053 • Daily routine and habits give you freedom

There’s a quote from Gustave Flaubert...

"Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work."

I heard it first in the book that changed my life - Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte.

However today I just want to explore this quote, rather than the contents of the book (if you want BASB content then go here).

Now I take this quote to heart in a slightly different way in my life. If I was to re-write it as it most pertains to my own advice, it would be…

"Be regular and orderly most days of your life so that you can break the rules when necessary."

In other words, make sure that you’re doing things right most of the time so that when it’s time to go off-piste doing something new and crazy, things aren’t going to burn down around you.

The reason I’m talking about this…

Before this weekend just gone, the last and only time I’d gone outside of the UK was a school exchange in the south of France back in October 2018.

I loved it and since that moment have wanted to go and explore more of the world. The opportunity to begin this again came just after my university exams finished last Thursday. My university housemates and I went for a weekend in Brussels, Belgium to celebrate the end of the year.

This trip was fun - we saw the best of Brussels and met some great people. But it wasn’t over-planned. I didn’t write down the tasks for the day in my notebook like normal, I didn’t manage to hit the gym like I would back home in Sheffield. I didn’t eat as clean as I would have done if it were just normal life.

But that doesn’t matter, as illustrated by the meaning behind the quote I gave earlier...

Because I keep myself on the straight and narrow whilst I’m doing day-to-day activities at home, this gives me the leeway to go off the beaten track and try completely new things for a weekend whilst minimising the negative consequences...

• I sleep well almost all the time so I could afford to have a couple of late nights and an early 4.30 am start to catch the flight home this weekend.

• I run and lift weights regularly so 25k daily steps around the city felt like a stroll.

• I normally eat the same clean ingredients every day so that I could sample the waffles, chips (frites), chocolate and beer whilst somewhere new.

And the consequences are minimal - okay, I might have delayed this newsletter issue by a day because I was so exhausted after yesterday’s early morning start to get back home, but no lasting damage has been done.

The daily habits that I’ve gotten used to meant that I could throw them out the window while everything else was happening.

Of course, seeing as I’m going travelling for a longer period soon, I’m going to have to try and build up some kind of routine. But I’m also allowing myself the time and space to gain new experiences because that’s what truly enriches my wisdom, memories and stories I have to tell in the future.

So that’s the insight I have for you this week. As I said, I’m travelling through Portugal and Italy for most of this month, so there’s going to be a lot of content to share from that experience. Keep your eyes peeled.

Last week I also said that I’m going to do video accompaniments for these issues for a year, so that’s going to be released on my YouTube within the next couple of days too.

Thanks for waiting a little longer for this week’s issue, and I’ll see you soon!

-- Theo