Seven Lessons On Rituals
Ritus (Latin): custom, usage, ceremony, religious practice.
Spiritus (Latin): breath, soul, life force, inspiration.
Spiritual (modern): A state of meaning, inner harmony, or well-being.
Lessons From Leaders On Rituals
“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.”
Atomic Habits by James Clear.
“Small daily improvements, over time, lead to stunning results.”
Robin Sharma.
“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.”
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
Seven Lessons On Rituals
Doing the thing is so underrated. This morning, I almost didn’t do the thing, which is writing right now. My mind got sucked into preparing for holiday, working on a keynote I have in two weeks, and using time to tie up loose ends. I am writing what could turn out to be my life’s work, or it could not be, it is uncertain, and humans run away from uncertainty.
The greatest achievements in our life are not reached through daily epiphany and daily mountain top climbing. They are achieved with everyday actions. I dream of reaching mountain tops. As I encourage you to as well. The whole purpose of this blog is to get you outside, to get you exploring, to get you dreaming of impacting the world in the way you know that you can.
But, it always comes back to today. To tomorrow. If you go to the gym today, and tomorrow, I can assure you, you will notice no change to your body, perhaps it will even feel worse, it will feel sore, tired and the aches will make you want to pack it in. Today you can take a small step, you can’t finish.
Doing the thing is underrated. Doing the thing every day is what Warriors do.
First, Warriors create their own arena. The place they go to do battle. My thing is writing, and my place for battle is quiet solitude on my balcony, the kitchen table, a quiet place in a hotel resort, undistracted. There is no WiFi in my arena.
Second, Warriors operate on a schedule. Much like the English Premier League, my arena is scheduled far in advance. My time to create is anchored to finishing my daily yoga in the morning at 7.30am. Warriors don’t operate with surprises when things such as waking up are entirely in their control.
Third, Warriors approach their practice with a serious intention. Many of us feel deeply responsible to the work we do. But we are human. Put some smartness behind your intention. Am I lazy and uncommitted if I check my email whilst I am supposed to be writing? What if I turn off the WiFi before I start? Now the question is irrelevant if I am lazy or not. I can’t check my email now. We must appreciate we are in a world of distraction – turn off the WiFi when you are doing the thing.
Am I lazy and uncommitted if I check my email whilst I am supposed to be writing? What if I turn off the WiFi before I start? Now the question is irrelevant if I am lazy or not. I can’t check my email now.
As the arenas shift in our life, so can our intention. Bruce Springsteen would always blow away his children, until his wife, Patty, said, you are missing the children at their most beautiful. So he decided to fight more in the arena of fatherhood, to be there to cook breakfast, and to allow his writing to be distracted.
Fourth, Warriors don’t fight those people around them when things get tough. They fight their own inner demon telling them to ‘stop, it isn’t worth it, what you are writing will amount to nothing, that future you’re studying for, someone else has already done it, really they have, remember you saw them on Instagram last night?’ Warriors understand that the quickest path to positive self talk is through Self Awareness and Self Management. Recognise that you are talking s*** to yourself. Manage and regulate yourself through practices such as yoga, meditation, breathwork and exercise. Doing the thing after any of these practices is a super smart thing to do.
Fifth, Warriors approach life with humility. Much like John D Rockefeller comments in letter #36 to his son, rich people should give money away quietly. Those of us with the gift of time to focus on doing what we love should do so quietly, without ego, without arrogance. It should be dedicated to the betterment of humanity, not to the elevation of our Instagram feed.
Sixth, Warriors approach their practice as students. I follow my one hour of writing everyday with one hour of studying. I study where I feel gaps of excitement in my knowledge. In the last month it has taken me down the path of philosophy, Buddhism, Aristotle, Plato, shamanism, the smartness of New Caledonian Crows, hospitality, dopamine, adenosine, cortisol, agricultural revolution, Neanderthals and many more. Leonardo Da Vinci lived through the Renaissance – he is most famous for his painting of Mona Lisa and recently becoming the artist to have sold the most expensive painting ever, Salvator Mundi. Did you know he also made great leaps in military engineering and anatomy? He would sit in the morgue and understand the anatomical structure of corpses so he could better paint his Mona Lisa’s smile. Learning is never in vain, with an open mind it will always connect back to your practice.
Learning is never in vain, with an open mind it will always connect back to your practice.
Seventh, Warriors know that practice hurts. We aren’t fair weather warriors. We do the practice when we feel bored, like shit, like the world hates us, we still sit down for one hour to do the thing. We exercise when we are tired because we know that’s when we grow and become amazing. We judge our effort not our output. Because, hurt is effort. Leonardo Da Vinci posthumously sold his Salvator Mundi painting for $430m. He would have been hurting to create that, painstakingly, with then no output. Who would say he didn’t achieve greatness?
Deepen Your Curiosity
My favourite learnings on rituals:
1. Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield.
2. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
3. The Wealth Money Can’t Buy by Robin Sharma.
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear.
5. Podcast - Bruce Springsteen and Obama on Renegades Born In The USA.
