Hi there, it’s been a while!

First I was in hospital, and then I was home in recovery.

The funny thing about coming home after a week in hospital, is that your home smells wierd because you’ve been living in a hermetically sealed environment.

And it seems like everything has moved on without you. Nothing is where you left it, and the dog barely gives you a sniff in passing.

You go to bed because you’re knackered, and when you wake up you have no idea what to do. Assuming you have the energy to do anything.

Like coming back to work after taking a vacation and you can’t remember what it is you actually do.

So you muddle through as best you can, making a complete hash of everything.

Morning Routine

I’ve written many times about morning routines – my routine, houskeeping routines, monk’s routine, and more routines!

Each of these routines are actually long chains of habits.

So, you get up and you do a thing, for example put the coffee on.

This first step, starts a cascade of other habits:

1. Put the coffee on.
2. Put some porridge on to cook.
3. Empty the dishwasher.
4. Put a load of clothes in the machine to wash.
5. Take husbands coffee to him.
6. Go back to the kitchen for yours.
7. Get back into bed to snuggle with dog and husband while you listen to the news on the radio.
8. Take the dog for a walk.
9. Eat breakfast.
10. Put the washing on the line.

And so it goes on.

But the funny thing is, if your husband makes the coffee, none of your chain of habits gets off the ground.

Likewise, if something else happens to disrupt the chain, the rest of the habits go missing in action.

Habits

It’s well documented elsewhere, how difficult how difficult it is to create new habits, and the best and easiest way to start a new habit, is to link it to an existing habit.

So, it also occurred to me, that almost everything any one of us does relies on getting that first step of the morning routine in the right place in the right time.

• Getting to work on time.
• Remembering to eat lunch.
• Getting dinner cooked and the dishes done.
• Getting your email checked and responded to.
• Getting the vacuuming done.
• Getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

Habits are the bedrock of our days.

And not just our days, but our weeks, months, and years. They all come back to a series of recurring tasks. Or habits. And lovely insta spreads of beautifully designed and coloured habit tracking layouts.

And it all carries on throughout your life without you noticing.

At least until something gets in the way of the chain.

Starting Again

So how do you start again?

The delightful news, is all you have to do, is start with that first habit of the morning.

We are all the product of years and years of carefully constructed habits. Some of them good, some of them much less good (3pm chocolate bar or packed of chips anyone?)

You put the coffee on, and your brain goes into automatic mode.

I cannot tell you how wonderful that is when you’ve lost your grip.

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Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash