Posts Tagged ‘routine’

The Power of Routine

December 1, 2016

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. –W.H. Auden

I love routine. Rise at 5:30 am, read, write, post a marketing message for a local coffee cafe, breakfast, exercise. And so on.

Maintaining a routine while traveling is always tough.

Steve Jobs famously made a trip to Japan and saw how the companies all had employee uniforms. He thought, if I had a uniform, then there is one fewer decision I must make daily. So he always wore a black T-shirt and jeans. Routine. His mind could focus on more important things that what to wear today.

Bill Hybels, senior pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL, tells a story about a man who came up to him after a service and talked about how he had turned his life around. What did you do? “I get up a little earlier in the morning and spend 15 minutes in my favorite chair reading the Bible. Every day,” he replied.

That has become a Willow Creek mantra. “Chair time.” Try it. Even when traveling.

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly studied creative people. He is credited with defining “flow”, that state of being you get into when you are totally engrossed in what you’re doing. “Most creative individuals find out early what their best rhythms are for sleeping, eating, and working, and abide by them even when it is tempting to do otherwise. They wear clothes that are comfortable, they interact only with people they find congenial, they do only things they think are important.”

What is the result of adopting this routine or rhythm of life? “Personalizing patterns of action helps to free the mind from the expectations that make demands on attention and allows intense concentration on matters that count,” concludes Csikzentmihalyi.

Over and over in the New Testament, we read things such as “Jesus, as was his custom” and “Paul, as was his custom.” I’ve always been impressed with the description of the life of Daniel, the prophet, who early on decided upon his diet and took time out from administering a vast empire to pray three times a day.

What’s in your routine?

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When Faith And Works Intersect

May 14, 2015

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

No, I’m not going for a bad joke for a 7-year-old. On the other hand, this sounds like a question to meditate on to break your preoccupation with the cares of the world.

Last night, our small group was studying Romans (like we have for the past several months and we’re only to 8:1). We were talking faith and living by faith. But where do the spiritual disciplines fit?

“What comes first? Faith or disciplines?”

This is really a faith versus works argument. Can we make ourselves right with God through our work?

James tackles this question. Actually Paul does, just not as succinctly. Jesus does.

People who have had faith and who have realized that they were drifting away from their relationship with God have rekindled their faith through regular reading from the Bible.

When I lead people into an understanding of the spiritual disciplines and try to lead them into practice, my counsel is that the purpose of practicing study, prayer, mediation, service, worship, simplicity is not to earn your way into God’s favor. It is to work on yourself so that your relationship deepens.

Jon Swanson is writing on routines again. He says, “Think of it this way: a ritual is something we do hoping to influence God. A routine is something we do to work on us. A routine like daily prayer or weekly Sabbath or monthly celebration brings our minds back to the story of God’s work. But thinking about a routine this way means we have to think about what we are doing rather than ritually acting.”

I am a person who needs routine. If my routines are interrupted–such as almost every time I travel–then I can feel it physically as well as spiritually.

Routine, practice, discipline–if done intentionally, they are all ways to work on ourselves.

Faith comes first. Then we go to work.

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A Daily Routine With Intention

December 15, 2014

A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh.
Psalm 14:30

What is your daily routine?

We all have one. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes we plan it. Maybe we start with good intentions and then fall into habits that are not productive.

Do we start the day sleeping until the last minute? Then we rush to get organized and out to work or the kids to school or cut our morning workout short?

Successful people invariably start the day early. Getting up while others sleep, reading, meditating, organizing the day–these are the opposite of the first routine.

The first routine never allows us to settle down and get focused. The second one leads to a tranquil mind. The advice from Proverbs helps here. We are more focused, can work better, have a measure of control of the day, can negotiate around things that tend to upset the day.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, describes a concept from martial arts–having a mind like water. A pebble thrown into a pond causes ripples. But soon the ripples dissipate and the pond returns to stillness.

Thus, can we begin our day with intention and have that tranquil mind.

I like to arise at 5:30. Mediate, read from the Bible or other spiritual writing, write this blog (unless I do it the day before), eat breakfast, work out, then write for my professional blog.

Benjamin Franklin had worked out a time card for his daily routine. I just saw something on his card that I will be incorporating in my routine.

At the beginning of the day, he asked, “What good shall I do today?”

At the end of the day, he asked, “What good have I done today?”

That reflection lends even more intentionality to the day. We can begin and end the day bringing our minds back to stillness.

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