The Practice, Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin
Perhaps like you, sometimes I’ll pick up a book that written by an author I enjoyed in the past. The Practice is such a book.
Reading The Practice, reminded me about my desire to write about thoughts gleaned while reading and share them in mini reviews as I have occasionally done in the past. Reading The Practice ironically, planted the seed of motivation to exercise this practice.
Upon embarking on reading The Practice I remembered Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, a book that describes a person’s resistance to do desired creative work. I suspected that Godin was influenced by Pressfield’s work. Both books have a similar matter of fact tone written in in short stand-alone short segments. The Practice read like the sequel to The War of Art. The War of Art describes in detail “the resistance”, those barriers we face in delivering our best work. The Practice, on the other hand is more encouraging by challenging us to deliver. My suspicion that Pressfield’s influence was confirmed on page 64 where Godin describes Pressfield’s teaching about “the resistance” and then goes on the provide the solution of “generosity”. Generosity is the most direct way to find the practice, Godin writes,
In this easy-to-read book Godin gives us 219 mini-chapters, generally one page long. Sometimes the sections are encouraging, occasionally inspiring, sometimes so-so, from time to time they prod to me do better, but Seth Godin is always kind to the reader.
My favorite quotes from The Practice, Shipping Creative Work:
“We simply need to find the courage to be more creative.” p5
“The story we tell ourselves leads to the actions we take.” and “We become what we do.” p 19
“without sharing the work, you can’t make change happen.” p90
For those not familiar with Seth Godin he has also delivered a couple TED talks, including “How to get your ideas to spread”.
The Okanagan Regional Library has three copies of The Practice, Shipping Creative Work in circulation. The Practice, Shipping Creative Work can also be ordered from Fable Book Store for $35.50. A little expensive, but it provides a nice read that can be completed in a couple sittings extended over weeks, months, or even years with out losing its magic.
Published by Portfolio Nov. 2020