Mechanically Natural: The Routines of Humans

Our world is full of systems, processes, routines, and methods, and each one of them serves a purpose. In areas such as business, education, and healthcare, the importance of these actions is heightened. From a young age it is ingrained in us that by following certain systems, you will attain successful outcomes. At least we think they are ingrained, these learned systems. Without even thinking about it, we use processes within our lives that seem natural. The question becomes, how natural are the processes and routines that we find ourselves giving in to?

There is a unique quality about humans, and that is the need for routine. Like animals, humans too feel a sense of calm when falling into a pattern. I have written before about the changing face of society when it comes to career patterns, but an overall “life pattern” seems different. We are upended when we move to a new home or community, when we transfer to a different school, and when we change jobs. Over time we develop a certain level of security with the life that we have made for ourselves, even if it is not necessarily the life that we dreamed of. Dreams aside, in order to be comfortable in our own skin and within our own surroundings, we need this routine. Even those who feel that they do not fit in as a quintessential member of society still experience the effects of routine. Your routine may be doing whatever the heck you want, but it is a routine nonetheless. It is when, all of a sudden, you lose your routine that life takes a tailspin. Patterns are unique, but they are still patterns.

Within the world of economics and business, the processes and methods that we use help determine the greater outcome of the venture. There is typically a good way of doing things and a bad way of doing things. Each individual offers something different within their group, but the endgame is the same. That individual will have their process, which contributes to the overall success of the group. Finally, this gives the group the pattern of success, or the negative mirror, of failure. This also applies to education. One student may be inclined to study for seven hours before an exam and another may only study for two. Each possesses their routine, and only they can decide if the outcome is suitable to their expectations.

In a sense, I think the way we are mechanically inclined to process, directly, and ironically, correlates with nature. Every living thing that grows does so because its structure follows a system of growth and development. It changes seasonally and adapts its process to survive. A tree becomes comfortable and at ease with where it is rooted and where it grows. Only when that life is disrupted does the tree become aggravated and change. You can compare it to the extent that when their lives are disrupted to a certain high degree, it can be lethal. The same goes for humans, when their lives are affected to a certain high degree, it can be deadly. On the other end of the spectrum, one can flourish and bloom in the right setting, and with the right systems.

Often as humans I think we find ourselves to be depressed or defeated by the fact that we have fallen into a pattern. We catch ourselves in them and wonder why we have done this to ourselves. It is important that we compare ourselves to the natural phenomenon of routine, system, process, method; not the mechanical one that we often visualize. Gadgets, objects, and machines may rule some aspects of our lives, by choice or not. In the end though, we are natural creation, with natural instincts. It has not been about man vs. machine, but about man syncing machine with their natural processes.

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