Committing to a practice

I’ve recently been reading a book called “The Practice” by Seth Godin. It’s the first book I’ve read from Seth and I found it an unusual surprise. He explains why committing to a practice is an essential part of life, and his way of writing is different and what he has to say is certainly thought-provoking and personally challenging. I like this book a lot. It was one of those books that made sit back and think after every couple of pages.

Quotes from “The Practice”

Near the end of the book there were a couple of quotes that really struck me. First,

No one can possibly do a better job of being you than you can. And the best version of you is the one who has committed to a way forward.

Your work is never going to be good enough (for everyone).

But it’s already good enough (for someone).

Committing to a practice that makes our best better is all we can do.

then in a great couple of pages about ideas, I like these quotes,

Ideas rarely come from watching television.

Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom.

Bigger ideas leapfrog the mediocre ones.

And hidden ideas don’t ship, have no influence, and make no intersection with the market. They die, alone.

and right at the end,

You have everything you need to make magic. You always have.

Go make a ruckus.

and,

The magic is that there is no magic.

Start where you are.

Don’t stop.

In general, there were many parts of this book that were inspiring and eye-opening.

Why read “The Practice”?

The main thrust of the book is that we have to choose something we want to do, something we want to create or change, and then begin practicing that. That’s committing to a practice. And it’s the practice that’s the point, not the outcome of the practice. It’s the commitment to the practice (executing the practice, learning from the result, improving and executing again, over and over) that makes life rich. The book really made me think deeply on what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, for whom I’m doing it and what is the change I’d like to effect. Brilliantly written as a call to action.

Chapters of “The Practice”

This book was written in an unusual way, but there’s nothing bad about that. It is refreshing. Every short section was numbered and given a title. There were 219 of these short sections. Then the book was split into eight sections that I guess you could call chapters (although Seth didn’t call them chapters);

1. Trust Your Self
2. Generous
3. The Professional
4. Intent
5. No Such Thing As Writer’s Block
6. Make Assertions
7. Earn Your Skills
8. Seek Out Constraints

Related Links – Committing to a practice

• Seth’s Blog – About Seth Godin
• Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Godin