Rethink Your Everyday Routines
Add some risk to that routine.
We’ve written before about habit stacking—the practice of attaching a new habit to an existing one, in order to increase the chances that the new habit will stick. Similarly, we think that if you’re going to take some more chances, you need not jump straight to skydiving. Instead, we’ve identified ways to add some more workaday risk-taking into our busy lives.
Mix up your morning.
Most of us have our morning routines on lock—and for good reason. We’ve optimized through the years down to the minute in order to start the day (for ourselves and those under our care) right. But maybe circumstances have changed (new career, empty nest, etc.) and your morning march longer serves its purpose. Even if your schedule is still mostly useful, challenge yourself to think about whether something needs changing. You might, like us, find that you were forgoing exercise to get to work earlier (only to find some time wasted because you had gotten to work early!). Even a small change may feel risky, but that’s the point.
Get physical.
Because so many of our career and family raising endeavors lack concrete beginnings and endings, a physical challenge can feed our soul like none other. For one of us, it was marathon running, but no matter what it is, physical accomplishment always sticks with you. So sign up, tell others and really test yourself. It could be as simple as a 5k, a pull-up or even doing a plank everyday for a month. Take these low stakes, high reward risks to flex your risk-taking muscles.
Daydreaming: a definite to-do.
When we were thinking of our next verse, we would set aside time on our calendar every Wednesday to read about different fields, network and explore. Of course, daydreaming doesn’t sound risky, but what we realized over time is that it helped us to screw up the courage to do something new. There is, of course, the “risk” that one of these ideas excites you, and you find yourself ready to make moves you never would have envisioned. Dreamy indeed.
Go back to school.
Yes, you could actually go back to school or you could just engage with the many different learning opportunities out there. Learning something new can be risky—we may have trouble mastering it, we may look less than competent in front of others, we may feel uncomfortable not being good at something. All of these are risks worth taking when the reward is the wonderful feeling of conquering a new skill or topic. And if it doesn’t stick? No harm in trying.
Cook up some courage.
We are willing to bet that during COVID times, you found yourselves trying new things in the kitchen. And we would like to suggest you keep it up. Again, taking some low-level risks helps us get comfortable with uncertainty. Thinking beyond the sourdough? We are planning souffle, Kouign-Amann, maybe even some pasta.
Show & tell.
Do you have a hidden talent or passion? We say start putting it out there for the world to see. Whether that means launching a blog, setting up a separate social media account or even entering contests, being vulnerable in sharing your work will be a great way to take a risk. Who knows? It may even turn into your next verse.
