ROUTINES – ONE OF MY GREATEST SECRETS IS THE ABILITY TO BUILD A PRISON FOR MYSELF
Dear reader, earlier this week we learned the thinking you need to have to build systems. Now let’s talk about a few more important criteria, without which it is impossible to become an organized and successful person who can solve problems. Luizi Seneca, a Roman philosopher, poet and statesman (4 BC – 65 AD) wrote:
“We spend the greatest part of our lives on mistakes and bad deeds, a considerable part on idleness, and spend almost all our life on the work that is not needed.”
This wise quote by Seneca gives an accurate reflection of the life of undisciplined people and those without the ability to build systems who never succeed. They are not familiar with the concepts of routine, “structure” and habits. This is what we would be discussing on in this article because only a deep understanding of these concepts and their practical application in our daily life will allow us to achieve our goals and to become a person of systems who can solve every problem in our world.
What is a Routine?
“Success is nothing more than a few simple rules observed daily, and failure is simply several mistakes repeated in the same way daily”. Mahatma Gandhi, spiritual leader Indian nation (1869 – 1948)
Friends, did you know that great people who know how to create and control various systems became great because of the “structure”, habits and routines they set for themselves? One of them, Mahatma Gandhi, realized this. Hence he said the following:
“Success is no more than a few simple rules observed daily, and failure is simply a few mistakes, repeated daily.”
Indeed, if you constantly follow certain rules that contribute to success, then sooner or later you will achieve it, and vice versa: if you constantly repeat the same mistakes, then soon it will lead you to a great failure in life. A system works the same way, both in positive and negative life examples. Our failure in life is nothing but a systemic repetition of wrong actions. Success and failure are achieved in life with the help of systems consciously or unconsciously, but few people think about this.
Without routines, it is difficult to build any system to solve problems. Routine in translation from French means well-organized constant activity; established customs or practices.
For example, a bus driver uses the same technique every day; most of the time driving even becomes automatic. His work is constant consisting of a set of driving routines, which makes him carry out his duty as planned.
Many parents, perhaps without even knowing it, create a routine in the life of their child. The child attends school and does his homework every day. As a result, he becomes an educated person.
Enrolling in universities, students may not fully realize where they are, but thanks to the organization of the educational process (routines), almost all of them become specialists in any field: doctors, engineers, economists, lawyers. So, dear reader, if we carry out certain actions necessary to achieve our goals daily, we will achieve them definitely.
A routine is a repeated set of activities that help us automatically achieve our goals. Routine is a system that we must create for ourselves to achieve results in life. They help us to move towards our goals every day and prevents our everyday bustle from stealing the time needed to carry out important tasks. Routines increase our effectiveness. It is better to do something little once a day or once a week than to do something massive randomly once a year.
For example, if you need to learn a foreign language, then you should plan how much time you will spend studying it every day or every week. And if you can adhere to this routine which means you are to build a system of learning the language and you discipline yourself to follow it, then after a while you will master the language. This applies to absolutely every area of our life. Friends, making a schedule of routines bring you closer to achieving your goals. If you execute it diligently, after a while, you will definitely have a result.
Often guests from other countries come to my house and say to me: “We come to you from all over the world because you made yourself very valuable and in demand. You have enriched yourself, and now you enrich us all. It’s a great pleasure for us to be with you for even five minutes because, during these five minutes, we get so much valuable wisdom that we couldn’t get it on our own in a whole month.” But the secret of who I am is what I am sharing to you today, “I build a system of routines around my life.” One of them is investing time in imparting people and raising leaders.
For example, every day I engage in self-education for 3-6 hours. I built this routine while I was a student at Belarusian State University, where I came to study after winning a scholarship to study abroad. It was at that time; I made a decision to spend six hours in the library from Monday to Friday after eight hours of classes to study and become the best student in my university. This continued for six years, in which I developed myself through self-education and hard work; as a result, I became the best student at the university and graduated with honours.
Dear friend, I always tell people that one of my greatest secrets is the ability to build a prison for myself. If you want to be great and successful, study the lives of great people and one thing you will find common to most if not all is that they built a prison, a routine around their goals.
CREATING A ROUTINE IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE TO YOURSELF! THE MORE YOUR ROUTINE, THE MORE EXCELLENT AND EFFECTIVE YOUR LIFE WILL BE. Routines help us to be disciplined and organized. Often they destroy the comfort zone in which we live.
Great destinies are born only through great sacrifices. Great people of world influence who have achieved significant results in life created routines for themselves. This is most clearly seen in the life of Olympic champions who, for the sake of gold medals and setting new records, are in a very tough “routine” of self-discipline. Daily exhausting workouts take up most of their time, and this is the only reason they show such high athletic performance.
For example, do you want to know how the legendary champion, the holder of many records in boxing, the famous Mike Tyson (1966) trained?
Here is his daily routine:
4 AM – Rise and shine! Tyson does long periods of stretching, before doing 10 interval sprints and 10 box jumps.
4.30AM – 3-4 mile run, followed by a mile-long walk.
5.30 AM – Shower and back to sleep
10 AM – Rise and shine once more! Tyson awoke to oatmeal for breakfast, accompanied by milk.
12 PM – Skills and ring work: Tyson would typically spar 10 rounds.
2 PM – After sparring, it was chicken and rice, or steak and pasta, with some fruit juice.
3 PM – More skills and ring work for 45 minutes to an hour. Followed by an hour on the exercise bike.
5 PM – Calisthenics work: 2000 squats, 2500 sit-ups, 500-800 dips, 500 pushups, 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell, 10 minutes neck work.
7 PM – Dinner: Chicken and rice, or steak and pasta, usually with orange juice.
8.30 PM – 30-45 minutes on the exercise bike.
9.30 PM – Bedtime.
Dear reader, have you ever thought about the fact that Mike Tyson observed these routines every day for decades? Probably, now it is clear to you why he is the holder of several world boxing records, which has not been beaten to this day.
Friends, what is your daily routine schedule? Do you even have routines that you built to attain your goals? What do you spend your precious time doing? If you have not thought enough about it yet, I advise you to start now.
Excerpts from the Book “System Building – The Key To Resolving Every Problem And Attaining Every Goal.”. #DSABOOKS
This book can be found on dsabooksplanet.com and Amazon.com
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHURCH AND NATION
By Pastor Sunday Adelaja.
