Daily Inspiration: “Find routines. Break them. Pinpoint habits. Smash them. Identify traditions. Abandon them. Discover patterns. Reorganize them. Because the future abhors consistency!

“Find routines. Break them. Pinpoint habits. Smash them. Identify traditions. Abandon them. Discover patterns. Reorganize them. Because the future abhors consistency!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Habits, routines, and structures are the enemies of innovation. We get locked into patterns that have us doing today what we did yesterday. Every once in a while it is good to break them up and focus on the differences, not the sameness. Your life should settle into an unpredictable routine – parse that idea!

I don’t think I have ever quite understood those folks who get stuck in a rut. If it’s holding you back, why not just get out of it? Our future is at times confusingly unpredictable, wildly volatile, wonderfully surprising, and continually erratic. I say this with a straight face as someone who interprets future trends for others – often, the only certainty I can foresee with certain trends is massive uncertainty.

Here’s your problem – you develop a comfort zone that guides your everyday action. You lose out on spontaneity, living in the now, and miss out on spur of the moment opportunities. With that in mind, be prepared to adapt to the wild twists and turns in your future. Add some randomness into your life!

One day, I jotted down some thoughts on how you can transition yourself into this mindset.

• study something new
• play more
• don’t cling to your past
• be your own futurist
• think bigger
• banish inaction
• stop studying, start doing
• champion failure
• embrace fear
• don’t accept the status quo
• accept disruption
• go with the flow
• don’t find unpredictability
• take on more risk
• challenge your assumptions
• think faster
• challenge your complacency
• dominate your inaction
• disrupt yourself
• ignore hype

Get inspired. Be random. Find your routines, and break them.

What are you doing that is absolutely, positively ridiculous – but you keep on doing it because you’ve always done it that way?