There’s a Flaubert quote I stumbled on once: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” I’ve always been more of a science man than an artist of course (and I don’t know that carbohydrate curves or sprint intervals could ever be creatively “violent” anyway). Nonetheless, something about the underlying concept always stayed with me. It begs a fundamental, even pivotal question: where do you want the freedom to be bold and impulsive (or at least spontaneous) in your life, and where do you want the security of being fixed and (relatively speaking) unyielding?

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)