Routine or ritual?

Marketing experts charge large fees to find the right names for products. There is a good reason for this.

The name of a product is essential. The customer might not even know the word’s precise meaning, but the word’s sound and shape carry subconscious messages and ideas, baggage that will attract some and repel others. The name can make a product succeed or fail.

A naming issue came up at our meeting last night. A fellow shared on the topic of ‘daily meditations.’

He said, “I have a morning ritual, over the years. I have gained the habit of a morning quiet time to prepare for the day, then lost it, then gained it again, then lost it again.”

“I gain it because it works. I start it even though there is no immediate benefit; it will take a few days to get traction and feel good. But I know from frequent past experiences that my life will be running better after about fourteen days. Why it takes that long I don’t know, but it does. It is not like a switch; it is more like a thermostat. Gradual improvement, rather than sudden.”

Then I lose the habit, mainly because it has worked so well. When meditation in the morning is habituated, life is good, or a lot better. With prayer and quiet time to prepare for the day, I am ready for the problems I can see; I am also poised and balanced, which allows me to handle situations I do not see. But one day, I think, “I can forgo a quiet time today.” Nothing happens, so a few mornings later, I sleep in rather than meditate, then another morning is missed, and another, and soon I have lost the habit.”

“As when I started the habit, when I lose it, there is no immediate effect. But, from frequent past experiences, I know that after ten or so days, my life will be in the ditch. I will have wondered off the pavement, rolled over the rumble strips, and still travelling at highway speeds, drive into the muck and grass of the ditch.”

Then he shared his solution to the problem of the discipline of a routine morning meditation.

He renamed his morning quiet time. Instead of a Morning Routine, he decided to call it a Morning Ritual.

He shared, “Morning Routine, seemed like work, or a workout and it felt clinical or mechanical. It reminded me of an exercise routine, and there was a sense of artificiality, like a comedy routine.”

Naming makes a difference, and I now have a morning ritual, not a morning routine.

“Things seemed to work better when I call it a ritual. Then it seemed more important and meaningful. And it seems easier to think of it as permanent. And somehow changing the name has softened the daily requirement.”

I tried it. It works. My morning routine or habit is now my ‘ritual.’ The label frames the event, and it seems more comfortable.