Strange Habits of Great People

Habits are formed when a person does something very frequently, initially knowingly, and later unknowingly. It is not necessary that all our habits are healthy, logical and purposeful. Sometimes, the habits tend to be very odd and strange.  This is true also of great people, let alone the ordinary ones.

The ancient Greek statesman Demosthenes was known for his stirring and seemingly effortless speaking ability, but his oratory prowess was the result of a rigorous and often outlandish work regime. He spent long hours studying rhetoric and law in a specially made underground study, and trained with an actor to learn how to properly control his body movements. To defeat a lisp and shortness of breath, Demosthenes practiced speaking with pebbles in his mouth, shouted his speeches aloud while running uphill and even belted them out over the sound of crashing waves at the beach. Strangest of all was his strategy for fighting procrastination. As a young man, Demosthenes shaved off all the hair on one side of his head in the hope that if he made himself look ridiculous, he would be more inclined to stay at home and concentrate on his studies.

From an early age, there were unusual habits of Albert Einstein, because he was considered an unusual child since he only started speaking at the age of three. He avoided hanging out with other children, and when he was five, he started showing interest in things that were not toys. During his schooling, Albert Einstein’s habits were reflected in the fact that he skipped many classes, and he did not even learn from some lessons, because they were boring to him, due to the fact that this way of schooling did not allow him to show his true creativity. When he enrolled in high school, Albert Einstein’s habits did not change. He often argued with the professors, because he thought that learning the material by heart was useless. So the rebellious Albert left high school in 1895 and went to live with his family in Italy, where they moved. He slept at least 10 hours at night because Einstein took sleep much more seriously than most. During the day, Einstein regularly dozed off in his armchair, with a pencil in his hand or a metal spoon, under which is a metal plate. He would wake up when the pencil fell and hit the floor, that is, when the spoon rattled on the metal plate. In that way, he prevented himself from falling into a deep sleep, after which his thoughts would not be completely clear.

He did not like to wear socks. Einstein was very proud of the fact that he never wore socks. Even on the most special occasions, he hid not wearing socks by wearing deep boots. It is said that as a young man he realized that the big toe always ends up in the hole of the sock and he stopped wearing socks.

Famous novelist Charles Dickens was notoriously fussy about his working conditions. He kept to a military-strict schedule, always writing in his study between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. before striking off on three-hour walks. Dickens demanded total silence in his house during his work hours, and required that his pens, ink and a small collection of statuettes be specially arranged on his desk to help him think. The author carried these talismans with him wherever he travelled, and he would even rearrange furniture in hotels and guesthouses to recreate the layout of his home office as closely as possible. Dickens’ bizarre habits also extended to his bedroom: he only slept facing north, believing that it better aligned him to the electrical currents of the Earth.

Famous composer Ludwig Van Beethoven did much of his work while on the move. After a daily breakfast of coffee—he often obsessively counted out 60 beans by hand—the composer would put in a few hours at his desk before heading out for long, meandering walks. As he walked, he often stopped to jot down a few measures of music in a large sketchbook. If the notes were slow to come, he might copy down another composer’s work to study their technique.

Beethoven may have also composed while bathing. According to his secretary, Anton Schindler, he would often pace around his room and repeatedly pour jugs of water over his hands while humming tunes and staring off into space in “deep meditation.”

French writer Marcel Proust lived largely from within the confines of his bedroom. He usually didn’t wake up until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, at which point he dined on coffee and croissants. Proust worked from the comfort of his bed, usually while propped up on several fluffy pillows. Despite the seemingly relaxed work environment, the writer still claimed that crafting his classic novel was incredibly taxing. “After ten pages,” he complained, “I am shattered.”

Famous Spanish painter Salvador Dali used mental tricks to try and blur the line between his dreams and reality for his painting. One of his tried and true techniques involved holding a metal key over a tin pan while napping. As soon as the artist began to drift away, he would drop the key and wake up, giving him a chance to record the strange images that had flashed through his mind.

Maya Angelou, the famed poet and author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was famous for doing very little of her work at home. Finding the comfort of her house too distracting, Angelou elected to write in the anonymous tranquillity of what she described as “tiny, mean” hotel rooms. She typically rented the rooms for months at a time, and arrived early in the morning armed with only her writing materials and a Bible, a bottle of sherry and a deck of cards which she claimed helped busy her “little mind”.

 

 

 

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