THE PRACTICE


Seth Godin (2020). The practice: Shipping creative work. 


Short 1-2 page segments that read like blog posts filled with inspiration and practical advice for anyone that wants to produce and ship creative art (any self-directed work that we feel called to do AND that serves some specific other). There are many examples of specific people that serve as models for how to do parts of the practice, and ample quotes to live by. The essence of the book from a pragmatic standpoint are summarized below.


The practice is self-directed (it may come from dreams, calling, passion, insights, visions...) AND the practice is rooted in service of someone in particular (not for everyone). 

We do our practice every day because it is who we are and what we commit ourselves to. 

The practice is a PROCESS that is under our control, but once we SHIP the ART (our product/service) and thereby put ourselves on the hook, we let go of the outcome, we live with the reality that we have no reassurance that our art will be received in the way we intended, that it will "succeed."

After we ship the art, we listen with empathy to our cohort and generous critics for their needs, and for feedback on how to make the art better. 

We repeat the process of creating art, not exactly the same way, but perhaps with the same rhyme. 

It doesn't matter if the work is good at first, we ship it anyway, get feedback, learn from it, and do it again and again. 

Eventually, we find our genre, our constraints, our cohort of followers, our story...we do all this with a generous spirit, with care, with creativity, with commitment, because it's who we are.



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