The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

by Seth Godin

Make things better. Without regard for whether it’s going to work this time.

The practice will take you where you seek to go better than any other path you can follow.

to sing.

Our lives follow a pattern. For most of us, that pattern was set a long time ago.

We were all brainwashed from a very early age

The important work, the work we really want to do, doesn’t come with a recipe. It follows a different pattern.

Creativity doesn’t repeat itself; it can’t. But the creative journey still follows a pattern. It’s a practice of growth and connection, of service and daring. It’s also a practice of selflessness and ego in an endless dance.

The Bhagavad-Gita says, “It is better to follow your own path, however imperfectly, than to follow someone else’s perfectly.”

Followers aren’t searching.

Let’s call it art. The human act of doing something that might not work, something generous, something that will make a difference. The emotional act of doing personal, self-directed work to make a change that we can be proud of.

The real question is: “Do I care enough to do it again?”

Art is something we get to do for other people.

the practice remains.

Skill is not the same as talent. A good process can lead to good outcomes, but it doesn’t guarantee them. Perfectionism has nothing to do with being perfect. Reassurance is futile. Hubris is the opposite of trust. Attitudes are skills. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. Professionals produce with intent. Creativity is an act of leadership. Leaders are imposters. All criticism is not the same. We become creative when we ship the work. Good taste is a skill. Passion is a choice.

Getting good at throwing.

The desire for outcome is deeply ingrained, and for some, this is the moment where they give up.

They simply can’t bear a process that willingly ignores the outcome. For those who persist, the process quickly gathers momentum.

For the important work, the instructions are always insufficient. For the work we’d like to do, the reward comes from the fact that there is no guarantee, that the path isn’t well lit, that we cannot possibly be sure it’s going to work. It’s about throwing, not catching. Starting, not finishing. Improving, not being perfect. No one learns to ride a bike from a manual. And no one learns to draw an owl that way either.

Being creative is a choice and creativity is contagious.

You can choose to find your voice, or you can continue to ignore it.

You were born ready to make art. But you’ve been brainwashed into believing that you can’t trust yourself enough to do so.

Marie Schacht points out that we can’t always do much about how we feel, particularly when it’s about something important. But we can always control our actions. Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today.

On the other hand, committing to an action can change how we feel. If we act as though we trust the process and do the work, then the feelings will follow. Waiting for a feeling is a luxury we don’t have time for.

If you want to change your story, change your actions first.

We become what we do.

If we condition ourselves to work without flow, it’s more likely to arrive.

We do the work, whether we feel like it or not, and then, without warning, flow can arise. Flow is a symptom of the work we’re doing, not the cause of it.

Sometimes, we opt for more instead of better. But better is better than more.

Lost in this obsession with outcome is the truth that outcomes are the results of process. Good processes, repeated over time, lead to good outcomes more often than lazy processes do.

Focusing solely on outcomes forces us to make choices that are banal, short-term, or selfish. It takes our focus away from the journey and encourages us to give up too early.

The practice of choosing creativity persists. It’s a commitment to a process, not simply th...

We do this work for a reason, but if we triangulate the work we do and focus only on the immediate outcome...

the most important boss whom each of us answers to is ourselves.

Start where you are. Start now. Find the pattern and care enough to do something about it.

Decisions are good even if the outcomes aren’t.

The practice has nothing at all to do with being sure the work is going to be successful.

When we embrace imposter syndrome instead of working to make it disappear, we choose the productive way forward. The imposter is proof that we’re innovating, leading, and creating.

Imogen Roy helps us understand that effective goals aren’t based on the end result: they are commitments to the process. That commitment is completely under your control, even if the end result can’t be. But the only way to have a commitment is to begin.

If you want to be a writer, then write.

It only takes a moment to begin. And once you begin, you are.

Drew’s not a genius. He just has more paper than us. How many cartoons would you need to have rejected before you gave up?

In this window of ten to thirteen years’ old, all of these kids decided they wanted to become musicians.”

It’s not important that the kids developed their musical skills when they were eleven. It’s important that they developed the habit of identity. When they looked in the mirror, they saw themselves as musicians, as artists, as people who had committed to a journey.

There’s nothing magic about being eleven years old. Except that it’s easier to develop an identity when you don’t have to walk away from one you’ve already developed. The practice doesn’t care when you decide to become an artist. What simply matters is that you decide. Whether or not your mom is involved in the decision.

Because creative people create.

“So far” and “not yet” are the foundation of every successful journey.

Trust is not self-confidence. Trust is a commitment to the practice,

Elizabeth King said, “Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions,”

Better to set aside judging yourself until after you’ve committed to the practice and done the work.

But the practice saves us. Because the practice can be trusted. And because in this moment it’s simply the best next step.