“Any
serious attempt to try to do something worthwhile is ritualistic.”—Derek
Walcott
Do you have
a vision to accomplish something worthwhile? Is it big enough to scare and
motivate you at the same time? Are you absolutely committed to making it happen?
If you answer yes to these three questions, I think you need a result ritual.
So what is
a result ritual?
A result ritual
is a set (pattern) of actions (or words) that is followed regularly and precisely
to produce certain result in a particular aspect of our lives.
Result
ritual is different from a senseless routine; it doesn’t just happen, it
requires intelligent purpose. And the professor of literature, Joseph Campbell explains
the concept as follows. He says: “The function of ritual, as I understand it,
is to give form to human life, not in the way of a mere surface arrangement,
but in depth.”
Result
rituals serve a constructive function in our lives. They not only make our
goals easier to achieve, they also make our journey a little more enjoyable.
And as we fall in love with the process of achievement, we become more
motivated to keep the ball rolling—even on a very bad day.
From the
foregoing, we can see that a ritual is one of the only things which can impact
our results in a very powerful way. When we design and follow a ritual for a goal,
we feel more disciplined, less distracted and more consistent on the course
that we have set; a useful ritual helps us make the most of our time.
This is the
secret of the cream of the crop in all walks of life. And it is a point the
publisher of SUCCESS magazine, Darren Hardy highlights in his insight that: “A
daily routine built on good habits and disciplines separates the most
successful among us from everyone else. The routine is exceptionally powerful.”
For illustration,
let’s take a look at one of greats in the literary world of creation: the
prolific American writer, Stephen King. In the following quote, he informs us
of how he uses this tactic to prep his mind to move into high gear for an ingenious
output, on a daily basis. He writes:
“There
are certain things I do if I sit down to write:
I
have a glass of water or a cup of tea.
There’s
a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour
every morning.
I
have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all
arranged in the same places.
The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every
day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.”
Having heard from a
giant, I think it is time to talk about your own result ritual.
Design
Your Own Result Rituals
The thing
about ritual is that it is not only a choice but it is pretty personal. If you
choose, you can use it to season your energy and emotions for their optimal returns
in your life. And it is necessary if you are after extra-ordinary result in
your field.
As Mason
Currey writes in his book, ‘Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find
Inspiration, and Get to Work’: “The surest way to discipline passion is to
discipline time.”
He explains
how to do that in the next sentence. He says:
“Decide
what you want or ought to do during the day, then
always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give
you no trouble.”
Unlike
amateurs who always wait for perfect moods to do what is important to them,
this is how real men work. They design a result ritual to enable a good outcome
they want to see in their lives. And then, they commit to doing it every single
day—no matter how they feel.
On why this
tactic works so well, ‘Daily Rituals’ states: “The more of the details of our
daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more
our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.”
Lastly, to
achieve like the expert, we must stop relying on willpower alone to do the
things we truly want to accomplish. We need to know that the big things that we
dream of, can be made a lot easier to achieve with better strategies of success;
one of which is a well-designed ritual for the specific result that we really need
in our lives.
