By Bayo Ogunmupe
Psychology researchers have long discovered that only habits actually get results in the march for successful achievement. So it is worthwhile knowing the daily habits of successful people. We know that people with stable routines are more efficient, happier, healthier and less prone to stress. I have always wondered what great people do daily that enable them attain greatness. I want to know the tiny details that help them achieve their goals and life purpose. Do they read or work a certain number of hours daily? How much impact does their leisure have on their work? What do they think about in solitude and why do some devote a lot of time to their work, while others spend very little but still achieve greatness?
Mason Curry's book, Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration And Get To Work has answered much of my questions. It shows the path to greatness is paved with habits, routines and rituals. The one true lesson of the book is that there's no one way to get things done. However, the following patterns emerge. Great minds stick to a predictable and stable routine. Extraordinary people start their day on purpose. Accordingly, the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Routine provides a sense of structure and stability. You wake up with a sense of ownership, order, and an organized life.
Routines are the secret weapon great minds have been using to attain greatness for centuries. Many thinkers do what they do with iron regularity. It is how they function in their best without thinking about daily structures for high performance. habits and routines free our brains from taking small decisions, so we can easily do our best work. Poet William Auden recommended a routine approach to get more work done: "Decide what you want or ought to do with the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment everyday, and passion will give you no trouble." Many highly productive philosophers and creative minds depend on predictable daily routines safe havens for work.
The great German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the greatest and most influential thinkers of the modern age, was an early riser who spent much of his time alone at the peak of his career; he was mostly alone by choice. In his book, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography, Curtis Cate wrote: "With a Spartan rigour which never ceased to amaze his landlord-grocer, Nietzsche would get up every morning when the faintly dawning sky was still grey, and....work uninterruptedly until eleven in the morning." "He then went for a brisk, two-hour walk through the nearby forest or along the edge of Lake Silvaplana to the north-east or of Lake Sils to the south-west, stopping every now and then to jot down his latest thoughts in the notebook he always carried with him."
And Nietzsche wrote a lot. He used the same routine to focus on writing, reading and understanding ideas. His schedule was disciplined, consistent but with a lot of wandering and thinking. He once said: "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking." And one other German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, a most influential philosopher in the history of Western philosophy was also a man of stable routine. His schedule was tight, according to Manfred Kuehn, the author of Kant: A Biography. He got up at 5:A.M; would drink two cups of tea, smoke a pipe of tobacco and devote an hour to meditation. Kant's lectures began at 7:00; they would last until 11:00. Thereafter, he would go out to lunch and spending the rest of the afternoon discussing with his friend Green.
Life without a daily routine is much more draining mentally, physically and emotionally than you can ever imagine. Charles Dickens famously took three hour walks every afternoon, and what he observed informed his writing. Ludwig van Beethoven also took long walks after lunch, carrying a pencil and paper with him in case inspiration struck. The American Nobel prize winning novelist, Ernest Hemingway tracked his daily word output on a chart "so as not to kid myself" he said. The renowned scientist, Marie Curie was literally described as a mad scientist or a maniacal worker because of how insanely interested she was by what she was doing.
Not only do routines and rituals allow you to do more, but, as with all daily structures, they simply give your life more rhythm, order and even pleasure. Nikola Tesla, the master of breakthroughs in the transmission and application of electric power maintained a rigid schedule. he used to walk about ten miles a day, thinking through ideas for new inventions. As an apprentice in Thomas Edison's office, Tesla regularly worked from 10:30 in the morning until 5:00 the following morning. History is aware that great minds knew the relevance of stepping away from work every now and then to think, make better connections and ponder over existing problems. The Spanish painter and sculptor in France, Pablo Picasso once said:"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."
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