Routine | My Word for 2020

What is your word for the year 2020?

At my home church, Trinity Bible Richardson, we are dubbing 2020 as the year of seeing clearly. We are turning the page on our past history and venturing into a new chapter. The new chapter builds on a history of God’s faithfulness to our church as we seek to know God more deeply and strive to make God known in our community. The word of 2020 for our church is clarity.

I’ve read other bloggers who have chosen their word of the year for 2020.

My word for 2020 is routine. 

Routine may seem like an unusual, even strange, choice for a guy with so many different irons in the fire, but that’s exactly why I chose it.

For me, Routine offers focus, clarity, and balance. 

 

With a number of different things requiring my attention, Focus is critical for me. I need to give what is in front of me the attention it requires and deserves. By setting up routines, I know that it’s time to turn my full attention to a specific work or project that I’m involved in. For example, when I’m at worship rehearsal, I need to focus on playing the right notes or chords on the right beat, at the proper volume, and with the right dynamic. When I’m out doing my chaplain work, I need to focus on the person I’m visiting with by listening actively, giving them my undivided attention, and responding properly. When I’m blogging, I’ve got to pay attention to what I’m writing and the post I’m putting together. Otherwise, it will read and look haphazard and disjunctive. Routines are important in setting me up for success by providing me with the ability to focus fully on what I’m doing at that moment. Routine helps keep me on track.

Clarity helps me know what to do when. It removes the fog and confusion and helps me ensure I’m doing the right thing at the right time. Without routine, I’m lost and pacing in circles, chasing my own tail. Establishing a routine gives me the coherence and clearness needed to identify the most important thing I need to do that day. Routine helps me stay on schedule by providing me the clarity to see what’s really important that day.

Finally, routine provides my life Balance so that I’m not ignoring one thing at the expense of another and that I spend the right amount of time doing the specific things I need to do daily, weekly, and monthly. You can do different things; you just can’t do them all at once. And some things require more attention than others from time to time. Having balance helps me make sure that I don’t miss out on the things that matter.  Routine keeps my head on straight by giving me the balance needed to prevent me from feeling overwhelmed.

As 2020 began, I started implementing routine into my daily life. Like me, it’s still a major work in progress. My hope is that over the next few weeks, I’ll have my routines established and solidified. But it’s not easy. There are a lot of things vying for my attention. I can’t do them all. I don’t need to do them all. I shouldn’t do them all. No doubt, routine will help me discern what is worth doing and what’s worth skipping. Slowly but surely, I’ll get there.

How about you? What routines do you have set up? What tools do you use to keep your life humming along?

What’s your word for 2020?

I pray all is well with you. Thank you for reading my post.

Love one another. (John 13:34)

Blessings,

The Devotional Guy™

ABOUT: The Devotional Guy™ is a writing ministry of Chaplain Rainer Bantau, a Swiss-born, German kid who grew up in East Texas and today ministers throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

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