Routine - boring but good!

I remember when I was at school our teacher got us to complete this really long and complex questionnaire designed to figure out what career would best suit us. I already had an idea (and that's putting it mildly) of what I wanted to do and so it was quite difficult to answer the questions completely honestly, and not make the answers biased towards the career I thought suited me. At the time, believe it or not, I wanted to join the Police Force. I have since realised the error of my ways (!) - but that was what I was absolutely set on at the time. I also remember saying in this questionnaire that I hated routine and loved the unpredictable. I think, in my mind, I saw police work as anything but routine, so sort of figured that I, therefore, obviously did not like routine! Daft logic I know, but I was only a kid.

I have carried this notion with me for much of my life - that 'routine' somehow equates with all things boring and mundane. However, in recent months I have given some thought to the lack of self discipline in certain areas of my life and wondered whether it is associated with a lack of routine in any way. My job, for example, is not at all routine. I do different things almost every day and even though I try to plan ahead, I often find that at the end of the day I have hardly done a single thing I set out to. It occurs to me that when my daily life IS very routine, I find it much easier to stick to good, healthy eating habits and getting regular exercise. When things are out of routine, it all 'goes to pot', as they say.

I'm currently at a conference in Durham. Although it is a very structured event, with seemingly every minute of the day accounted for, it's not part of my normal routine. I'm away from home, I cannot do any of my normal exercise activities (I can walk but I can't go to the gym or use my stepper etc), I am at the mercy of other people when it comes to what I will eat (and when) - and it all feels a little frightening as far as my new band life is concerned (or maybe I'm just a control freak!). I think that, in a way, one has to be something of a control freak to work successfully with the band: You have to be able to plan ahead - what you will eat, what you will drink, when you will eat and drink, how and when you will exercise and so on. These things can only be planned properly if you have a good amount of control over what the day will bring.

So, I think that contrary to my child-like instincts, I'm going to have to get to associate routine with all things good. I'm going to have to get to like routine and see it as a major contributor to my band success in the future.