very little of what surrounds us benefits from the consciousness that humans possess.

There are certain things we cannot control….

Conception takes nine months.

It’s many months after birth before we summon the strength and balance to be able walk. 

And many years later before our bodies are capable of reproducing.

Beyond a handful of limitations, we are free to choose the routines we create.

Do your routines inspire you?

If not, now is a great time to create new routines that do inspire you.

Will Durant wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”e way to overcome any addition is to spend less time focused on it. Instead, focus your mind on what’s important to you.

I’ll offer three simple steps (and I mean really simple)…

There is no fun in being a staged version of yourself. Lay down the veneer and practice being you.

Fall Down Often

It’s time to explore taking more risks with your life.

It’s time to practice falling down more, and not being afraid to get back up and try again.

It’s time to let go of the fears you have learned, and let go of the beliefs that no longer serve you.

It’s time to tell yourself that you can accomplish all your wildest dreams and so much more.

All you need to do is try something new, be willing to fall down, and be brave enough to get back up again and again and again.

Are you willing ?