Fall, as we’ve all known since we were little, is the season of change and transitions. Students get new classmates in school. Leaves change color. Summer flip-flops are traded in for chocolate brown boots. The weather gets cooler and crisper, which may mean less iced coffee and more hot soy lattes. Good-bye, summer barbeques. Hello, apple-picking. Who’s ready for fall?
Just as how seasons are not meant to be static, neither are people. We are at our greatest element when we are open to new ideas, flexible to life curves and are willing to get out of our own comfort zone. Here are 10 ideas to shake up our usual routines, and all for the better.
1. Change your attitude about something you currently don’t like. So you can’t stand your know-it-all co-worker. And he’s not going to quit anytime soon, and neither are you. Rather than constantly bitching to your spouse about how he drives you up the wall, maybe you can approach his next one-sided rambles with some sympathy and understanding? Or that terrible traffic you have to endure every morning–maybe some good audiobooks will actually make you thankful that you’re stuck in the car for over forty minutes?
2. Change up the people you are surrounded by. It’s great to have your posse of close-knit friends. But it’s important to always have opportunities to meet new people, encounter new personalities (however difficult), and get intimidated as hell by people who are half your age who are really kicking ass at life. So check out new community events, strike up conversations with strangers, ask a lot of questions, and continue to grow new relationships in your social contacts.
3. Change your eating habits with new recipes, new world cuisines, new ingredients, new local supermarkets. Have your eating habits fallen into a predictable pattern of casseroles, hamburgers and iceberg lettuce salads? My favorite way to changing up my eating habit is to visit a health food or produce store I’ve never visited before, which has introduced me to new ingredients such as nutritional yeast, kale, rice paper, seitan and more.
4. Change your usual interests and hobbies. Of course, this is why #2 is so important; meeting interesting people is one of the best ways to expose yourself to fields of interest you may have otherwise never encountered or thought of learning about. Another easy way to change up your usual interests and hobbies: browse magazines at your local bookstore.
5. Change your style. And no, you don’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe to do this. It can be a matter of combining tops and bottoms in unusual ways, doing jewelry swaps with your girlfriends, or simply being a little more daring with your eyeshadow, lipstick and nail polish colors.
6. Change your home environment. That painting you’ve been meaning to hang up for the last few months. Do it. And while you’re at it, declutter your unwanted stuff and donate to charity. Add a potted basil plant and some freshly cut gerberas while you are at it. Home environments need new energy, too.
7. Change what is stagnant about your work. Hate your job and in the wrong field? Quit. Love your job but getting bored? Challenge yourself more, ask for bigger projects, change your attitude, do something. Just don’t do the same thing you’ve been doing for the last few months or years that’s been making you bored this moment in the first place.
8. Change the usual routines you do with your loved one. Is it always pizza and movie night with your darling? How about a road trip along the coast? A grueling nature hike at five in the morning to catch the sunrise? Weekend trapeze classes? Don’t get me wrong–I’m all for letting it all hang loose in the name of love, but don’t forget to do the adventurous stuff that is best experienced with your favorite partner in crime.
9. Change your hang-outs. Oh, yes, we love it when we’ve become so familiar with that coffee and donut shop down the street that the owner knows your name and your name is permanently engraved in a special chair by the window. It won’t kill you to drive an extra mile radius outward to check out some new cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, bookstores and other neighborhood hang-outs to discover other hidden gems in your side of town.
10. Change something that has become easy for you. You used to be a couch potato, and now those 5 mile runs are easy as pie for you. Add another mile. Getting bored with your yoga class? Step it up with a more advanced level. And that goal of writing in your journal every day that has become so second nature? Maybe it is time to start submitting some of those writings to publications to become a published writer.
Variety is the spice of life, especially in this time of the year. Spice it up.
Comments are closed.