Break your routine!

Simple changes in habits can get you energized and happier 

Ever have the feeling that you've been switched to autopilot? Maybe you're coasting through a too-familiar routine: shower, coffee, work, sandwich, work, gym, home, dinner, TV, sleep. "Habits and patterns of behavior make us feel comfortable," explains Cherie Carter-Scott, Ph.D., author of six books on life change including the best-selling If Life is a Game, These Are the Rules (Broadway, 1998).

While comfort is fine, straying off your well-worn path can give you a boost -- and bring more color and spirit into your life in the long term. Says Carter-Scott: "Once you stop numbing out and become more aware of whether you're happy or unhappy, comfortable or uncomfortable in specific situations, you'll stop going with the flow -- and start dictating the flow of your life." Consider if you're experiencing any of these rut symptoms:

1. Your eating, exercise and work routines are carved in stone. Always run the same route? Eat the same salad for lunch most days of the week? Carter-Scott offers some motivation for mixing up your routine: "Any little thing that disrupts your pattern provides a wake-up call and helps you be more present in your life."

Little shifts can work like a battery pack to energize your life. Hit the gym at a different time of day, get a slightly different haircut every time you visit the salon, or move your bed across the room so you wake up with a new perspective. "Even just making a special breakfast on a weekday instead of Sunday will help you tune into the choices you usually make without thinking," Carter-Scott says.

2. You swear you had this exact conversation last week. It's easy to experience discourse deja vu when you talk to the same handful of friends about the same stuff. Meeting new people is one of the easiest ways to bring new ideas and activities into your life. One idea: Sign on with a local walking group, runners' club or other adult sport team. (you may be surprised at how many require little or no experience)

3. Your weekends are starting to blur together. Weekends are your time, so make them less robotic and more memorable. If you've had one ho-hum Saturday too many, plan a monthly getaway, even if it's simply to a botanical garden you've always meant to check out. And vow to be more open to last-minute invitations -- no lame excuses! Often, it's insecurity, not laziness, which holds us back from a night of salsa dancing or a Spinning class with a friend. "We categorize ourselves by saying, 'I just don't do that, I'm not that kind of person,'" Carter-Scott says. "But the more flexible we are, the more we can handle the changes life brings us."

4. You can barely recall what you did yesterday. When you were 10 years old, you couldn't wait to flex the freedom of adulthood -- you certainly didn't expect it to feel like a conveyer-belt ride. "I know I'm in a rut when I start to fantasize about getting in my car, driving away and not coming back," says social worker Rhonda Marsden, 32. If you feel trapped in your routine, make a change that day, like refusing to work additional hours into the evening, which Marsden sometimes does to catch a movie or take a long walk.

Over time, change brings self-discovery. "Whether you're traveling or taking a class, you're going to find out what your tolerances are and how you cope with different situations," Carter-Scott says. "It'll help ensure you're going through life in the driver's seat and not bouncing around in the trunk''.