Rhythms, routines and practices (1)

John Grisham's goal: to write a page every day.

The best-selling novelist began this routine while he was still practicing law and writing at the same time. "The alarm clock would go off at five, and I would jump in the shower. My office was five minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my office, with the first cup of coffee, a legal pad, and write the first word at 5:30, five days a week." Sometimes that one page would take ten minutes, sometimes an hour; often he would write for two hours before he had to turn to his job a lawyer, which he never especially enjoyed.

Sticking to a schedule and maintaining loyalty to ideas is hard. Execution is rarely comfortable or convenient... Developing a consistent daily regimen for execution can help us make ideas happen." Belsky, Making Ideas Happen, p. 98 -102.

In simplest terms, an MRT is

• two or more people
• with a passion to help birth vibrant families of Jesus
• in a particular city or region
• who are relentlessly seeking to live into a specific set of spiritual practices
• and who are in community with other MRTs committed to the same practices

(The MRT practices for the summer of 2010 are spelled out in the MRT Invitation. Let me know if you need another copy.)

In the area of writing, my practice or regimen is to post to this blog post five days a week. How about for you? Do you have any practices in the area of writing you could share with us?

John