Can you routinely break your routine?

In response to last week's question, “Can you routinely break your routine?”, my college roomie John wrote, “Yes, especially if you are consistently inconsistent!”

My wise friend Marlene explained, “Now that I am truly retired, I make it a point to break my routine daily--or go MAD!!!” As my golden retriever rescue friend Kate agreed, “Everyday.” My friend Marya added, “I do it all the time! Although, I have to admit the Catholics in WI really stick to Lent (Friday fish fry.....LOL)!

“Based upon Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "Self-Reliance," my knowing friend Richard shared, “we not only can vary our routines, we should. To wit, Emerson's famous quote: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." My dad’s beach buddy Bob supports Emerson, responding, “Routine?, What Routine?” For ways to follow this sagely advice, see my insightful colleague Chris’s suggestions at the bottom of this email.

While published friend Kathleen observed, “You can always break your routine, but if you do it routinely, it becomes routine.” To this, my birthday bud Jon responded, “If you do, it becomes a new routine, which you can then break by going back to the original routine. Which you will then need to break, of course. So that the breaking of the routine becomes the routine. And that, of course, is how they invented rotini.”

My sailing buddy and writer Rich warned, “As long as you make breaking your routine part of your routine.”

In a twisted response, my wife’s former roomie Ruth responded simply, “Sometimes.”

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

How do you know what a deserted area looks like?

Live well...laugh often..be happy and have a good week…
Hal

My insightful colleague Chris believes anyone can routinely break their routine and here are 10 ways to do so…

Ten Ways to Routinely Break Your Routine
1. Hold a conversation with yourself every day.
2. Waste time walking through any store especially in the clearance section.
3. Use your lunch to watch how others practice their routines 4. Read books from the Dummies series on subjects you have no use for.
5. Play with Legos and Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs.
6. Try writing a short story about nothing in particular. (Make sure to add A LOT of adverbs: i.e. the day was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, long)
7. Expose yourself to a wide variety of music (I draw the line at disco however and no amount of creative inspiration will cause me to cross that line).
8. Change your schedule: If you normally arrive at work at 8 a.m. try 8:24 a.m. or 7:43 a.m or even 10:39 a.m (That’ll throw off everybody’s routine and not just yours).
9. Run into any store and ask the manager rather loudly and with great enthusiasm “Are you open on Tuesdays?” and when he says yes, just turn and walk out without saying another word (He’ll be telling his grandkids about you for years to come)
10. Respond to emails marked as (how to start your week) and write a list of ten ways to routinely break your routine.