i begin each day of my life with a ritual: i wake up at 5:30 a.m., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirt, and my hat. i walk outside my manhattan home, hail a taxi and tell the driver to take me to the pumping iron gym at 91st street and first avenue, where i work out for two hours. the ritual is not the stretching or the weight training i put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. the moment i tell the driver where to go i have completed the ritual.

it’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it - makes it repeatable, easy to do. it reduces the chance that i would skip it or do it differently. it is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about. 

some people might say that simply stumbling out of bed and getting into a taxicab hardly rates the honorific “ritual.” it glorifies a mundane act that anyone can perform.

i disagree. first steps are hard; it’s no one’s idea of fun to wake up in the dark every day and haul one’s tired body to the gym. like everyone, i have days when i wake up, stare at the ceiling, and ask myself, gee, do i feel like working out today? but the quasi-religious power i attach to this ritual keeps me from rolling over and going back to sleep.

it’s vital to establish some rituals - automatic but decisive patterns of behavior - at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way.

…the ritual erases the question of whether or not i like it. it’s also a friendly reminder that i’m doing the right thing. (i’ve done it before. it was good. i’ll do it again.)

- twyla tharp, the creative habit [bold mine]

frequently asked question: how do you get out of bed every morning and go for a run or walk? similar but the not the same as twyla: the moment i open the door to starbucks i have completed the ritual. the ritual happens at the beginning of a walk or the end of a run. knowing that it will eventually happen is what matters. in other words, i pay starbucks $4 every morning to be there no matter what. they were closed during hurricane irene. i forgave them. but i still went for a run. get after it.