The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

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How does Jerry Seinfeld use this secret to write comedy?

Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most successful comedians in the world. He has Emmys and Golden Globes, and Fortune estimates he earns 32 million dollars a year from Seinfeld syndication rights alone. A successfully touring stand-up comic. A New York Times–bestselling author. He owns almost fifty Porsches. At one point he was the highest-earning celebrity of the year. But in spite of all these accomplishments, Jerry still needs ways to “trick his brain” into getting stuff done.

Just like you and me.

According to an interview Brad Isaac did with LifeHacker, Brad was a little-known stand-up comic touring the New York City comedy scene in the early 1990s when he bumped into Seinfeld backstage at a show. The TV show Seinfeld was new and hadn’t become a massive hit yet, so Jerry was touring clubs throughout the city. After his set, Brad saw Jerry backstage and saw a big opportunity to ask him if he had any advice for younger comics.

Jerry Seinfeld then revealed to him a way he writes comedy to make it his favorite task every day.

“He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day,” Brad says. “He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write . . . 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.”

Guess what that does? Tricks his brain by giving him the incentive to see the longer and longer chain. Who wouldn’t like seeing big red X’s marking accomplishments on the wall? Now all you have to do is keep the streak going!

Does this sound familiar?

Jerry Seinfeld gets his “work” done by doing it first. That creates the confidence of being able to do it. And then the motivation to “grow the chain” and want to do it each day.