It’s a new tradition of mine, but one I’ve fully embraced.
A few years ago at a charity tag sale, I purchased a perpetual calendar.
It’s spiral-bound, with a triangular desktop display.
Published by Hay House, it has Abraham-Hicks inspirational quotes for each day of the year.
Each day, you flip the page over for another spiritual nugget.
It’s almost 20 years old, but in excellent shape.
What’s most significant for me, though, is that on July 2nd — my birthday and the exact midpoint of the year — everything changes.
You have to literally turn the calendar around and begin flipping pages in the opposite direction.
Halfway through the year, that’s the only way to move forward.
Apparently, a young comic once asked Jerry Seinfeld for advice.
Supposedly, Seinfeld told him not only to write a joke each day, but also to mark the day with a big red X on a wall calendar.
After a while, that chain of Xs becomes powerful.
The repetition reinforces itself, becoming something stronger than you could have imagined.
Since reconnecting with my 22-year-old former assistant Rajil, I’ve been haunted — and humbled — by his sage advice.
In fact, combining Rajil’s advice with the daily calendar flip has inspired this July’s theme and new meditation: Getting in the Reps HERE.
Of course, this is not a new principle for me or for any of us, but it is one that still requires — at least for me — frequent reminders.
Certainly, when it comes to our bodies, this wisdom is obvious.
Although I have been successfully avoiding actual gyms lately, my yoga routine is enhanced by several barre classes each week with my great friends Lis and Fred (HERE).
The discipline of taking class several times a week is now essential for me.
Indeed, I’m reminded immediately of the famous quote attributed to Nureyev, one of the premier ballet dancers of his era.
“When I miss class for one day, I know it.
When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it.
When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it.”
Nureyev knew that it’s not just “practice matters.”
The point is that without getting in the reps, the erosion of excellence is scalable.
First, it’s private.
Then professional.
Nureyev in flight
Madonna released her new album Confessions II yesterday, and early reviews have been glowing.
Rolling Stone’s review headline says that the icon “finds a nonstop groove on her best album in 20 years.”
I concur, but I’m even more struck by the fact that she released a Kabbalah course last fall with her longtime teacher.
Most impressively — for the queen of reinventing herself — she’s stuck with that same spiritual path for 30 years.
I found the course’s high-style art direction a bit extreme, but another course on the platform — Marcus Weston’s Unlock the Secret of Abundance HERE— was quite superb.
Weston speaks eloquently about how “biology starts bending around discipline” — and that when it comes to experiencing abundance in our lives:
When and where I apply this principle on a daily basis, I see the rewards.
For example, I haven’t missed a day of some form of personal yoga practice since March 2020, when Covid required a reinvention.
Alas, the reps I need to start getting in all relate to social media.
And — given Rajil’s advice and the Kabbalah course’s encouragement — I’ve started.
In fact, this week I decided to try to “show up” on LinkedIn, even though it exists in a universe that feels galaxies away from my own life.
One morning, I approved a slew of contact requests that have been hovering for months (years, maybe).
Within a few minutes of my clicking YES, a complete stranger — an interesting-looking therapist and consultant in London — wrote back.
She shared that her mother — now 87 — has been doing my Yoga in Bed DVD for twenty years.
My mind was blown.
Honestly, that was exactly my intention when I created the Yoga in Bed book and DVD.
I wanted it to be sustainable — something that almost everyone could do every day.
Sometimes — when you decide to actually show up — the universe really does deliver a smoking gun of emotional proof.
Right after college, a mentor gave me a framed version — illustrated with a dragon — of the famous Calvin Coolidge quote about persistence.
One phrase stood out:
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Returning to the Kabbalah course, I was particularly struck by Weston’s similar remarks about talent.
Echoing Coolidge, he declares that “there is nothing more common than talented, unsuccessful people.”
The reason for that — and for getting in the reps (again, meditation HERE) — is this:
This brings me back to Rapid Reinvention, my favorite new course HERE.
In some ways, it embodies the decision to turn things around: a total calendar-flip.
You can move through the whole thing in an afternoon, but I designed it so that the real reinvention happens the same way Seinfeld’s chain is built:
One day, one practice, one rep at a time.
Like Yoga in Bed, it’s about creating change that’s sustainable.
In honor of my birthday — and the midpoint of the year — Rapid Reinvention is $47 from now through Wednesday.
You can:
And perhaps — if I keep getting in the reps on the socials — in 2046, I’ll get a hologram from you saying, “Thanks — I’ve been rapidly reinventing one day at a time for the last 20 years.”
My perpetual calendar and I are both really looking forward to that!
Tell A New Story. Transform Your Life
Rapid Reinvention is now more than 50% off through Wednesday:
And … if you want to give us both a birthday gift, consider upgrading your subscription to this newsletter HERE. Transformation Book Club membership included.
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