Use this Writing Technique from a #1 NY Times Best Selling Author

A famous “creativity” quote about goals and systems traces back to older Greek wording—and the real takeaway isn’t who first said it, but how to remix existing lines into something unmistakably personal. Tim Ferriss credited a similar idea in a 2017 Business Insider interview: “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training,” attributed to the ancient Greek poet Arilus. About ten months later, James Clear’s Atomic Habits popularized a closely related version: “We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.” The point isn’t plagiarism; it’s transformation—Clear remixed Arilus’s phrasing through his own experiences and worldview, producing a variant that feels new while keeping the original structure.

That distinction matters because it reframes “originality” as a process rather than a lightning-strike moment. The method presented is to keep the form of a quote while swapping the “flavor” with language that reflects one’s own perspective. The lesson treats remixing as a learnable skill: deconstruct a line into its components, then rebuild it by replacing key nouns and verbs with your own equivalents. For example, “No man steps in the same river twice” (Heraclitus) can be remixed by changing the subject and setting while preserving the core pattern: “No chef cooks the same dish twice,” shifting from rivers to cooking and from people to chefs. Another example keeps the template but alters the imagery: “No artist ever paints the same canvas twice.”

The same approach applies to other well-known lines. “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates) becomes a fill-in-the-blank style exercise: “The unorganized closet is not worth opening” or “The untasted cuisine is not worth cooking.” The “journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step” (Lao Tzu) is remixed by swapping the journey metaphor and the starting unit: “The writing of a thousand pages begins with a single word,” and “The growth of a thousand trees begins with a single seed.” The underlying pattern is consistent: identify the skeleton, then replace the nouns (and sometimes the verbs) with terms that match your own domain.

To make the process concrete, the lesson also demonstrates a two-step “deconstruction” workflow using Clear’s Arilus-derived quote. First comes an “unwritten” version—plain, straightforward wording that strips away stylistic flourish (e.g., “Our training is the baseline of our outcomes, not our goals or dreams”). Second comes an “editable” version modeled on Mad Libs: “We don’t rise to the level of our ___, we fall to the level of our ___,” where expectations and training become placeholders for the learner’s own replacements. Once the pattern feels intuitive, the exercise can skip the breakdown and go straight to remixing.

The closing guidance ties remixing to action. Remixing is framed as both easy and enjoyable—add your unique perspective like seasoning to a dish—and also as a responsibility. Keeping your voice “bottled inside” is described as selfish, while sharing your remixed ideas contributes something genuinely yours. The practical next step: remix quotes like Arilus and Heraclitus, then apply that same technique to writing and communication so creativity stays connected to what you share.