Wednesday, May 27, 2009

MESSAGE #781 - HOW TO MAKE THOSE FIRST STEPS EASIER

The following

was written by

one of the

greatest choreographers

ever --

Twyla Tharp...


“I begin

each day

of my life

with a ritual:

I wake up

at 5:30 A.M.,

put on

my work out clothes,

my leg warmers,

my sweatshirts,

and my hat.

I walk outside

my Manhattan home,

hail a taxi,

and tell the driver

to take me to

the Pumping Iron Gym

at 91st Street and First Avenue,

where I work out

for two hours.

The ritual is not

the stretching and weight training

I put my body through

each morning

at the gym:

the ritual is the cab.

The moment I tell

the driver

where to go,

I have completed the ritual.

It’s a simple act,

but doing it

the same way

each morning

habitualizes it

makes it repeatable,

easy to do.

It reduces the chance

that I would skip it

or do it differently.

It is one more item

in my arsenal of routines,

and

one less thing

to worry about.

Some people might say

that simply stumbling out of bed

and

getting into a cab

hardly rates the honorific ‘ritual.’

It glorifies a mundane act

that anyone can perform.

I disagree.

First steps are hard;

it’s no one’s idea of fun

to wake up in the dark,

stare at the ceiling,

and ask myself,

‘Gee, do I feel like

working out today?’

But the quasi-religious power

I attach to this ritual

keeps me from

rolling over

and

going back to sleep.”


SOURCE:

“The Creative Habit”

Twyla Tharp

Simon & Schuster

2003