+1 #733: Ambition + Routine Part II

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Not too long ago, we had some fun hanging out on the hot coals of life. As we walked to the wall of our potentials, we wrapped that plus one up with two questions. Number one, what do you want? And number two, how bad do you want it? Then I said that one proxy to answer the second question is the how committed are you to optimizing? Are you actually applying these and other truths you study? Now, as I typed that, I thought of another proxy. Well, actually, I thought of this epic quote from Mason Curry's great book Daily Rituals. We talked about it in our plus one on ambition and routine, but I think it's worth repeating here. Here's how Curry puts it. I quote. Routine in an intelligent man is a sign of ambition, auden wrote in 1958. If that's true, then Auden himself was one of the most ambitious men of his generation. The poet was obsessively punctual and lived by an exacting timetable throughout his life. He checks his watch over and over again. A guest of Auden's once noted. Eating, drinking, writing, shopping, crossword puzzles, even the mailman's arrival. All are timed to the minute and with accompanying routines. Auden believed that a life of such military precision was essential to his creativity, a way of taming the muse to his own schedule. A modern stoic, he observed, knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time. Decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it. Exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble. End quote. Today's +1. Two more questions. How's your ambition and how's your routine? And a few bonus questions. What's awesome? What needs work, and what will you do a little differently today? High fives with the right hand and see you back on the coals.