The clocks seemed to go back early this year didn’t they, and the change, the shock of the light altering, or rather our perception of it altering, is disorienting and yet familiar.
Familiarity brings comfort with it. We have our routines, favourite places, the route we always take and the little rituals that make life feel like ours. But familiarity can also lessen the impact of things. We stop noticing.
So, for November, I thought I’d give you something to match that bump of changing daylight hours. The Disruption.
Nothing dramatic. I’m not suggesting you resign from your job, sell the house and move to Peru. Although I remember a teacher I had at school doing almost exactly that. I’m not sure I was wholly to blame for it.
What I am suggesting is much simpler. Break one familiar pattern positively and see what happens.
Not sure where to start?
Where near you do people travel from elsewhere to visit, but you’ve somehow never been? Where do you keep saying, “I must pop in there one day”, and never quite do? Who would you love to catch up with that you haven’t seen for ages? What did you used to love doing that somehow slipped out of your life? What are you saving for the weekend when you could just do it on a Wednesday?
Perhaps one of those has already made something spring to mind.
Take the road you normally drive past and find out where it goes. Try the café you’ve passed a hundred times. Cook something new. Invite somebody round for supper midweek.
Turn the television off one evening. For me, a good book, a glass of red wine and some favourite vinyl on the turntable can make an evening pretty special. Or perhaps grab a coffee, find a comfortable chair and have a read of Everyone Loves Property.
It doesn’t really matter what you change. The disruption isn’t the point. What happens because of it is.
You might discover somewhere new, have a conversation you wouldn’t otherwise have had or rediscover something you’d forgotten how much you enjoyed. Or perhaps nothing particularly remarkable happens at all. That’s fine too.
Make Life Special isn’t about manufacturing extraordinary experiences or creating a bucket list. Sometimes it’s simply about appreciating what is already around us. Sometimes it’s giving ourselves a little nudge to discover something we might otherwise have missed.
So that’s November’s challenge. Break a pattern positively and see what happens.
And if something good comes from it, tell us. Your idea might just encourage somebody else to try something they would never otherwise have thought of.
Matt
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