Routine

So I awoke today surprisingly early to find that it was finally a sunny, clear morning in Bondi. Remembering that the surf was on the increase and inspired by the already warm tempetures, I headed down to the early early before work to have a surf. On the walk down the street in my early morning foggy haze of consciousness, I had a few thoughts about routine. It can be such a good thing, yet such a bad thing, something that can both be loved and hated. Obviously its all in your mindstate, but routine can be a very a monotonous thing if its work we are talking about. The question is, how comfortable should you be with the particular routine and being on auto-pilot in your life. Some routines are good, like eating healthy or working out, but how far is too far? The past few days I have been in a mini-routine of surfing within the normal routine of work. This is something that is unique about surfing is how unique of a sport it is. Every session, let alone every wave and every day is so very different then the one before. That is a major component of surfing that I love and allows me to never get tired of it, chasing that feeling. The surfing routine just allows you to be regullarly immersing yourself in something that is always changing. The ocean is always moving and conditions are constantly changing, thus your ability to judge and react with these changes measures your ability to be with one with the ocean. From this I find true tranquility. On the other hand, you can be in a routine of work as I am in now and this is such a different extreme of the word. The work is the same everyday, and the nearly the same challenges arise over the course of any given day, yet your ability to anticipate and prepare for these challenges make your day run smoothly and less painful. It can get to a point where you just go throught the motions of work and never really truely be there mentally. Almost as if you have checked out and gone onto the auto pilot setting. It can be a scary thing to be in a routine like this, as days and month seem to fly by, and before you know it your entire life a sort of autopilot, where your just going through the motions but not really evcr there. This is the sort of stagnation that seems to me to be equivalent to imprisonment of some sort. Sure you have a good time on the weekends with friends reminescing about the old days when you didnt care, having a few beers with friends. But in reality this isnt really living life with true freedom. In another sense though, routine can get you through what would otherwise be a hard situation to get through. At the moment my work routine is a good thing as it is allowing me to pass by time that would otherwise be unbearable. Working 60-70 hours a week, day in and day out can be pretty trying, but my routine has allowed me to shut down and grind it out until I leave for my next trip. I'll be happy when my routine is surfing 3 times a day and deciding which island and destination to go to next! Dont let your life become one massive routine excersize!