zen habits

Lessons in Productivity from Ralph Waldo Emerson
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3. Keep moving

“Ah!” said a brave painter to me, thinking on these things, “if a man has failed, you will find he has dreamed instead of working. There is no way to success in our art, but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.”

Emerson understood that it is human nature to “lapse . . . quickly into flesh and sleep.” Nature is constantly pulling us toward the path of least resistance. To battle this natural tendency for laziness, Emerson stressed that we must “use all the exalters that will bring us into . . . a productive state.” For Emerson, the most effective tonic for laziness was work.

Emerson knew that once motivation dies it is hard to resuscitate. He kept his motivation alive by constantly working. When times were difficult and ideas didn’t come to him, Emerson continued to work knowing that inspiration would come soon. In a letter to an acquaintance, Emerson compared the mind to a pear-tree that goes through a season of bareness only to suddenly burst forth in fruitful growth. However, the farmer must continue to prune and graft even during these moments of sterility in order to reap the harvest.