‘Routine in an intelligent man is a sign of ambition.’ W.H. Auden
The rhythm of a dally routine creates the canvas for my day. So what’s better, a small daily dose of discipline or a blank canvas? Mmmm, let me see.
Now I can choose to ignore those all too insistent calls-to-action, and sometimes I do, often feeling the poorer for it, or I can choose to be hale and heartily affirmative and create an achievable, sustainable daily routine.
So where’s the five-a-day come in? Reading. You know when you have that uh-huh moment when something just clicks into place and makes sense. I’ve been reading the Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, which promotes ‘the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons and world-class performers.’ A little out of my league, but interesting none-the-less.
I find other people’s routines, rituals, and habits absolutely fascinating – come on, what’s not to like? And I’ll take on board anything that helps me hit my day running. And that’s what five-a-day does. A very simple concept, it engages five tasks you want to achieve on a daily basis – do them long enough and they’ll become a habit, a characteristic of your norm, achievable with little or no thought – hopefully, well that’s the plan anyway.
It’s meant a sprucing-up of my mornings, ticking off tasks I may otherwise allow to languish, perhaps abandoning altogether. So now, one week in, I can confidently portray a canvas well-marked with daily exertion. Plus I get to head down to work feeling immensely comforted, affirmative and purposeful – and that’s just the beginning of the day. Bing, bang, bong, what a way to start the day.
This sounded so easy, I thought, why not do this am and pm? Great idea, but I struggled with trying to add five tasks to my afternoons. I’d much rather just have a pot of tea and a crumpet.
So five-a-day it is.
