Seth Godin - The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

This is a book for people who want to lead, to write, or to sing.

For people who seek to teach, to innovate, and to solve interesting problems.

For people who want to go on the journey to become a therapist, a painter, or a leader.

For people like us.

Its possible. The people who came before us have managed to speak up, stand up, and make a difference. While each journey is unique, each follows a patternand once you see it, its yours.

We simply need to find the courage to be more creative. The forces that are holding us back have long been unseen, but we can see and understand them and begin to do our work.

The practice is there if were willing to sign up for it. And the practice will open the door to the change you seek to make.

Our lives follow a pattern.

For most of us, that pattern was set a long time ago. We chose to embrace a story about compliance and convenience, the search for status in a world constrained by scarcity.

The industrial economy demands it. It prods us to consumption and obedience. We trust the system and the people we work for to give us what we need, as long as were willing to continue down the path theyve set out for us. We were all brainwashed from a very early age to accept this dynamic and to be part of it.

The deal is simple: follow the steps and youll get the outcome the system promised you. It might not be easy, but with effort, just about anyone can do it.

So we focus on the outcome, because thats how we know we followed the steps properly. The industrial system that brainwashed us demands that we focus on outcomes to prove we followed the recipe.

That priority makes sense if the reliable, predictable outcome really matters and the payoff is truly guaranteed. But what happens when your world changes?

Suddenly, you dont always get what was guaranteed. And the tasks youre asked to do just arent as engaging as youd like them to be. The emptiness of the bargain is now obvious: you were busy sacrificing your heart and your soul for prizes, but the prizes arent coming as regularly as promised.

The important work, the work we really want to do, doesnt come with a recipe. It follows a different pattern.

This practice is available to usnot as a quick substitute, a recipe thats guaranteed to return results, but as a practice. It is a persistent, stepwise approach that we pursue for its own sake and not because we want anything guaranteed in return.

The recipe for recipes is straightforward: good ingredients, mise en place, attention to detail, heat, finish. You do them in order. But when we create something for the first time, its not as linear, not easily written down.

This new practice takes leadership, a creative contributionsomething that not just anyone can produce, something that might not work but that might be worth pursuing. Its often called art.

The industrial system we all live in is outcome-based. Its about guaranteed productivity in exchange for soul-numbing, predirected labor. But if we choose to look for it, theres a different journey available to us. This is the path followed by those who seek change, who want to make things better.

Its a path defined by resilience and generosity. Its outward focused, but not dependent on reassurance or applause.

Creativity doesnt repeat itself; it cant. But the creative journey still follows a pattern. Its a practice of growth and connection, of service and daring. Its also a practice of selflessness and ego in an endless dance. The practice exists for writers and leaders, for teachers and painters. Its grounded in the real world, a process that takes us where we hope to go.

This practice is a journey without an external boss. Because theres no one in charge, this path requires us to trust ourselvesand more importantly, our selvesinstead.

The Bhagavad-Gita says, It is better to follow your own path, however imperfectly, than to follow someone elses perfectly. Consider the people who have found their voice and made a real impact: their paths always differ, but their practices overlap in many ways.