Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Initiative of the Will
To strengthen pure will and self-initiative by performing one small, deliberately-chosen, intrinsically pointless action at the same time each day — an act that springs only from your own decision.
Invent one tiny, harmless, pointless action. Do it at the same moment every day, purely because you decided to. Forget a day? Re-commit the next, calmly. Keep ~a month, alongside the thought-control exercise, then add the next. Free initiative, not rigid compulsion.
What it is
This is the second of Rudolf Steiner’s six subsidiary exercises, aimed squarely at the will. Each day, at a moment you fix in advance, you perform one small action that you have chosen entirely yourself and that has no external usefulness or obligation behind it — for example, touching your watch, moving an object a set distance, or any trivial gesture.
Because the act serves no purpose and no one requires it, the only reason it happens is your own decision; that is exactly the muscle Steiner is training. As he puts it, “one must force oneself to perform actions. springing from one’s own initiative.” It builds self-mastery and disciplined will (The Inner Creates the Outer) through daily repetition (The Inner Creates the Outer), and quietly reinforces the sense of being a self that acts rather than merely reacts (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
Steiner’s instructions (GA 13, GA 245):
- Invent a small, arbitrary action. It must be harmless and intrinsically pointless — its very uselessness guarantees that nothing but your own will produces it. Classic examples: look at your watch and then make a particular small movement; move a pin from one spot to another; touch your nose.
- Tie it to a fixed time. Decide when — e.g. “at three o’clock each afternoon,” or a chosen daily cue — and perform it at that same moment every day.
- Do it purely because you resolved to. No utility, no reminder from others, no reward. The act is a pure expression of self-initiative.
- If you forget, resume firmly the next day. The aim is to make the will reliable; a missed day is corrected by quiet re-commitment, not self-reproach.
- Run it for about a month, alongside the first exercise (control of thought), then add the next. Eventually all six are practised together (see harmony exercise).
- Optionally graduate to self-set useful tasks. Once the bare initiative is steady, Steiner allows the principle to extend into deliberately undertaking small purposeful acts on one’s own initiative — but the training core is the pointless, self-originated deed. (Sourcing note: the self-chosen, useless, same-time-daily action and its purpose of strengthening pure initiative are Steiner’s published instructions; the quoted phrase is short and attributed.)
Source & Lineage
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) gives this as the second “Nebenübung” in Occult Science: An Outline (GA 13) and in Guidance in Esoteric Training (GA 245).
Steiner pairs the first three exercises with thinking, willing, and feeling respectively; this one is the will-discipline. The six form a graded monthly sequence.
Common refinements
Choosing a useful act. Usefulness contaminates the experiment — utility, not pure will, then carries the act. Keep it pointless.
- No fixed time. The time-anchor is half the exercise; “sometime today” defeats it.
- Turning a miss into a crisis. A forgotten day means re-commit tomorrow, calmly. Self-flagellation is contrary to Steiner’s whole tone of balanced development.
- Letting it become a tic. The aim is free initiative, not anxious compulsion. If it starts to feel obsessive, change the act.