69My friend Fred Knipe, now an Emmy award-win-
ning television writer and comedian, does something
he calls “driving for ideas.” When he has a major cre-
ative project to accomplish, he gets in his car and drives
around the desert near Tucson until ideas begin to come
to him. His theory is that the act of driving gives the
anxious, logical left side of his brain something to do so
the right side of his brain can be freed up to suggest
ideas. It’s like giving your child some toys to play with
so you can read the evening e-mail on your computer.
In his book about songwriting, Write from the Heart,
John Stewart writes about composer and arranger
Glenn Gould, who had a ritual for finding a new melody
or musical idea when he seemed to be stuck and noth-
ing was coming. He’d turn on two or three radios at the
same time, all to different stations. He’d sit and com-
pose his own music while listening to music on the three
radios. This would short-circuit his conscious mind and
free up the creative subconscious. It would overload the
left side of his brain so the right could open up and cre-
ate without judgment.
My own ritual for jump-starting self-motivation is
walking. Many times in my life I have had a problem
that seemed too overwhelming to do anything about,
and my ritual is to take the problem out for a long, long
walk. Sometimes I won’t come back for hours. But time
and again during the course of my walks something
comes out of nowhere—some idea for an action that will
quickly solve the problem.
One of the reasons I think this ritual works for me
is that a ritual is action. Starting a ritual is taking an
action that leads toward finding the solution. The danc-
ing medicine man is already doing something.
Make up little rituals for yourself that will act as
self-starters. They will have you in action before you
Perform your little rituals