T

May 16th

THE CHAIN   METHOD

“If you don’t   wish    to  be  a   hot-head,   don’t   feed    your    habit.  Try as  a   first   step    to  remain  calm    and

count   the days    you haven’t been    angry.  I   used    to  be  angry   every   day,    now every   other   day,    then

every   third   or  fourth  .   .   .   if  you make    it  as  far as  30  days,   thank   God!    For habit   is  first   weakened

and then    obliterated.    When    you can say ‘I  didn’t  lose    my  temper  today,  or  the next    day,    or  for

three   or  four    months, but kept    my  cool    under   provocation,’   you will    know    you are in  better

health.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.18.11b–14

he comedian Jerry Seinfeld once gave a young comic named Brad Isaac some advice about how to
write and create material. Keep a calendar, he told him, and each day that you write jokes, put an X.
Soon enough, you get a chain going—and then your job is to simply not break the chain. Success becomes
a matter of momentum. Once you get a little, it’s easier to keep it going.
Whereas Seinfeld used the chain method to build a positive habit, Epictetus was saying that it can also
be used to eliminate a negative one. It’s not all that different than taking sobriety “one day at a time.” Start
with one day doing whatever it is, be it managing your temper or wandering eyes or procrastination. Then
do the same the following day and the day after that. Build a chain and then work not to break it. Don’t
ruin your streak.