The Practice

1. It s Possible
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.

It s 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 pattern and once you see it, it s 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 we re willing to sign up for it. And the practice will open the door to the change you seek to make.

2. The Pattern and the Practice
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 we re willing to continue down the path they ve 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 you ll 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 that s 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 don t always get what was guaranteed. And the tasks you re asked to do just aren t as engaging as

Seth Godin is the author of 18 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work and have been translated into 38 languages - among them Unleashing the Ideavirus, Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Tribes, The Dip, Linchpin, Poke the Box, and All Marketers Are Liars. He writes the most popular marketing blog in the world and speaks to audiences around the world. He is the founder of the altMBA, the founder and former CEO of Squidoo.com, the former VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, and the founder of the pioneering online startup Yoyodyne. You can learn much more about him at sethgodin.com..

"This is the book I need right now. It s an extraordinary and electrifying call to action for writers, artists and creators in every walk of life. I re-read passages and felt as if my own secret creed was being explained back to me, in words I hadn t yet found."
--Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter
 
The Practice is a user s manual for finding your calling and an alchemist s handbook for pursuing your dream.
--Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art
 
Seth's book is a skeleton key specially molded to unlock the most creative version of you. Read it, and find yourself free to be who you know you really are.  
--Brian Koppelman, co-producer and co-creator of Billions 

"With surgical precision, The Practice attacks our predictable misconceptions about the creative process and replaces them with better ideas, one by one. This book will inspire you to make things, hone your craft, and nudge you to ship things you are proud of. Read it."
--Tobi Lutke, CEO, Shopify

The Practice explains that what looks like a barrier is often a catalyst in disguise. Magic may not come from what we can see on the stage but from behind it, where the wood chopping happens."
--Peter Gabriel, Musician