You Shouldn’t Break Your Routine

The longer you do it, the harder it is to get back in

I have interrupted my routine, or rather my morning routine. And slowly I realized that this was a big mistake, a very big mistake. Why? Because I realized that every day you don’t follow your routine makes the process of restoring the routine harder. I had to pull the emergency brake, get a hold of myself and think about what I’m about to do.

The reason why I interrupted my regular morning routine is actually quite simple, almost banal. At the weekend I had a 10 km run and wanted to prepare for it during the previous days. Instead of just running about 4 km each morning, I wanted to run 10 in a row to avoid being exhausted during the run.

So I didn’t run daily in the morning anymore, but every second day in the afternoon a big round. It worked out pretty well. As I started my daily running routine, I already ran 10 km in the afternoon or evening every few days. Switching from a small round in the morning to a big round in the afternoon wasn’t that exciting for me.

But then came the run on the day when there was also a federal election in Germany (don’t remind me about this) and I was looking forward to it because of the running event. Unfortunately it was raining and I had to cover the 10 km in bad weather. But I ended it with a pretty good time and a good place. Out of several hundred runners I was the 18th and in my age group the 2nd.

After the run I was quite tired, which is no wonder, because I really gave my best. Only after the run did I realize that I had a few blisters on my feet that I still don’t know how they came into being, because my Nike Free running shoes are the best I’ve ever worn and I just love them.

As a personal reward, I spent the rest of the day enjoying a lot of sweets and passive media consumption. Unfortunately, I did this the day after and the next one too. Only on the third day I realized that I am in the process of destroying everything I have accomplished through my routine and daily running. I finally went running again that afternoon.

What have I learned from this? That I will stick to my plans in the future, no matter how hard they are and even if I want a reward. After all, if you just enjoy, you will sooner or later no longer be able to enjoy.

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