Nearly everyone has a routine. Even the most complex, on the move, progressive, change the world type of people have at least some aspects of routine integrated into their daily lives. You could probably write out your morning, work, gym or eating routines right now if you had to.

It’s at this point in the discussion where most “well informed, self-help, guru type of people” would tell you to break your routine. Do something new (different) for a change! Instead of taking a shower and then brushing your teeth, try brushing your teeth while you shower! Oh, and while you’re going crazy, breaking your routine, changing your life one shower at a time, try washing your feet first instead of your ears or vice versa if you usually start with your feet.

Sometimes we genuinely believe that if we just change our routine it will somehow magically transform us into new (maybe even better!) people. Don’t buy the hype.

It’s not just your routine that’s broken; it’s also your attitude. You can’t find the time to go to the gym, to spend with your kids, to take your wife out to a great restaurant, to start that new business, to get caught up at work or to make that difficult phone call home. “It’s not me,” you say, “It’s my routine!” OR “I’m bored with life, might as well just get this day over with.”

Don’t single out your routine. Your routine is not what fundamentally got you where you are today (whether that’s a good place or bad); it’s your attitude that did, because attitudes set routines. Not the other way around.

Every day is an adventure to be had or to be lost. The majority of us lose out on the daily adventures because we become so focused on our routine, instead of our attitude, that we actually morph into our routine. We become our routine, and instead of us using it for greatness, it uses us to accomplish the only thing it can: Boredom. Your routine will rule you if you don’t change your attitude towards it.

Those who control their routines by controlling their attitudes see things differently. They see every occurrence, every moment of life as a blessing, as an opportunity to reach out, to help, or to meet someone elses need. They don’t allow their routine to suck the joy or life out of them, instead, they impart life and joy into their routine, thus giving them purpose and drive to do big things and serve in big ways.

Can your routine drag you along, give you a life of boredom and an escapist mentality? Of course it can. But, your routine can also be used for greatness, to positively influence people and to accomplish amazing tasks which you never before thought possible. The pertinent difference between the two?…Your attitude.

Don’t let the adventure of today die. Embrace it. Engage your routine with a positive, keenly-seeking-out-others type of attitude and live this day to the fullest extent. Further more, if your routine does so happen to need a change, let your transformation of attitude lead you there and not your desire to change simply due to boredom.

Your Mind.

We love the idea of controlling lots of things.  Any things!  The more we control, the experts advise us, the more secure we truly are.  Supposedly, control equals safety, position, prestige, maybe even happiness.

A couple of years ago I spent some time traveling down the Amazon River throughout the jungle territories of Peru.  I encountered some of the most spectacular people.  The small tribes that I was able to interact with had very little.  There were the malnourished chickens running down the streets, the small gardens begging for pesticides, the homemade kayaks floating in the river, and the clay homes lining the dry, dusty, dirt trails.  These Peruvians lives were composed of fishing the river, caring for their children, education, cleaning their homes, and taking care of one another.  There were no power lines, no Macs, no free Wi-fi access points, no Starbucks, no grocery stores, no Blackberries, no modern technologies or amenities.  They were the happiest and most content people that I have ever met. How is this possible?  How can someone have so little–control so little–and still live a happy life?

The tribal Peruvians understood a concept that I too often forget:  The list of items that you can genuinely control is short, and ultimately, every item on that list leads back to the mind. If there is one thing in life that you can control, it’s your mind.  The Peruvians understood that regardless of what they could or could not control, they could always keep their minds in check.  They could choose to be content.  They didn’t dwell on what they didn’t have control of, rather, they took charge of what they could control. They took captive their thoughts,  took control of their minds.  They knew that controlling more didn’t guarantee happiness.

If the mind is the baseline, fundamentally controllable aspect of your life, let’s make sure that we actually do control it.

Here is the challenge: Many visionaries, no matter how self-motivated (or whatever), never get their start-up…well…started up!  Blame it on, if your must, a lack of focus.

The new visionary, leader and entrepreneur all know that they can impact their community, city, state, country and world in a drastically positive and unique way.  They know (and believe!) that they can do something great.  They have the initiative, the proper attitude, the enhanced heart, the high flying mind set, the proper hair cut (what?).  In short, they have what it takes to really make a difference through their actions, business and perspective.  Yet for some reason they just can’t put it into MOTION.  Ever been there?

We are all either (1) looking to premiere our first great idea (2) looking to get our next great idea rolled out or (3) looking to improve our current great idea already on the market.  So how do we accomplish one or all of these things?  How do we set into MOTION that potential entrepreneurial energy which is currently stagnantly waisting away, not making money, not changing lives, not making someone else’s life better, in our revved up minds?  You know you possess the power to change lives, now how do you harness it and put it to use behind a great idea or goal?  Here are some questions and points to ponder in your search (Think, for real!):

1.  If you could be the greatest in the world at one thing what would it be?
   
2. If you had complete freedom of time, how would you use it?  
3. If you had all the resources in the world, what would you build, design or work at?
4. Take your answers from 1-3 and solidify them…write them down!
5. Your answers from 1-3 should reveal something deeper about yourself (your passions for example).  So go ahead and work at what your passionate about, what you really desire to do.  Make real plans to take a step toward making these answers a reality.  
6. Don’t take your life for granted.  Do that which you truly believe is worth doing, don’t make excuses.

I don’t know.  Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?  -Einstein, in response to the question: how many feet are in a mile?  As taken from the book The Magic of Thinking Big

Maybe you are like me.  Maybe you spent 4 or 5 or even 6 years of your young adult life in a lecture hall, voraciously attempting to scribble down words onto a lined sheet of paper in hopes that later on that week you would be able to interpret what you actually wrote down.  Maybe you are like me, and you asked yourself, “Why am I doing this?”  

What we are taught in school is to push as much information, as many facts as we possibly can, into our overloaded, overworked brains.  We are then taught that those of us who are best able to keep those facts in our brain just long enough to spew them back onto a more formal piece of paper, called an exam, are the most successful of the group (class).  

What is wrong with this picture (or should I say reality)? 

For the majority of students, this way of learning and using our brains continues into the rest of our lives, leaving us with brains that function as mini-warehouse storage units rather than as well polished, active thinking machines.  Remember, (or learn for the first time) it is more important to use your mind to THINK rather than to STORE.  Most anyone with a higher education experience can store, but very few can actually think and process and create and imagine and…well, you are starting to get the picture.  

A fact storing person is only worth as much as the encyclopedia or Internet data base that he memorizes his facts from.  A thinking man or woman is a priceless asset.

New realizations are essential for survival.  One of the most important attitude and mind set tweaks a person going through a drought can make is the creation of a new realization.  Those stuck need not stay stuck, rather, they need to climb out of the ditch by creating within their mind a new way of doing whatever task it is they may be trying to accomplish.  This is applicable to the work place, the home, personal relationships and every day life.