My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

Grant’s “formula” is a deliberately deflationary answer to the perennial demand for a life philosophy. By reducing living to the day’s basic bookends—waking and sleeping—he punctures the idea that a successful or glamorous life must rest on grand principles. The middle clause, “I occupy myself as best I can,” shifts the emphasis from destiny to practice: life is largely improvisation, filled with ordinary choices and efforts rather than a single secret. The tone suggests wry humility and a preference for pragmatism over self-mythologizing, fitting a public figure often pressed to explain the “key” to his poise and success.