If you’re smart, you have an order, a routine you always go through when doing something important to you.
RITUAL, is what it’s properly called. A ritual for working out, for calming down, for getting ready for bed, for planning world conquest.
I first learned about the particular value of rituals from the choreographer Twyla Tharp (from her book, The Creative Habit). Like setting up your home yoga practice by closing the door, unrolling the mat, and lighting a candle just so, they’re a set of actions you do in a particular order each time, with a definite meditative component.
Turning a set of actions into a ritual not only gets you in the right headspace, it also imbues the whole with an aura of specialness that ups the likelihood you’ll keep doing it in the future. You make a mug of hot coffee every morning, not just for the sharpened focus, but also because it’s What You Do In The Morning: the ritual to jumpstart your day.
Let’s say it’s a 3-part ritual. Cuppa Joe, let the dogs out to pee, sit on the porch to watch the sunrise.
Nice.
And then, The Fire Nation attacked
But maybe it’s raining that morning. The fur babies don’t want to go outside, and there’s no sunrise to bask in.
So you content yourself with the cup of coffee.
Whatever your ritual (and I’m going to argue that you should use them to consistently work on Your Important Stuff), life may “try to interfere” with you completing it.
If your, say, 3-part ritual takes 3 hours to complete, and life only hands you 47 minutes, what then?
You can plan proactively. From now on, you’ll get up 2 hours and 13 minutes earlier and guarantee you’ll have 3 hours for Your Important Stuff. Or seriously block out time during lunch, or after work.
Basically, shoving other parts of your life aside to make room for your ritual. (Spoiler alert: the rest of your life will grumble, but make room.)
I managed to triple my BJJ class attendance by doing exactly this.
Then there’s nesting the ritual
Not a backup Plan B, but a Plan A.2, running simultaneously with the main plan.
Layering the ritual based on priority:
– The most fundamental, critical infrastructure supporting actions, you put at the beginning of your ritual
– The next level, you fill with the generally important actions
– The final level, you top off with the aspirational to-dos
This approach recognizes that Real Boats Rock, as Frank Herbert said. You can rigorously protect the 3 hours on your calendar, but you can’t control the universe, and breakthroughs happen (including your own internal blow-ups).
So if you need time to work on 3 key elements but can only get to 1 or 2, you will always get the critical first layers addressed.
As a physician, I tend to think the layers should look like a pyramid, like Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs: kinda boring but critical stuff as the first layer (dialing in your health, supporting your brain, calming your mind), with fancier stuff at the upper layers (growing a network, leaving a legacy behind, developing your reputation).
Action Items
Think about regular self-care actions you’ve already identified as important (walking, breathwork, adjusting your nutrition, sleeping 7+ hours every night). If you don’t already have a ritual around each one, make a simple one that always gets you in the groove to make it so.
If you don’t have a master ritual, consider setting one up. Consistently review your key items checklist and work through it daily, like bodywork, mind settling, socializing, career advancement, and so on.
Then think about what you’d prioritize if life went sideways. What would be the essentials you couldn’t do without? Prioritize those within your master ritual, and within each smaller ritual, as your Step Ones.
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