But, I'm sure you can imagine the consequences of allowing 25 3rd graders to run-amok with all that energy. It's potentially disastrous (so I assumed) and quickly thought my best course of action as a teacher was to create a routine. As it turns out, I got bored of their routine, switched things up and almost instigated a mutiny lead by 8 year-olds...I probably should have never implemented and subjected the kids to something so structured in the first place.
From a young age we are placed in a routine to keep us focused and under control. We learn that routine is the way things work in the world. I think this might be the beginning of the framework that teaches us to be afraid of failure (more on that in a minute). And, besides, we wouldn't want to live in an environment where the 'inmates run the asylum' now, would we? We gotta have routine, right?
Ehh. Not necessarily.
Routine can be good, but, over time it zaps our ability to feel truly free. We need to shake up our routine, try new things, go crazy! We might be better off if our daily routine was anything but.
Allow me to explain:
As we get older the lens through which we view life changes. Nothing new here. What we don't realize is that as we age our perspectives might be getting clearer, but they certainly aren't freeing us. The more and more we learn about life the less and less likely we are to feel free to take risks. As kids, we didn't know what failure really was. Failure, in fact, hardly existed. A big reason for this is that we didn't view the world from a rigid point-of-view. When something didn't seem to work out we moved on to something else. As adults, when something doesn't work out we act as if our shoes are filled with cement. We harden. Too much attention is given to failure to the point that we are trapped by it. I contend that our rigid routines have helped make us this way. Routine is the antithesis to adaptability.
Something else to consider:
Today is Friday. Everyone is excited because the weekend is almost here. To a child, every day is like a Friday. Many of you probably think, "I just need to get through the week and to the weekend." Whoa. If that's the case, you are spending more than 70 percent of your life wishing and hoping for the other 30.
This is the routine we have created in America. This is the way of life we have learned and grown accustomed to. This is the framework in which our perspectives have been created. And we don't challenge our acceptance of this framework. Frankly, it isn't very fun. Work, work, work, work, work, fun, fun? We need to re-think this.
All of our days should run together. Have you ever considered going out for dinner or a beer on a Tuesday? Do it! Use your days! One of the reasons retirement sounds so exciting is because we look forward to this type of lifestyle. Retirement is like returning to the life we had as children. We don't need to work ourselves into the ground for 30 or 40 years to enjoy this way of life.
Here's my final thought:
Our current lifestyle of mundane routine is self-imposed. This lifestyle over-emphasizes failure. This over-emphasis keeps us from taking the risks necessary to make our lives better. This lifestyle can be undone.
Cheers!
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