In Praise of Ritual

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine."

Darren Hardy.

It's now 14 days since I started on my official 30-day sketching challenge. I actually started sketching a few weeks before my official start, but I needed to know if I would be able to sustain it. I also wasn’t sure that my drawing would stand up to the challenge, I wanted to be able to make progress and grow and be able to see that progress.

No matter what stage you're at with anything you do, you can always do it better or more effectively. I’ve always believed that the only way to make progress is to combine practice with constructive criticism. Truth be known, there are acres of space for improvement and finding a way of drawing that feels like my own. Nevertheless, progress is slow and doesn’t always go forward, it sometimes regresses too.

However, the other part of this challenge, to myself, is consistency. Could I do it for 30 days (and then a little more), and could I make it part of my daily routine? If I could make it part of that daily routine, would I be able to make it more than just a routine, like brushing my teeth.

I'm trying not to “try” to make daily drawing a daily task. I don't want to apply the effort of willpower every day; I want it to become effortless and part of what I do. That means it must be enjoyable, desirable, easy, satisfying, attractive and rewarding. On the other hand, not doing it must become similar to grieving; knowing that something is missing is unsatisfying and leaves me feeling incomplete, without closure. So, that means it need to be a habit. Like musicians, if you don’t practice it leaves you feeling something is missing and your skill slowly ebbs away.

It sounds a little like OCD, but that's not my intention.

So, I've set myself a morning routine:

· 05:30 - 06:00 wake up (without alarm). Every alternate put on running gear.

· 06:00 – 07:00 Drink tea and read for 30 minutes.

· 07:00 – 07:30 On alternate days, go for a 5K run; on other days, read.

· 07:30 – 08:00 shower and dress. (with faffing about this often extends to 08:30)

· 08:30 Leave the house with a sketchbook, sketch and coffee (if I left earlier, the cafes wouldn't be open, and I do like to sit and draw with a coffee (although it always gets cold and unfinished))

· 09:30 ish, back to the home office to start days' work.

Routines is work for me. They set the structure of the day. So far, so good.

Morning routines are how you set the tone of your day. By the time I've completed my routine, I already feel that I've achieved something and feel energised for the rest of the day (even if some days the results are a little disappointing.

ROUTINES BECOME RITUALS

Routines are all very well and good, but, as far as I can see, routines can go in three directions, and neither is mutually exclusive.

1. You can give them up. Do the least possible and bury your dissatisfaction by taking a path of least resistance or necessity.

2. Your routine can become a habit without any delivering any benefit or direction. Just something you do automatically that subconsciously yields neither progress nor regression. Something you do simply because you’ve automated doing it.

3. Or you can gradually convert your routine into a ritual, something that has purpose and meaning and requires active involvement and awareness.

The essential difference between a routine and a ritual is the intent with which it is applied. Most behaviours start as routines, often coupled with a desire, and only become a ritual when the behaviour has meaning applied to a purpose. Mundane tasks have no intent, purpose or meaning unless we apply the above to them.

Routines are objective, things we need to do or just do because that's what we're used to doing. They often become habits, ways of behaving, with no conscious awareness.

Rituals, however, elevate the mundane to the magical by giving them meaning. They are subjective, personal to us precisely because we have given them meaning. A ritual is a routine with an agenda.

So, whilst a morning routine is helpful to get things done, we can elevate it to point towards a goal if we give it a reason to be. If we include it in a causal chain.

Like habits, rituals deliver a reward based on a set of actions. The difference is the level of our awareness and intent.

The Habits of successful or famous people.

There are hundreds of books letting us in on the habits (routines) of successful people, with the mantra that following them is the path to success and fulfilment. If we just got up at 3 AM and meditated like this or that celebrity, ate this or that superfood, we would become equally successful. Whilst interesting on a voyeuristic level, this is complete rubbish. You can't just adopt someone else's routines and expect the same results. Their routines are rituals that they have developed that have meaning and purpose for them.

Their rituals and routine are just that; theirs. The purposes and motivations behind them are locked into their desires and goals. Their behaviour is directed towards a purpose that is locked into their personal desires and experiences. However, if you can give their routine meaning if you direct it at a purpose that is consistent with your purpose, then you might have a chance of success.

