The Best Way to Deal with Routine – Part 2.

The answer is always evolving, because consciousness isn’t fixed; it’s on the move.

By contrast, routine work is static and repetitive, which makes the mind lapse into a dull, half-conscious state.

When faced with the same old routine – even if it’s a very high level of routine, like being an office manager or running a staff meeting – the mind falls into a predictable groove. There is pressure to stay in the groove so as not to rock the boat. I once read about how a board member in a corporation wore red socks to meetings as a way of attracting attention and breaking the dullness of business as usual. At the time I thought that this was one of the feeblest and shallowest ways to compensate – one smile, a few chuckles, and then back into the same groove.

When you are conscious, there are no grooves. Routine is artificial when it comes to facing reality. If you look at brain function, all of us are performing dozens of multi-tasks simultaneously. You can digest food, secrete hormones, talk about politics, worry about the impression you are making, and have a flickering sexual impulse at the same time. Most of this multi-tasking goes on unconsciously. Your mind doesn’t participate in the automatic functions of the body, and even semi-conscious functions like breathing, emotional arousal, and moods basically run on automatic pilot.

Which means that the brain, being a creature of routine, easily succumbs to inertia. It has been estimated (not very reliably) that 90% of the thoughts a person has today are the same as his thoughts yesterday. Whatever the actual percentage might be, the lesson to be drawn is that the brain only displays its hidden potential if you intervene. You are a conscious agent. It is up to you to lead, inspire, and use your brain as optimally as you can.

It sounds odd to say that Leonardo da Vinci deciding to start a new painting resembles an executive deciding to put on red socks, because one act is trivial while the other is highly significant. Yet from the brain’s perspective, both are creative gestures that call upon new possibilities. “Use it or lose it” has become a cliché when referring to brain functions like memory. We’ve absorbed the lesson that functions atrophy until they are exercised; it’s true for muscles and for the brain.

But more important is “Be conscious or go to sleep.” It’s not as catchy, but the implications are profound. What in Buddhism is called mindfulness amounts to the same thing. Reality is on the move. Your response to reality must also be on the move. How to accomplish this will be a rich topic for future discussion.