It’s a popular piece of productivity urban legend shared by Brad Isaacs, popularized by LifeHacker, and now found in every habit-formation book known to man. (I’ve read some version of the story in three books in the last year alone.) Isaacs, a young comedian working the open-mic scene, bumped into Jerry Seinfeld and asked him for the recipe to his secret sauce. How’d he become a better comedian? “Write jokes every day,” Seinfeld said, but he didn’t stop there. He offered Isaacs some productivity gold:

“He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

This is why I published my piece yesterday evening. I’ve been writing every day (and publishing every weekday) for months, and breaking the chain was not an option, even if it meant staying into the stretch hours to crank out something worth publishing. The streak—it was motivation enough.

In the coming days, I’m hoping to take hold of this sort of streak theory in a new way of limited application. I’ve strayed from poetry over the last year, much to my chagrin. I’ve struggled to nail pieces down in the midst of so much other writing. Poetry, though, stretches me creatively and causes me to think in images and metaphors. It stretches my brain. So, beginning this Friday, I’m pushing into a new sort of streak. Each Friday, I’ll drop a new poem here. I hope those poems will relate to our examination themes, but the Muse might take me on a tangent on occasion. In any event, I hope you’ll join me.

What’s the streak you’d like to create? Is it a creative habit like writing every day? Maybe it’s a healthy habit like working out or drinking enough water throughout the week. Do you want to create better spiritual habits, like carving out spaces for silence and solitude? Is the habit a one-day-a-week sort of thing, like scratching out poems on Fridays? Set a goal, create a calendar system, and start logging your streak. See what happens.

***THE BOOK IS HERE! ORDER AND FORWARD***

THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.