Monday, April 05, 2010

The comfort zone of Routine


Most of you, especially people working in the Software/IT industry would fully understand the meaning of Routine or mundaneness or the usual grind of things. The same 5 days of work, 2 days of weekend and while true the loop continues, unless of course you throw an exception ( Pardon me for this piece can only be understood by Java coders mostly)

Mostly people are expressing their unhappiness over the usual routine, how things do not change. But in the real sense, we are more or less slaves to this very routine as in it, we form our comfort zone, a cocoon of familiar things, stuff or work we can do because we have done it countless number of times. After all, Aristotle said "Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”, said simply yet so profound and true.

Well, you might excel in a particular job because now you have grown accustomed to doing it. Just like you have this habit of brushing your teeth everyday. But doesn't this sort of block out the myriad other stuff you can learn or you can do? Have you experienced a mental block while trying out a new job or task assigned to you?? 

Well, All I am trying to imply is that we need to break out of our comfort zones, out of our time table like lives now and then and dare to try out some novel things, it maybe a new job at office, an adventurous activity on the weekend or even try learning a new language for that matter. 

Its important that we come out of our inertia like state and move on to things we are more capable of, experience newer horizons and opportunities ( Yeah I know what is coming to your mind now, job hunting? :D ) 

Soaking up the new stuff might take time, or maybe even a toll on you. But once you have assimilated the new, it would definitely bring about a change in you, your personality. Some of us might end up feeling more confident and the best of all, it would be a brain exercise, a good activity for the grey cells to live longer.

“You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.”
T.S. Eliot
PS: This was an endeavor from my side to break out of my inertia of not writing. It had been long and I thought, well this is the thought to write on..Welcome your comments!!