I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 AM, put on my workout clothes, my leg-warmers, my sweatshirts, 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 1st Ave, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and 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.

Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, why am I doing this? By the time I give the taxi driver directions, it’s too late to wonder why I’m going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed. The cab is moving. I’m committed. Like it or not, I’m going to the gym.

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, Pg 14

When I read this quotation I was so intrigued and inspired. It made me think of the time in business school when I was training for my first marathon. I was so busy with meetings, job interviews and classes, but I always managed to fit a run into my day – and each week I got stronger. I was more committed to that race than I have been to any other and the training seemed easier. I remember one particular week that I managed to run for two hours straight, came home, packed a bag and flew across the country to California for a job interview (too bad I can’t do that anymore). I look back at that time and realize that the ease came from my commitment to myself. I never wasted any energy questioning whether I was going to run that day. I just put it into my schedule and did it. 

We spend so much of our energy questioning our actions. Am I really going to go to the gym today or could I just stay and finish more work? Do I really need to get up or could I just hit the snooze button? And with every argument, we waste precious energy and time deciding if and when we are going to do something instead of just doing it. 

Now, I’m not a believer in committing to something blindly, without thinking about it. But I do think that once you’ve decided that something is healthy and feels right, like exercising, commitment and focus is the best way to stay consistent. 

What part of your exercise routine could become a ritual for you? Look for the time that you question yourself, where you have the most doubt and where you are most likely to skip that day’s exercise. That is the place to establish a ritual. For one of my clients, a mortgage broker, the most difficult part of his exercise routine is turning his phone off at 6:30 so that he can leave the office in peace and go to the gym. Once he turns the phone off, he is officially closed for the day, and he is constantly plagued by the fear that he will miss a precious business call. His ritual has become turning the phone off and walking out the door. Once he has surmounted that part, going to the gym is easy. 

Try committing to a ritual this week for a goal that you have been working on. Don’t question it – just make the move in that direction and go for it. Enjoy actually getting it done.