A few +1s ago, we talked about Twyla Tharp’s Creative Habit. That led to a little dance through the minds of some pretty epically creative souls. (Thank you, Twyla, Peter and Stephen!)

Today I want to come back to some wisdom from Twyla.

On books.

As I reread the Note on her book, this was one of those wisdom gems that jumped out at me and hit me like I never read it before (let alone typed it out and…)…

She tells us: “If I stopped reading, I’d stop thinking. It’s that simple.”

One more time: “If I stopped reading, I’d stop thinking. It’s that simple.”

That line was particularly striking because, not too long ago (and not for the first time, btw—lol), I thought I was going to kinda retire from the whole reading and Note creation game and move on to greener pastures.

But…

Alas…

Whenever I stop reading it’s as if I, as Twyla so brilliantly puts it, stop thinking. It’s weird how the act of engaging in a brilliant thinker’s thoughts via a great book keeps my mind fresh and helps me do my deepest thinking.

It’s almost like my brain (and all those mental maps I’ve worked so hard to create over the last 11+ years) starts to atrophy like my arm did after it was in its cast for a few weeks. (Yikes!)

And, well, that’s just not OK. (Hah!)

I’ve worked way too hard to create all those mental maps to let them just go away all “poof!” like.

Which leads me to another gem from Twyla.

She tells us: “The great ones never take fundamentals for granted.“

And that leads us to Today’s +1.

Two parts. (Again.)

1. How’s your reading? (And your thinking!)
2. What are YOUR fundamentals? (You taking them for granted?)

Here’s to the deep thinking that goes with deep reading as we honor the fundamentals that keep us at our best!

📚 🤔

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Reading and Thinking #814

The Two Go Together

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