"do it the same - but better"

I wrote this on my blog at work, and thought I'd share it here too.

I love new things.

I enjoy the journey of discovery with something that you've never seen/held/interacted with before. But there's a lot of things that I do by heart. My bike ride to work, putting the bins out every night, packing my bag for work the night before. These are not moments I remember - or take time to remember.

We need that though. A life without rhythm can be disorienting - I think we are made to function in the balance of regularity and spontaneity. A life lived too much in the regularity camp becomes stale, dry, lacks invention and is probably very boring. if you listened to your heartbeat for a day, you'd find a couple of things:

Your heart was always beating a rhythm.

I think the same is true of our lives - we are always in a routine of some form. Good, bad or indifferent. Just recognise it's there and you can do something about it.

The tempo and timbre of your heartbeat will change throughout the day

As we do things throughout the day, change pace, get passionate about something, all that good stuff, we will find our heart adapts. Like seasons of our lives - sometimes it's intensity in ten cities, sometimes it's 48bpm and we are snoozing. Recognise where you are and appreciate the moment.

External forces will impact your rhythm

Be it chasing down a bus, dealing with a tough customer interaction or a being put in danger - all change the way our heart. How we respond will determine what happens next - right?

So, where am I going with this? My life is not boring - at least, not for me anyway - and I'm not into change for the sake of it. I enjoy my job, I have a great family and amazing friends. But inspired by this post from Seth Godin, it's time to do something different.

As you build (successful) experience in a role, a team or an organisation, it can be very tempting to rely on past achievements/experiences and think they will be exactly what's needed the next time. Often that can be the case. But that doesn't drive innovation. That doesn't see things get better. That might lead to regression, rather than keeping things "nice and stable".

So, I want to try some new ideas. Create some new approaches - no doubt inspired by something I have seen/experienced/enjoyed from somewhere else, but nonetheless, I want to bring something fresh to the table.

Are you with me? What are you going to do that will be fresh?

Maybe I'll take a different route on the bike, or book some flights to a far-off-land - just to mix it up...