How to Break Routines and Habits.

Many people tend to fall prey to the vicious cycle of routines. I look around at the residents of the little town in which I live, and I am shocked to find that this applies to about 90% of them. They tend to allow their lives to be ran by a routine they had fallen into a long time ago, the false satisfaction of knowing what tomorrow holds, and the day after that, and the day after that, due to the clockwork vice that rules their lives. Think of your acquaintances for a second. I'm sure many of us know people that will never leave their town, drink at the same shitty old bar every second day, watch the same TV show, work the same job, and eventually die in the same house they had moved into back when they were young. That's the harsh reality that many people wake up to everyday, the truth that they are going to deny until the day they are buried six feet beneath the soil.

Take a look at your own life. When is the last time you took a chance and tried to break free from the lashes of routine that are designed to hold you prisoner for the rest of it? I mean sure, in most cases, our routines are not as extreme as the ones stated above. However, we are endlessly bound to routines- be that working, getting an education, your sleep schedule, your eating schedule, your weekend routine. When is the last time you tried to leave your comfort zone?

Leaving your comfort zone can often mean different things. To some, it's taking a chance on a risky situation. As humans, we WANT to know and calculate the risks in our minds before taking a chance on anything. Routines are pleasing to our brains, but damaging to our souls. This has twisted our view of the world. Things that are "out of the ordinary" are weird and often bad, and things that conform to our standards are good. That is why throughout the entire history of humanity, we have had outcasts, which in every case were people that did not conform to the standards of society. However, it is the outcasts, the non-ordinary people that make a change in society- and it often starts with a single person.

There are many people we can mention when talking about influential non-conformists. Abraham Lincoln, the president who abolished slavery in the United States only days before he got assassinated. Rosa Parks, the African American woman that refused to give up her spot on the bus to a Caucasian man. Freddie Mercury, one of the first openly homosexual musicians in history. Jesus Christ, whose teachings are the cornerstone of many nations even thousands of years after the founding of Christianity. And although we can't all be a Rosa or a Jesus, the point is that change often starts with one person- one outcast whose actions were so deeply compelling that they touched the hearts of those who had fallen into the death trap of routines.

In this life, you either cross without looking, or you look without crossing. There are those who choose to put themselves out there and try to make a change, be it in their lives or in the lives of others, and there are those that get stuck in a day-to-day routine which they follow almost religiously. There is no looking and then crossing. The only people that can step outside of their comfort zone and break free from their routines are those that take chances without weighing out the odds.

Five years ago, my family made the decision of moving to Canada from a little, third-world country in Eastern Europe named Romania. Now that's crossing without looking. Being exposed to entirely new territory (figuratively and literally), I fell into a deep depression for about a year. My head was roaming with thoughts, ideas and words, but my inability of speaking English is what disallowed me to put them out there- which was incredibly disheartening for someone who loves writing and speaking as much as I do. As a result of that, my physical health had gradually decreased until I was lying in my bed in a near-vegetative state, unable to eat, sleep or think. I spent the days trying to make sense of the English spinning around on the pages of old books, making about as much sense to me as Hieroglyphs do. Slowly, as my vocabulary and knowledge of the English language grew, so did my physical health, along with my self-confidence- which had nearly entirely disappeared. I was slowly becoming more and more able to put my thoughts into the world, to tell people what I felt, and say what needed to be said.

Was I an outcast for a long time? Of course I was- what kind of immigrant isn't? However, through the painful process of learning a new language and reading, I am now able to do what I love most- speak.

All people have a secret passion, some kind of seemingly unachievable dream that, if given the chance, they would likely pursue. Nevertheless, what most fail to realise is that before being able to pursue the dream, they must first pursue the chance. Chances are not given, they are earned. In order to achieve a goal, you have to drag yourself through mud and sweat and blood, blindfolded yet faithful as to what is to come. That by no means signifies making spur of the moment decisions. It is all a question of self-confidence, and the sweet idea of the reward that awaits you once you break out of your routines. People have to be forged like metal in order to clear them of all impurities and leave nothing but pure, precious and highly valued gold behind. Not pursuing a chance the dreams ingrained deep within us would be a self-condemnation at a life of bland, boring and meaningless routines.

Routines likewise spiral into depression. The lack of self-fulfilment resulting from following a life of habits is the feeling that pushes people over the edge. Whether we are referring to emotionally damaging habits such as the extensive consumption of alcohol and smoking, or some seemingly less consequential ones such as an addiction to TV shows, food or sex. Habits are a gateway to a life with no meaning. Actions turn into habits, which turn into routines.

My uncle Nathaniel was a gambling addict for a very long time. He is currently twenty-eight years-old, and is still trying to recover from the financial and emotional losses he had suffered during the spike period of his gambling addiction. At the time, he was a father of two, a married man who worked as a taxi driver, and he found his escape in the hope of striking gold within a small Romanian casino. After gambling away his fortune, house, his daughters' social assistance and his wife's monthly salary, Nathaniel resorted to robbing, stealing and conning his way through life in order to make by. His wife and daughters left to live with other relatives whose presence was not as toxic as his. Nathaniel is now finally working on getting his life back on track, and is once again living with his wife and daughters. Upon visiting him last summer, he explained to me the dangers of routine habits. "It had gotten to the point where life was so boring that the only comfort I found at the end of the day was having a smoke and gambling at The Royale. And soon enough, that itself became part of my everyday life, and before I knew it, I was neglecting my wife, my daughters, my family, hell I was neglecting myself. I lost it all to the blandness of life. Feeling nothing at all is the worst feeling a human can experience."

The key to breaking routines and habits is taking a chance against all odds. Spicing up one's life is a real craving experienced by most, and so many people go the wrong way about it- be it with sex, drugs and alcohol, to name the most popular. If something becomes a habit, it should be a good habit. Try looking at nature, listening to music, try praying and writing and reading, try talking to people that seem like outcasts, try helping those less fortunate than you. Life is too short for us to let ourselves be swayed by the ever-flowing powerful current of routines. There are so many things to be done, and so few people that are willing to try doing them. The world needs more people that like living outside of the box.

So take a chance, and cross without looking.