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As hard as we all try to stick to our intentional routines every day, we know that life can happen. We go on vacations, get sick, things come up; we have to make adjustments so we don’t fall out of our routines completely, but we’re not pushing ourselves too hard. I’ve had several readers and clients ask me how to change a routine when schedules change, or things simply come up. Well, today on La.Rue, I’m going to share my strategy on the best ways to adjust your routines. This will assist you in maintaining your motivation to continue making progress without requiring the same amount of effort. The best approach for adjustment in any part of your intentional life is looking back on how you started your journey. You didn’t begin in the middle of the change. Instead, you began with the most important, but small changes first.

So, think of any adjustments you’re making like a brief pause in the journey. It’s an opportunity to reapply your initial habits and look at the progress you’ve made. We’ve talked about habits and routines so much on the blog and the podcast. But I want to make sure everyone also understands that it’s alright to give yourself a break, some time off, and begin again. Not every day in our intentional living journey will be perfect. Nor will each day be met with 100% dedication to our routines. We all get a little laid back sometimes, and that’s perfectly ok. What’s important is to recognize that it’s a passing moment. When the next day comes, it’s time to step back into our habits and routines to continue making progress. So, here’s how we do that.

How to Adjust Your Habits

As you develop and grow in your intentional life, your routine becomes a part of you. It becomes necessary for your day to day for you to feel motivated, productive, and successful. This is the result of a refined foundational routine that pushes you to your best. But, we know that not every day will be like this. We will have vacations, days when we’re sick, or just days when we’re feeling off, and on those days, it’s important to complete as much of your routine as you can without wearing yourself out. So, to begin, look at what positive impact habits you have in your day-to-day routine. These should be the habits you absolutely try to complete. Your positive impact habits, like journaling, meditating, etc., are what most often give you the motivation to continue building on your routine.

Make sure—similar to when you began implementing your habits— you give yourself a set time to complete these habits. This will give you a stronger incentive to complete them because the excuse “I can do it whenever.” won’t be valid. When you give yourself a specific time to get something done, you’re more inclined to act on that task, which again, offers you more motivation to continue. If you find you lack motivation, remind yourself of the benefit and reward you see from completing your habits each day. If you’re still having trouble completing habits, ask someone to hold you accountable to completing the habits. Remember, you always have the Habit Tracker as a resource available to you.

How to Change Your Routine 

Most people have two main routines—their morning routine and their evening routine. Now, I don’t know about you, but I tend to fall off my routine wagon if I skip even one thing in the regimen for too long. For example, if I get in too late one night and skip my journaling, I often think it’s somehow an excuse to keep skipping it. When I would begin again, it’s because I guilted myself into it and was disappointed in myself. But, as I said, life happens, and we HAVE to have compassion and love for ourselves. It’s perfectly alright to skip a day or two of something because you’ve got other things going on. But, we just need to remind ourselves that the routines and habits we have in place are important to us. A simple reminder of their benefits and why we began them is all it takes.

Sometimes our routines are difficult to re-implement once we’re back from vacation, recovered from being sick, or have pulled ourselves out of a rut; so, the best way to begin again is by hitting a hard reset button on your routine. I’ll be publishing a blog about this fairly soon, but for now, challenge yourself to begin again. I highly recommend challenging yourself to 30 days of hard commitment to your habits, routines, and mindset work. To assist you in this reset, you can purchase the 30-Day Intentional Living Challenge or go through the Intentional Living Course. By challenging yourself to 30 days of intensive commitment, you’re rededicating yourself to all of the changes you decided to make when you began living intentionally.

Benefits of a Break

Sometimes, it’s good for us to take a break. It lets us step back and see the changes we’ve made from a wider angle. When we’re right in the middle of our journey, we’re looking so closely that sometimes we can’t see or recognize the progress we’ve made. When we do step back, we’re not only able to applaud the changes we’ve made, but we can perhaps see where we can continue to make change and grow. The benefits of the hard restart serve to let us incorporate new change while continuing to work on the changes we initially made. If you have questions about habits, routines, mindset, or how to begin making changes, always feel free to reach out. Don’t forget to check out our Lifestyle Coaching Program!