I just loved this mornings letter and wanted to share it here if anyone has some comments on it!
In 1726, at the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin outlined in detail a thirteen-week plan
to achieve what he called "moral perfection." Each week the schedule tackled a
specific virtue -- cleanliness, moderation, industry, tranquillity, temperance, etc.
Franklin tracked his own progress in a little book. "What good shall I do this day?"
read a morning chart. The precision of his scheme usually brought results, though
areas where he struggled included keeping his papers tidy and his love of beer.
"Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition," wrote Anglo-American poet
W. H. Auden in 1958. Auden believed that a strict schedule was essential to
creativity -- a way of metering the muse into regular, controlled doses. "A modern
stoic knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide
what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same
moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble."
Choreographer Twyla Tharp, in her 2003 book "The Creative Habit," describes each day
as the same: waking, consuming the same breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and
a cup of coffee, putting on workout clothes and legwarmers, walking out of her
Manhattan apartment, hailing a taxi and asking the driver to take her to the Pumping
Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where she works out for two hours. "The
ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at
the gym;" she says. "The ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go,
I have completed the ritual."
"Being creative," says Tharp, "is an everyday thing, a job with its own routines.
That's why writers, for example, like to establish a routine. The most productive ones
get started early in the morning when phones aren't ringing and their minds are rested
and not polluted by other people's words. They might set a goal--1500 words or stay at
their desk until noon--but the real secret is that they do this every day. After a
while it becomes a habit.
"This is no different for a painter finding his way to the easel or a medical
researcher returning to the laboratory. The routine is as much a part of the creative
process as the lightning bolt of inspiration (perhaps more). And it is available to
everyone. If creativity is a habit, then the best creativity is the result of good
work habits. They are the nuts and bolts of dreaming."
When reflecting on her own lifelong routine, Tharp is pragmatic. "It's actively
anti-social," she says. "On the other hand, it is pro-creative."
Sincerely,
Sara
In 1726, at the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin outlined in detail a thirteen-week plan
to achieve what he called "moral perfection." Each week the schedule tackled a
specific virtue -- cleanliness, moderation, industry, tranquillity, temperance, etc.
Franklin tracked his own progress in a little book. "What good shall I do this day?"
read a morning chart. The precision of his scheme usually brought results, though
areas where he struggled included keeping his papers tidy and his love of beer.
"Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition," wrote Anglo-American poet
W. H. Auden in 1958. Auden believed that a strict schedule was essential to
creativity -- a way of metering the muse into regular, controlled doses. "A modern
stoic knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide
what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same
moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble."
Choreographer Twyla Tharp, in her 2003 book "The Creative Habit," describes each day
as the same: waking, consuming the same breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and
a cup of coffee, putting on workout clothes and legwarmers, walking out of her
Manhattan apartment, hailing a taxi and asking the driver to take her to the Pumping
Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where she works out for two hours. "The
ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at
the gym;" she says. "The ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go,
I have completed the ritual."
"Being creative," says Tharp, "is an everyday thing, a job with its own routines.
That's why writers, for example, like to establish a routine. The most productive ones
get started early in the morning when phones aren't ringing and their minds are rested
and not polluted by other people's words. They might set a goal--1500 words or stay at
their desk until noon--but the real secret is that they do this every day. After a
while it becomes a habit.
"This is no different for a painter finding his way to the easel or a medical
researcher returning to the laboratory. The routine is as much a part of the creative
process as the lightning bolt of inspiration (perhaps more). And it is available to
everyone. If creativity is a habit, then the best creativity is the result of good
work habits. They are the nuts and bolts of dreaming."
When reflecting on her own lifelong routine, Tharp is pragmatic. "It's actively
anti-social," she says. "On the other hand, it is pro-creative."
Sincerely,
Sara
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