Offerings to The Spirit of Practice: The Difference Between Routines, Practices and Rituals
Each is a method with different gifts...
Lately, I have been thinking about the difference between ‘practice’ and ‘routines’, and is so far as I can tell, there is a distinct difference to be had, and also, a place of overlap, which is rituals. It also seems to me that people run into problems when they cannot distinguish practice from routine, and vice versa. Each has its place in the larger scheme of things, with benefits and drawbacks emerging from engaging with both. In this ‘Offerings to The Spirit of Practice’, I will cover a basic breakdown of my own reflections.
Routines – A Scalpel in Action
A routine is not ‘necessarily’ a practice, though it can be (a topic we will cover when we discuss overlap), but more so, a mechanism. There is a machine-like quality to routines because a routine is a predictable, stable and repeatable process we engage in.
A routine follows from step 1, to step 2, to step 3 and so on.
You spend this much time doing X or you accomplish 100 repetitions of a particular exercise on a daily basis. Routines are a lot like scalpels. Generally, they will create more ‘reliable’ results, in accordance with some predetermined goal.
For example, if you go searching the internet or read fitness magazines with a curiosity for how people stack on massive amounts of muscle, aka, ‘bodybuilding’, you will always find ‘routines’ and not ‘practices’.
That is, if you want big biceps, an excepted routine is to engage in a prescribed set of reps, sets, and % of your one rep max.
We all have routines.
Routines also allow something to go on ‘autopilot’, facilitating less cognitive load. This is akin to the magic of a checklist. Every morning we make coffee, brush our teeth, shower and so on.
Although there is not necessarily a prescribed time frame for each activity, they a routinized. I do not have to over-calculate the process to get the results I want: a warm caffeinated drink, a clean mouth, and a clean body.
Routines can be super helpful when ‘specific’ results matter. Think of a pilot going through the exact routine every time before a flight as she checks her instruments, making sure everything is kosher, or a surgeon washing their hands in the exact same way for a specific time, with a specified soap, to make sure their hands are truly disinfected.
Another major benefit of a routine shows up when inner resistance has the potential to get in the way of a result, if you are doing something that has been proven by others to be difficult. This can range from physical cultivation to business building, to ancestral tending, and everything in between.
If there is a strong chance that your own inner turmoil, apathy, or blockages will stop you, but you really want the result, then a routine can be helpful. In this way, a routine can also build mental toughness, because anything you do over and over again, even when you do not want to, builds willpower.
There are of-course a few drawbacks as well.
Routines are not dynamic, adaptable, or based in a living process.
Regardless of how nuanced the mechanics of a routine are, they are straightforward tools.
Get it done.
If you are cued in to do 100 push-ups every mornings, then regardless of how you feel, or your state of recovery, then you will do them. This gets you the result of getting better at push-ups, but your health, and well-being might actually suffer. Your ability to listen to your body might suffer. Your enjoyment of the process might suffer. The trade-offs might be worth it to you.
Practices – A Living Process
Practices are less predictable than routines because practice is based on a set of principles and a ‘skill set’, placed into action, with the goal of making it ‘better’ over time.
Practices by their very nature have a more fluid nature to them because they are a living process.
A practice may have general ‘guidelines’, but not exact metrics one must hit (that is a routine).
For example, if I want to get better at playing the guitar, I may make a commitment to engage with it daily, but what I do, and how long is dependent on how I feel that day.
I might play a few chords for 5 minutes, or get into a deep flow state for 30, it just depends on what wants to emerge that day.
A practice means showing up, but not holding a super tight hold on a specific goal other than ‘improve over time’. Practices tend to work according to natural cycles, or expansion and contractions.
Practices breathe. A practice is like flowing water, moving from a trickle to a torrent, and time acts like the rocks that shape the flow.
If I want to get better at handstands, then I gather a few exercises, and learn the fundamentals of handstands, and I only progress, in so far as I am polishing the skill-set.
Is my handstand getting better? If I start to deteriorate in my form, then I am not really improving it, am I? If I progress in my practice past the point where the aim of making something better is violated, then I am not really practicing the skill anymore, am I?
The issue with practice is that without solid principles and parameters, results will simply not be as reliable.
If I want to be an awesome guitarist, I can follow routines to get there, and I have a much better chance at that than if I simply practice. Some people might find a burning passion, natural talent or obsession with the guitar, leading them to towards awesomeness through organic practice. Others, will not get there without a mixture of routine AND practice.
Practice also requires understanding the nature of practice, where as routines, can be ‘plug and play’. If you are a practitioner, it means you understand the why, how, and ins and outs of something to make it work. This is why experts in their field who do work for others are often called ‘practitioners’.
If that parameter (of knowing your craft and the skill of practice), is not in place, then the probability of consistent progress diminishes (though it does not disappear). This is nature of practice. It is reliable under certain conditions, for certain people.
However, practice is adaptable. If I devote myself to a minimum and maximum on a given day, then I can engage even if I do not feel great AND listen to my system.
Being a practitioner requires an authentic desire to excel. Routines can get you past resistance in a very blunt way, but being a practitioner requires dissolving your resistance at a deeper level.
It does not mean you never face resistance, but it means that you keep showing up even when progress seems stalled for long periods of time. In which case, practice at times becomes a routine of maintenance.
The Magic of Living Ritual- Dynamic Sequences
The place where they overlap is what we might call a ‘living ritual’ or a dynamic sequence.
A sequence in this case is a step-by-step process that facilitates a precise outcome, but the particulars of each component are totally dependent on practice parameters.
Meaning, that even though I engage a particular formula of practice, it is more like cooking instead of baking. Baking is a precise and scientific process, whereas cooking is more of an art.
This might mean that if you want to get better at the guitar, that you warm up your fingers with a specific set of exercises staying in tune with how each feels on that day without a preset time frame, or set of reps. Then you proceed to work a prescribed set of chords, also staying adaptable. Then you work on a song or two.
You engage in this same process every time, but how much you do varies from day to day and week to week. A sequence is a ritual.
A ritual means you have a ‘reliable living process’. In some ways, it is the best of both worlds.
I have been around some of the most formulaic magical practices on earth, and they generally had space within them to keep the process alive, by building in room for spontaneous action; lingering for longer or shorter times at each stage of the process, embellishing more here or there, or taking a different action than the expected altogether.
As soon a ritual becomes mechanical, it is now a routine. Which is fine, if we are honest about it.
Any time we sequentially stack skills or exercises or processes together, but leave room for the spirit to move through them the way it wants to on that day, we are creating rituals.
This can range from creating more hamstring flexibility to the process of cleansing oneself, calling spirits through invocation, and giving offerings.
Ritual is ritual.
Learn to Use Each One
I work with all three of these methods. If we want to get ‘meta’ about it, there are certainly places each of these methods will serve either leg, or where they can become each other. The greater issue arises when we are not clear about the types of outcomes we are seeking, and what we are okay with having (or not having), and not deploying the best method for those desires.