RITUALS AND SUPERSTITIONS OF ATHLETES.

Most elite athletes and masters of any skill or art will often have small rituals or routines they will carry out each time before they start whatever they are about to do. Many of these rituals seem strange to us as outsiders. Some will only wear odd socks, or put on their shoes on, left before right or in a specific order. They may eat a particular meal or snack, or reciting a prayer before performing. Writers often need a particular setup on their desk before they can start to write. Stephan King will always drink a glass of water, listen to a specific piece of music and always arrange his papers in a particular way before he feels he can start writing. Who hasn't put on lucky underpants when dating!

These superstitions are used as rituals designed (perhaps not designed but adopted) to get the mind prepared with the right mindset. It’s a way of predicting and trying to control a future outcome based on past experience.

These patterns of behaviour may actually influence performance by boosting and reinforcing belief and confidence in ability. One of the foundations of sports psychology is to train the athletes to be triggered by positive events and associations and to use those to prime the mind and the body to influence behaviour. This works for both success and failures. We try to recreate the same conditions that led us to succeed. In other words, we apply meaning and purpose to behaviours that we associate with success.

Rituals affect the belief patterns of athletes (and others too) and help us to get into the right mindstate. If an athlete believes that doing XYZ will give them the power to succeed, it probably will. Most of us attribute success to subjective reasons, things we did, how we controlled the environment. However, failures that we often associate with external causes and reasons. If you believe something has a causal effect, then there is a fair chance it will have that effect.

We, humans, are obsessed with prediction and control of the future. If we feel that we can influence a future outcome by a specific set of behaviours, we will likely use those actions to bring about the desired outcome, even if there is no objective causal link.

ATTENTION.

Rituals (let's say motivated routines) help us shift our attention to the task in hand and focus where we feel it is most useful. If one thing follows another and is directed towards a goal, the first action in the ritual shifts our attention to the main reason.

In my case, waking in the morning is the first step in my morning routine (only because I have toldmyself that that is the case); I know that each routine triggers the next. I know exactly what follows and what I want to achieve. These behaviours acts as a sort of scaffold for the goal. All things lead to sketching in the morning. My focus, with the smallest action, is directed at the goal. That really helps.

Yet there is another reason to use a ritual; separating one task from another. Just because we move from one task to a different task doesn't necessarily mean that our attention has kept pace and has followed us. Rituals can also act as a spacer separating one task from another.

Winston Churchill, for instance, took a late afternoon nap to break his morning work from his evening work. This, he said, allowed him to think clearly and focus on each separate task.

Habits.

Routines can become habits. Habits are usually something we do subconsciously, without our conscious control and without ouyr full awareness. Up to 40% of our daily actions are powered by habits.

A habit requires very little energy to be executed and also requires very little conscious involvement. Mostly our brains will try to conserve energy. A new routine needs a little more effort, and we are more conscious of what we are doing when we implement a routine. A ritual requires more emotional engagement, effort and energy, which is why it’s important to make them feel satisfying and, preferably enjoyable. Both routines and rituals can become habits, but the level of emotional engagement differs because the level of meaning and importance is different.

In a beautiful speech by Admiral William McRaven, he encourages the student to find routine as with naval cadets by "making your bed". Every action begins with a simple routine which leads to the right mindset and attitude. Whilst it may seem to be a mindless and pointless task to make your bed every morning, the simple ritual sets the tone and attitude for the day. A meaningless task made meaningful because of the higher purpose attached to it.

Control of time.

There is a paradox here. By using time wisely, we make more time. Daily routines help us to feel in control of our time.

We all have time at the same rate, yet somehow some people manage to get far more out of the same amount.

It has always amazed me that some people can get vast amounts done in a day whilst others struggle to complete simple tasks in the same amount of time.

I suspect that the secret is not necessarily in what they do but in their ability to organise their routines and focus on the single thing at a single time. It's not the itemised detail of what they do, but the erection of a structure, a scaffold, that enables better focus.

Rituals help us to chain-link one thing to another as we move towards our chosen aim. The structure of routine comforts us, and the uniqueness of our own rituals focuses our attention on our personal goals.

By giving meaning to our routines, we decide where to place our attention and what we care about.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit".

Aristotle.

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