Philosopher reflects on the value of routine and the risks of exchanging it for something dubious and uncertain
Many people complain about routine and long for an opportunity to change their lives and break out of this familiar cycle.. However, that would be the best thing to do? Based on this question, the philosopher Fabiano de Abreu brings a reflection, aiming to understand whether it is really worth abandoning the comfort and predictability of routine or not: “routine and everyday life create levels of oscillation in our emotions. We are adaptable beings and so we adapt to routine. But we are also conquerors and want different things. But that's where reason has to come in and prevail. Reason and emotion must have balance. In the routine, everyday life means that emotion can prevail over reason and it is precisely at this moment that we have to start thinking with reason, before taking actions that could interrupt what gives you peace and security”.
To illustrate your thinking, the philosopher brings a hypothetical situation as an example: “We have to understand that routine is important, so that we don’t live on surprises and shocks. Imagine that you are in a job that gives you comfort and financial stability and that you are saturated or overloaded with work, or already sick of living with the same people, Then comes the desire to look for another job. However, this choice can lead to a life at a lower level of income and qualities than what you had in your other job and even over time, This routine will return in the new job. Unless there are possibilities for a new job that offers you better conditions, but there is another question that is out of the routine. But even in the new job, time will also bring routine. We have to study our own life, based on reason and not solely on emotion. It is the reason that will tell you whether this exchange will benefit you or not and whether it is worth the risk.. There is the best, but there is also the worst”.
This logic, analyzing the pros and cons of abandoning a certain routine is worth, as the philosopher, not just for the professional field, but for personal life, including the relationship: “Happiness is different from peace, but without peace there is no happiness. It is possible to see that in a relationship it is equal, get into the routine, becomes customary, but here comes the question that your reason shows that living with that person brings you comfort. Swap or give up that for an adventure or an overwhelming passion of the moment, or thinking about giving up when tempers are high amid fights, can bring you a worse everyday life than the one you currently live, unless the relationship is no longer good for some reason, but that's another question, We’re talking about the routine”.
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Still on the topic of relationships and routine, Fabiano points out that it is necessary to use reason to balance emotion: “You have to think about how much worse other scenarios could be, and then you need to think about previous relationships and those you could have, which may not be as good. Your age is not the same, people are not the same as in previous years. Times change, So is it worth the risk?? The age, the experience of the cycle in which we are inserted and with maturity we can even fall in love with the same person several times in our lives, differently ways. We are not the same, nor will the people we live with be the same over time.”.
Soon, according to Fabiano's reasoning, comfort should be the tip of the scale when evaluating what is worth keeping: “Studying your own life is not an easy task, Saramago already said: To see the island, we need to leave the island. Thus, I believe that within the idea of seeking a better life, it is worth trying to change your routine, or create methods for this routine to change with the same characters, that will not betray your psychological peace. In the profession, in the relationship, in life in all aspects, seek comfort and use reason to find better answers. If you have peace and comfort within your routine, why change? Think something could be better, but everything could be much worse too. Reason is the mediator and the balance. Then you have to think about whether it's worth keeping the peace or risking happiness and attracting sadness., or worse, repentance, which is the feeling of what cannot be fixed, because you can’t go back to change.”.
Before embarking on new adventures and radically changing your routine, Fabiano warns: “Remember that when we change, the other one changes too. The answer may not necessarily be outside, more within himself. Maybe to live the new you don't need to navigate uncharted waters, but change your stance, positioning and emotions can alter the course of the story and provoke new outcomes even with old characters.”.
