Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

an afternoon nap, dinner with his family, and a 9:30 bedtime. The
same weight. The same food. The same introduction. The same close
to the day. Boring? The truth is that a good routine is not only a
source of great comfort and stability, it’s the platform from which
stimulating and fulfilling work is possible.
Routine, done for long enough and done sincerely enough,
becomes more than routine. It becomes ritual—it becomes sanctified
and holy.
Maybe Mr. Rogers isn’t your thing. Perhaps, then, you’d rather
look at the perennial all-star point guard Russell Westbrook, who
begins his own routine exactly three hours before tipoff. First, he
warms up. Then, one hour before the game, Westbrook visits the
arena chapel. Then he eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
(always buttered wheat bread, toasted, strawberry jelly, Skippy
peanut butter, cut diagonally). At exactly six minutes and seventeen
seconds before the game starts, he begins the team’s final warm-up
drill. He has a particular pair of shoes for games, for practice, for
road games. Since high school, he’s done the same thing after
shooting a free throw, walking backward past the three-point line
and then forward again to take the next shot. At the practice facility,
he has a specific parking space, and he likes to shoot on Practice
Court 3. He calls his parents at the same time every day. And on and
on.
Sports is filled with stories like Westbrook’s. They often feature
goalies in hockey, pitchers in baseball, quarterbacks and placekickers
in football—the most cerebral positions in their respective games.
Players who engage in this kind of behavior are called quirky, and
their routines are called superstitions. It’s strange to us that these
successful people, who are more or less their own boss and are
clearly so talented, seem prisoners to the regimentation of their
routines. Isn’t the whole point of greatness that you’re freed from
trivial rules and regulations? That you can do whatever you want?
Ah, but the greats know that complete freedom is a nightmare.
They know that order is a prerequisite of excellence and that in an
unpredictable world, good habits are a safe haven of certainty.
It was Eisenhower who defined freedom as the opportunity for
self-discipline. In fact, freedom and power and success require self-