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A practical cycle of activity, and the how-to core of a philosophy I try to live by (pay attention, tell about it, keep moving forward)...
The rhythm of my days, of my life, is much simpler now than it once was.
When I retired from the Army, I traded a rewarding but highly disruptive career for something much more stable and predictable. I’m still navigating that transition, but as time passes I’m settling into the kind of unfragmented pattern of living that I’ve craved for a very long time. Most of my days now follow a simple cycle that I love, and that is good for my soul: I read, I write, I run, and I repeat.
On the surface it’s a practical cycle of activity that concisely describes (and directs) how I spend my time.
At a deeper level, if I interpret more broadly and metaphorically, “Read, Write, Run, Repeat” is the how-to core of the philosophy I try to live by.
Let’s have a look.
Read
Reading is the intake phase. It’s about inputs, fuel.
Read written words (all those second-hand observations), yes. But also, read in a broader sense, get your own first-hand observations: actively seek input in all forms from the world around you. It’s active, not passive. Look with intent to see, see with intent to understand. Receive the messages and look for more.
Pay Attention!
Write
Writing is the output phase. It’s about digestion, synthesis, and creation.
Take all those inputs and play with them. Stir them, let them ferment/gestate/incubate. Change angles, ask questions, look for differences and connections. Reconfigure them into a form that is more comprehensible or that adds context and understanding.
Your primary product is personal insight and understanding, and you decide whether to keep that in your mind, or to capture it in words (on paper or screen or audio).
Do it for yourself first. But please consider sharing — your creative products become the next round of inputs, for yourself and for others.
Tell about it.
Run
Running is about being a good animal.
Body and mind are inseparable, and the health of each is integral to the health of the other. Physical movement through a physical environment under your own power exercises your body and mind in an animal way. It brings balance, enables broad-sense reading and writing, and brings you contact with the world.
Keep moving forward.
Repeat
Repetition is about the process and your decision to trust it.
Repetition acknowledges that we’re on a journey. It recognizes that, on this long trail without a finish line, the journey is the reward. It celebrates the products that flow from the cycles of that journey, the insights and the new questions.
Choose your process, make a conscious commitment to it, and trust the belief system behind it. And then ride that cycle as long and as well as you possibly can. If you do it right, it gets better with use, reinforces and improves itself, becomes second nature, becomes who you are and what you do.
I couldn’t ask for much more than that.
A practical cycle of activity, and the how-to core of a philosophy I try to live by (pay attention, tell about it, keep moving forward)...
The rhythm of my days, of my life, is much simpler now than it once was.
When I retired from the Army, I traded a rewarding but highly disruptive career for something much more stable and predictable. I’m still navigating that transition, but as time passes I’m settling into the kind of unfragmented pattern of living that I’ve craved for a very long time. Most of my days now follow a simple cycle that I love, and that is good for my soul: I read, I write, I run, and I repeat.
On the surface it’s a practical cycle of activity that concisely describes (and directs) how I spend my time.
At a deeper level, if I interpret more broadly and metaphorically, “Read, Write, Run, Repeat” is the how-to core of the philosophy I try to live by.
Let’s have a look.
Read
Reading is the intake phase. It’s about inputs, fuel.
Read written words (all those second-hand observations), yes. But also, read in a broader sense, get your own first-hand observations: actively seek input in all forms from the world around you. It’s active, not passive. Look with intent to see, see with intent to understand. Receive the messages and look for more.
Pay Attention!
Write
Writing is the output phase. It’s about digestion, synthesis, and creation.
Take all those inputs and play with them. Stir them, let them ferment/gestate/incubate. Change angles, ask questions, look for differences and connections. Reconfigure them into a form that is more comprehensible or that adds context and understanding.
Your primary product is personal insight and understanding, and you decide whether to keep that in your mind, or to capture it in words (on paper or screen or audio).
Do it for yourself first. But please consider sharing — your creative products become the next round of inputs, for yourself and for others.
Tell about it.
Run
Running is about being a good animal.
Body and mind are inseparable, and the health of each is integral to the health of the other. Physical movement through a physical environment under your own power exercises your body and mind in an animal way. It brings balance, enables broad-sense reading and writing, and brings you contact with the world.
Keep moving forward.
Repeat
Repetition is about the process and your decision to trust it.
Repetition acknowledges that we’re on a journey. It recognizes that, on this long trail without a finish line, the journey is the reward. It celebrates the products that flow from the cycles of that journey, the insights and the new questions.
Choose your process, make a conscious commitment to it, and trust the belief system behind it. And then ride that cycle as long and as well as you possibly can. If you do it right, it gets better with use, reinforces and improves itself, becomes second nature, becomes who you are and what you do.
I couldn’t ask for much more than that.