Regimentation

Regimentation is extremely helpful in successful venturing. 

According to Webster, regimentation means:

“ … to reduce to strict order or uniformity.” 

The term “regimentation” has a military overtone, and implies an absolute level of accountability.  It’s different than habit.  Habit is something you “fall into” and do without thinking.  Regimentation is a process of doing things with proactive forethought and absolute commitment.  With regimentation, there is no “push-back”, such as, “Gee, I’m not really feeling like it today.”  Whatever is on the regimentation docket is what we do and it’s what we are doing, no discussion. 

·         You get up every morning at a certain time, because that’s when the day begins

·         You make your bed

·         You do your exercise

·         You eat what’s good for you

·         You do your homework

·         You look after your personal hygiene – floss your teeth, already!

·         You clean up after yourself

·         You show up when you’re supposed to show up

·         You do what you’re supposed to do

·         You don’t do what you’re not supposed to do

·         You go to bed at a certain time, because that’s when the day ends

… no fuss, no bluster, no afterthought, no excuses, no explanations, period.

 
NOTE: If you aren’t doing these things, you’re not a fully enfranchised, mature adult.  Do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200, and do not look for good stuff to fall out of the sky.

Regimentation is also different than discipline.  “Discipline” implies that we exercise “willpower” over choices.  And discipline requires us – incident by incident – to make the best choice among all choices.  With regimentation, the choice has already been made. 

People who have dogs, horses and/or children understand the importance of regimentation.

In medical terms, being prescribed a certain “regimen” of treatment means following a specific blueprint of intervention: For certain types of cancer it could mean radiation 5 times a week for six weeks plus chemotherapy on a prescribed schedule for nine months.  No exceptions.

Regimentation fills empty holes in a less-than-packed schedule and facilitates getting things done in a more-than-packed schedule.  So it’s a good-for-everything companion!  And it works extremely well in partnership with whatever discipline we can muster: Regimentation takes care of automating structurable activity and discipline covers the unstructurable activity. 

When I retired, I became less regimented in my exercise routine.  Since I had many projects involving manual labor, I was sure to get more than enough exercise most days (I lost 10 pounds in three days doing a major landscaping project in the middle of summer!)  And I had carried over my “regimen” for writing that involved any number of exercise options when considering the turn of a phrase or dealing with “writer’s block”.  But, still in all, I wasn’t hitting all the “soft spots” I would normally cover in my more regimented daily constitutional.  [I also had the completely unfounded assumption that I should somehow conserve my energy for the really tough stuff I had ahead of me.  (You may have noticed that we’re really good at loading the dice in favor of anything that pleases us!)]

Regimentation gives one a sense of accomplishment without the hassle and drama of having to work ourselves up to doing what we’ve gotta do and without perseveration of imponderables.  We can make mountains out of mole hills – and liberally do so, thinking we can “stew” our way to salvation!  However, simply DOING what we’ve gotta do gets us so much further down the road, and we sleep a lot better having so much less to “stew” about. 

Get regimented.  Just DOIT!  It will be a great way to start the year 2014.  Quartermaster