Don’t Shake Up Your Routines Too Early

Variety is the spice of life. Doing the same thing over and over can become mundane and boring. While we appreciate doing things that we always have, we have to be willing to do something different if we want different results.

Yet the systems and habits approach to improvement is all about consistency. Habits only form when we take the same steps. If we keep changing everything, we won’t form the routine needed.

This presents a conflict. I’ve found that the way to improve is by being willing to be consistent in your approach. Following the same steps creates the right habits and routines.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t create variety. You can be spontaneous. You can try different tactics. But the ones that stick will be the ones that you do over and over. Those will form the habits.

You want to create positive habits in your life. Abandoning a positive habit because you are bored will undo most of your hard work to create that habit.

But you also need to change it up from time to time. In The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, the author states, “Every so often I like to interrupt my routines. Otherwise, life gets stale and I plateau.”

How do you know when to be consistent and when to interrupt your routines? The key is to evaluate two factors.

The first factor to examine is whether or not you continue to make progress. If you are progressing, keep going. Use the momentum you have built. Stopping to try something new could cause you to plateau.

But if you aren’t making progress and already plateaued, then change it up. Variety can help you continue to progress towards your goals in life. By adding in tweaks, you can fine-tune what you are doing and keep it interesting.

The second factor to examine is time. Early in the process you want to give yourself time to build the habit. That means consistency.

Being consistent will help you form the muscle memory to keep doing it automatically. You won’t have to think through every step, it will flow naturally.

If you aren’t there yet, don’t keep changing. That will cause you to keep starting from the bottom. Instead of making progress you will keep reverting to the starting point.

Mixing it up can be a valuable tool to keep improving. But it could also sabotage the gains you made and cause you to plateau. Or worse, it could drain you of the growth and cause you to revert.

Making progress is important and early in the process keep being consistent to make progress. Once you solidified the habit, feel free to throw in variations. That will help keep things fresh and provide value beyond doing the same old thing. But don’t get sucked into change for the sake of change right from the start.

You need to spend the time to build the habits. You do this by being consistent and not changing too much, too quickly.