Routine, planning, life in a loop Dare to improvise!

If you have the feeling of living the same thing over and over again, of being in a loop from which you do not know how to get out, deactivate that “automatic pilot”. Dare to improvise and you will begin to leave mental rigidity behind, to live moments that will surprise you, to enjoy better relationships with others.

 

In the hilarious and lucid Groundhog Day, which in Spain was called Trapped in Time, Bill Murray is an arrogant meteorologist who gets stuck on the same day, waking up over and over again until he manages to change his priorities. Many people feel this way. Their day-to-day life becomes so predictable that they have the impression of living on a broken record. This can lead to boredom and apathy, and totally destroy one”s creativity. Without reaching this extreme, there are people who feel that they are living in a loop in which everything is and happens in the same way, and they are not aware that it is up to them to change it.

Excess work, obligations and commitments can contribute to falling into this inertia. You have the feeling that “you can”t do everything”, that you are already reaching the limit and that it is better to follow that inertia because if you make any changes, everything will collapse. But what if we let that happen?

DO YOU HAVE A TOO RIGID MIND?

We must start from a clear fact: the days, in themselves, are not the same or different; we are the ones who do it this way through our attitude, the habits we acquire and our ability to improvise. The great enemy of creativity and improvisation that give color to life is mental rigidity, which manifests itself in the person through these symptoms:

• You need to have everything planned and controlled, so that any change in plans is experienced as a threat.
• You tend to always do things the same way: in housework, when taking the transport to work or in organizing it. Even in free time, he always follows the same guidelines.
• It works on “autopilot”. You do not need to make decisions because your life is already moving along a predetermined track.
• When changes occur, in his work or in the people around him, it is difficult for him to adapt. He would like things to always continue as they used to be.
• He is of fixed ideas also in his personal convictions. It is difficult for him to “change the chip”.

If you belong to this group of overly rigid people, you should consider practicing spontaneity. One of the benefits of becoming an improviser is that you will tone the muscle of creativity, accessing new opportunities.

Those who can improvise are aware of their power and do not worry about changes and difficulties, because their creativity provides them with a solution for each problem. This means that you can live with joy and without fear, since if things do not have to be one way, there are infinite possibilities to get ahead and be happy.

Improvising makes us flexible and, in addition, it improves our relationships with others, it makes us better. We no longer need them to behave in a certain way, nor do we tell ourselves the obnoxious: “I in their place …”
By accepting the dynamic and varied nature of life, we give others permission to be in their own way, without trying to make them change to adapt to our rigid guidelines. We too allow ourselves to be less rigid. In short, improvising allows us to dance with the infinite melodies and variations that life offers us.

LEARN TO IMPROVISE

The key to ending life”s boredom is contained in a single word: improvisation. Just as a musician frees himself from the score and begins to enjoy improvising on a theme, introducing that freedom into our lives opens windows that we didn”t even know existed. However, how can we improvise if until now we have written our lives on ruled paper?

• Locate the “broken records” in your life. Identify everything you always do in the same way: your way to the office, the tasks at home, the friends you hang out with, the way you organize your leisure time. Which of these habits and inertias could be different?
• Practice the “What if ?”. Once we know what we always do in the same way, we can ask ourselves what would happen if we did things in a totally different way. Give wings to your imagination and dare to pose crazy possibilities. Like Alice in Wonderland: “Sometimes I think of up to six impossible things before breakfast.”
• Just uncheck one thing at a time. If you have lived a predictable and orderly life so far, like the girl in the story, trying to change everything can lead to panic. Pick a single aspect of your routine and change it with the spirit of a child at play.
• Try new things. Sometimes it is not about changing what you already do and it works, but about starting something that you have never done before. Is there something that you always wanted to do and until now you have not allowed yourself? Put aside excuses like “I don”t have time”, “this is not my thing” or “what will they think of me” and venture out.
• Stop planning everything possible. There are things in our life that need to be in order, especially at work and in health care, and others that allow many variations. Try not to imprison the latter on an agenda. In the free time of each day, on weekends, on vacations dare to enjoy the last-minute plans.