Robert Fritz on Twyla Tharp

At the recommendation of one of my mentors, about a year ago I picked up Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit. While I've skimmed passages and found it encouraging, I have yet to read it. I considered it a wake up call when I read this passage from Robert Fritz's monthly email:

Tharp talks about her work habits, often repetitive, often ritualistic. About her daily exercise routine, she writes, "It's a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it – makes it repeatable, easy to do." And she advises, "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."

People in the arts know this principle as fact. The creative process is not a product of inspiration, rather it is a product of what we might call a creative state of being. Yes, there are moments of inspiration. But those moments can be as much a distraction as a help. What really counts is the habit of creating on days you don't feel like it, creating when the circumstances are not quite right, creating no matter what else is going on in your life.

I highly recommend Robert Fritz, particularly Creating. And, based on association, I recommend Twyla Tharp as well...