Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life

by Twyla Tharp

What I have learned throughout my life is to try to expand my opportunities rather than limit them, even when faced with an obstacle.

This is how I would have you write your life: in action.

Many carry the misconception that we should become more comfortable and that things should become easier as time goes by.

This is a belief system designed to undermine you. In life, there will be problems. This is guaranteed.

We must learn to use our obstacles, transforming them...

Failure calls for serious questioning; obstacles are simply part of your process. To continue, we learn to cope.

Pushing against a fixed object is the physical equivalent of the emotional resolve we must have as we push against obstacles.

Like a pledge, the isometric grounding we gain by pushing into a wall or the floor can be thorough and unrelenting.

pressing the back of your wrist against a wall for a minute or so, then stepping away and watching the stored powe...

Static resistance training using the body’s weight generates great ...

Design your own isometric moves by pushing any part of your body against any surface.

Isometric stretches are fundamental and are done in nature by all living creatures, for pushing away from gravity is how we stand.

Make a conscious effort to drive into the ground with your legs and feet. Then resist this movement by pulling your stomach back and your buttocks up.

Monet made paintings in series, the same thing over and over again,

Monet did not allow his difficulties to alter his pledge.

Over a long career, he had developed habits and character that pushed him to resist the temptation to quit. His pledge yielded paradigm-shifting results as he helped lay the groundwork for the Cubist movement and art of the twentieth century.

Age is no excuse for inaction. I am over seventy-five now; I have good work h...

I am still concerned about how movement shapes all of our lives and how I can help others understand this better. I adhere to my pledge to make a life in dance because I find lessons there that are fundamental in all of our lives and that I can learn nowhere else.

I made a choice that would evolve into a pledge over the course of my life. How do you get from choice to pledge? Push back against the obstacles, value your failures. Use everything you’ve got.

“The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to,

And the most important thing is—it must be something you cannot possibly do!”

Ironically, the older we get, the more we should commit to physical activity—to slowing down the diminishment of our strength and

agility, our bone density, our muscle mass, our elasticity, our recovery time. Getting physical and improving is how we can continue to thrive among the living.

you’re burning calories to acquire skills, and you’re honing those skills with challenges you set up for yourself, for example, walking four more blocks a day or allowing yourself one more yoga session this week.

Your exercising is always connected to a purpose and crafted to accomplish it. You must find purpose and put it to work.

Integrating my body and my job focuses my day.

keeps me relatively in shape. It keeps me so that I can beat up most people. This is very useful. It is a powerful form of confidence.

The common thread among these people (I’ve been seeing them for years at the same morning hour) is a palpable sense of purpose.

They are as ambitious about taking control of their body as they are about succeeding at work.

“Why learn only from the spoken word or thoughts when the body is so informative?”

dynamic running therapy

Yes, I know. Trainers and gyms are expensive. Finding the time to bike or run is challenging. Working alongside others who are more adept and better-looking

is intimidating. All in all, it is exhausting.

The fact is, we are all...

If you’re not getting the exercise you need, you’r...

the very minimum of physical activity you should aim for is one hundred fifty minutes of moderate exercise (like walking or swimming) or seventy-five minutes of vigorous exercise (such as running) a week.

This is a no-excuses situation. Your life is on the line.

As stated, I’m as lazy as the next person. But I am by now addicted to exercise.

Okay, I don’t feel like working today. Then I go, Fine. You don’t work today, then you won’t be able to work when you do feel like working. So, let’s just go in and do our exercises, shall we? I encourage you to do the same.

If you think you can’t do it, at least try to imagine it.

the practice of visualizing yourself doing something before you do it is a powerful way to get yourself moving even on days when you don’t feel like it.

before you even leave the bed, picture yourself going through an exercise routine—whatever it may be, a brisk walk, a run in the park, gardening, a game of pickup basketball—step by step.

more likely to follow through with actually working out if you kick-start your brain into an active mind-set.

a practice called marking, and we’d do it everywhere, all the time.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator when you’re shopping. Park in the farthest spot in the parking lot. Walk or bike to work.

Practice keeping your abdominals engaged and your shoulders back during meetings.

we should think of cutting exercise in to our jobs as frequently as possible.

This is also a good time to remind yourself that we breathe.

four counts in, four counts out.

increase this to six counts in and six counts out sev...