I first shared this post last October, but I am sharing it again as it feels like a needed yearly reminder to ourselves as we begin fall.
When I was a teenager, every September, I’d get grumpy. Not because I was upset to be back at school. In fact, if you look at my extracurriculars in High School, you’d see I practically lived there. But each fall, the beginning of a new year was especially difficult for me.
For almost the entire first month of school, I’d come home every afternoon in a horrible mood. I was exhausted from my day, overwhelmed by homework, and basically hated my life. But then, just before October, everything in me would settle down. Suddenly, I liked my life again. And I’d miraculously forget how awful the previous weeks had been.
The funny thing is, at the time, I didn’t recognize this was a yearly occurrence for me. Nor did I ever understand why I’d found Septembers so hard. That is, until I reached college where I began to see this same pattern at the beginning of each semester. Finally, I realized:
I love routines.
My personality and life does so much better, when I find a predictable rhythm for the most important pieces of my life. And, I don’t think I’m alone in this. Only, as a kid, the beginning of a school year and the start of a semester, can upset any sort of routine in our lives. And now, as adults, there are even more variables that can keep us from experiencing a sense of balance.
In the past, if I was to make a list of things that could throw our routines out of wack, I’d probably include getting married, changing jobs, having a baby, etc. Only this year, as we all know, gave us a whole new answer: a global pandemic. And, as I’ve watched many of my friends bravely navigate the ever-changing education landscape this fall—some as parents, others as educators—I’ve been reminded of all those difficult Septembers I had as a kid.
How do you find a routine when everything keeps changing?
How do you create goals and make plans, when you don’t know what is happening next week—let alone next month?
These questions, are ones I’ve been asking myself as I am trying to balance writing, making our house a home, and going to see family during this difficult season. So I know that it’s not just my friends who are parents or teachers, that are struggling to find a routine in these overwhelming days.
It’s already October, and many of us are so far from having a weekly, or even daily routine. We’re tired. And often we feel like we’re just getting by.
That is why a few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of taking the time to be still. Being still when you have so much to do seems counterintuitive—and yet, is the only way we rest our brains and souls to enable us to keep going. And today, I want to add one more layer to this.
We may not be able to find a predictable daily routine this season, but we can do one thing each day with purpose to ground ourselves in our lives.
Friends, we may not be able to find a predictable daily routine this season, but we can do one thing each day with purpose to ground ourselves in our lives. For me, the past few months, this has looked like making smoothies.
Each day, I get up and make two breakfast smoothies—one for Tony and one for me. The simplicity of this important act of feeding myself first thing in the morning, has given me one predictable task each day. A task I can easily check off. An action that wakes me up to the day before me.
If we can choose to begin our day with one task that feeds us (mind, body, or soul), I believe we will be able to slowly rebuild our lives again.
In other seasons, this looked like making coffee, journaling, and even, exercise. Right now, for me it looks like making breakfast. For many of us, our typical routine was completely changed in March (2020). For some of us, it’s been upset every few months since then. But if we can choose to begin our day with one task that feeds us (mind, body, or soul), I believe we will be able to slowly rebuild our lives again.
What small routines ground you in your life?
What is one daily action you can take first thing in the morning to start your day off the best you can?
Friends, this season, we’re going to spend some time talking about contentment. What it means to embrace our lives as is, how to tell if our discontentment is helping or hurting us, and so much more. And as always, there will be bonus content on this that I only share with my email subscribers. If you haven’t signed up yet, sign up here!
