Step One: Be A Good Animal

As I make my way through the twelve steps on how to recover from a decade of corporate conditioning, I am going to rely on my mentors that have influenced my thinking to this point in my life. These mentors will, no doubt, always be a part of me.

Of course, none of them are alive. To date, most of my mentors are people who have spent a lifetime in the pursuit of excellence. And these people are few and far between. They are artists, philosophers, and athletes.

Herbert Spencer, a ninteenth century English philosopher wrote, "If you want to be a success in this life, you must first be a good animal". Ralph Waldo Emerson said the same thing in his journals and essays. Said Emerson, "Fitness is so inseperable an accompaniment of beauty, it has been taken for it". "We must be at the top of our condition to understand anything rightly".

I was reading the April 2008 edition of the Harvard Business Review and came across a very interesting interview with Twyla Tharp. I highly recommend getting a hold of this interview.

When asked what advice she would offer Steve Jobs she responded,

"Hit the deck--let's do 30 push ups. That's the first thing I'd say to any businessperson: Get moving. Because one of the things I think I have to offer people is the knowledge that using your body makes your brain work better. Movement stimulates our brains in ways we don't appreciate...So we would start with our push-ups."

And so will I. Step One: Be a good animal.

Namaste,
Gattosan