Variation in life that keeps me alive
The brushes, the shoes, the worst thing on the menu. Not habits. A way out of a copied day.
People keep telling me the same thing.
Follow a routine.
Same wake-up time. Same plan. Same day copied over and over until it starts looking like discipline.
I tried that. I got bored inside my own life.
This is my first blog on this site. I'm not selling a method. I just want to tell you how I'm trying to live. All of this, the small stuff and the big stuff, is me getting away from that copied day so it feels different, not like another boring loop.
morning
The morning is where the boring life wants to start. Same sink. Same door. Same walk. If I let that copy run, the rest of the day is already decided.
I used to have, and I still have, two to three brushes by the sink. One medium soft, one ultra soft, one whatever the shop had that week. Three to four pastes next to them, mint, salt, some ayurvedic thing that tastes like a forest. I don't keep them because I need a collection. I keep them so I don't start the day as yesterday. , and already I'm a little away from the routine.
Then the shoes. Four to five pairs by the door, a sport shoe, a hiking shoe, sneakers, a casual one, a breathable one. I don't have a rotation. I have a mood, and the shoes pick the walk. in a hiking shoe than in a sneaker. You notice different things when your feet feel different.
That walk is me stepping out of the same morning, not decorating it.
shower
Same thing in the shower.
Hair one day ayurvedic shampoo, next day a regular shampoo. Body soap one day, body wash the next. Sometimes I use shampoo for the whole body, because why not.
And while I'm taking shower I change the smart light based on the mood. Warm, cool, dim, whatever I feel that day. Then the shower doesn't feel like the same shower again.
I'm just saying,
The variation isn't indulgence for me. It's how I get away from my own routine so the day still feels like a day.
the menu
When I go out to eat, I used to buy whichever is the most weird or different on the menu. Not the recommended one. Not the one a friend calls safe.
Sometimes it's bad.
Sometimes it's the thing I come back for.
Either way I stepped out of the usual order. I'd rather know than be told.
Gym people will tell you consistency is the whole game. Same meal, same macros, every day. People who love a single plan will tell you this is chaos. I'm not arguing with them. I'm just saying I don't want the food also to become another copied day.
Same with cooking. If I'm making a dish, I'll add some ingredient which I feel like I want to add. It's not a recipe. Some of those conversations go nowhere. A few of them become the dish I make for people.
travel
Sometimes I go with my friends. Sometimes with strangers. Sometimes with some community I just met. Sometimes solo, and that's the one people question.
Why is this guy not sticking with the people?
Because my people aren't the only people. I learn a different thing from a stranger on a trail than I learn from my best friend, and I love my best friend.
There's a time I want to go again with the same people, and there's a time I want the same trip with a different shape. Friends one week, solo the next.
I'm a mountain person. Last two to three years I keep going back to the mountains, and that feels like home for me. But that doesn't mean I only go there. Beaches, city exploration with someone, city exploration alone, a party place like Goa which is not me at all. I still went. Exploring other places won't take the mountains away from me. It just brings a different joy, or it tells me clearly that place is not for me.
I love exploring multiple things. Not because I'm confused about what I like. Because trying more things won't hurt you, and sometimes you find a joy you never thought of.
11pm
Music, same rule. I used to hear different genres, acoustic, sometimes Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, whatever fits the vibe of the hour. I don't stick to one genre like I owe it something.
Some people prefer their own language and hear that song, so they think that's the vibe they want. I stick to the vibe I actually have.
When I'm happy I take my ukulele, play some acoustic, try to mimic that, then try to add my own words. It won't be perfect, and it won't be good enough as you think.
work
If I'm trying to do a project or do anything, I try to collaborate with as many people as I can so I get variation. For each project I used to plan a different style and a different way so I won't repeat the same thing that will make me boring.
If you're a frontend developer or a backend developer, instead of trying the same thing again and again, we can spice up things and learn something different. Buy a course, understand things deeply, be active on Reddit or X, or whatever it is. You don't have to become everything. Just don't stay stuck in only one lane.
Being a specialist is important. Being a generalist will make you feel rich in life. You have different opinions and a different idea that gets sparked up. Sometimes being a specialist makes you much better at what you do. Sometimes knowing many things will interlink and help you in creativity, taste, idea, opinion.
I'd rather know many things badly enough to connect them than one thing so deep I can't see over the edge.
I'm a person who is open to explore things, and not confine myself to a definition.
the loop
If we see the pattern of our life, you wake up at a particular time, so your routine starts. Mostly, right now, people sleep late and wake up late. Then it's the same thing again. Waking up, brushing, taking a bath, going to work in the same vehicle, meeting the same people, doing the same work from the first meeting to the end of the day, same lunch, speaking the same content in a different way, getting angry with the same people in a different way for the same thing, getting home, eating something, sleeping.
This routine itself will make you think that you are not living your life fully. The loop runs them. They tell me they're living. I think they're on a .
The brushes, the shoes, the menu, the trips, that's me getting off that treadmill for a bit.
One time you can ride with your friend to the office, or carpool, or try public transport. If your office is nearby, try walking in a different lane and then switch lanes. Try to go to the office early sometime to feel different. We are trying to do something, and then some coincidence will happen, something we realize, something might come to your life.
When you go out of your zone and try something different, such variation is needed in my life to make me happy.
this site
Even my website has different variations from 1970 to 2026. It's not like I want to put everything and try things. I had the idea: I want to see how my portfolio will look and feel in different eras. If I'm a person who created my portfolio in 1970, how will it look, what kind of interaction might it have, what kind of variation can we show?
We feel that we want to showcase something.
That's the idea that sparked me and made me do this website instead of saying the same. We all have some different eyes, some different visualization, some different vision. We can't expect everyone to feel the same.
I know variation will be different for each person. What I want to tell you is this. Instead of sticking with the same thing and not knowing what else, when you get the feeling of trying something different than the usual, you feel like you have achieved something, understood something, and feel something different.
That's what makes you more human than standing in one place and praising yourself.
getting lost
Sometimes when I try to do something with anything, I get lost, and then I get overwhelmed or I get overhyped, or whatever we can say.
than to stay with the same thing and not find the real you.
In the current scenario, when people think that they are doing the best thing for themselves, we used to watch lots and lots of reels, try the trend, and then something authentic will be there. That authenticity will get lost when we try to do what other people are doing, try to be the same as what other people tried, and then what other people say.
People used to think, see the recommendation, see the best thing happening near us, then try that.
If we do that, we don't know what to try, and that makes us a boring person. The worst feeling is if I try to keep doing the best thing, we don't know what is best for ourselves.
What I used to do is something reverse. Trying the worst thing, then telling which is the worst. Or trying something different.
water
I'm not a saint who thinks I'm the best or that trying different things makes me different. There will be lots and lots of people who are like me, polymaths who try different things and then try to add more things to your life. Sometimes it feels better. Sometimes it makes me feel we are very amateur at that.
While doing everything, we get to know who we are. We already think about ourselves and then try the same thing.
I'm not saying everyone needs this variation. Everyone has some opinion and some things to do and things to try. This blog is all about what I think about variation and how it is helping me in my life. I'm not trying to prove anything. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but I just want people to try it. This helped me in such a way that I never slander.
I try to explore and not confine myself to a definition, and that makes me . Wherever I am, I get into a position where no one can define me, but somehow we can define ourselves by exploring and trying this variation in life.
This variation will treat us like: try everything, try to fail, try to be happy, and then try something different. That feeling, that way of living, makes us feel alive.
Try the worst thing on the menu once. Then tell me what's best.
