At the heart of the creative’s practice is trust: the difficult journey to trust your self, the often hidden self, the unique human each of us lives with.
-Seth Godin, The Practice
Shipping when it's hard
Originally published January 21, 2025
Seth wrote this whole freaking book about just sitting down to do it— to understanding WHY the practice is the Thing, and yet… It is so simple and yet not EASY at all!
My copy of The Practice, with its gazillion tabs and markers, that ask seem to yell at me, "DO something. WRITE something!"
Writing my dissertation made me realize that I want to be doing more writing, but I’m not very good at doing it without deadlines or someone over my shouldher. So here I am. Showing up. Trying to make this a habit.
And with a quote, an excerpt, at least I’m not just staring at a blank page, which is just TOO much to face. I have learned that at least about myself as a writer … I need a jumping-off point, a bungee if you will—something to tether me to SOMETHING.
So here I am, sharing my random musings, observations, in an effort to establish some kind of routine for myself. You, “dearest readers,” are here to keep me honest.
Again and again, the work falls into a pattern, often containing counterintuitive twists and turns. You can start where you are. You can see and be seen. You can listen and you can be heard. And you can do the work that you were born to do. (p. 21)
UGH. This is HARD. Which is exactly why not everybody does it, and why Seth and so many other people write books about it, because we all keep trying to find the book that will tell us how to do this without it being so hard…
But they all just keep saying the same damn thing! So apparently this is the work. Getting through the initial UGH part, especially. Most of them say it gets easier once you’ve established the routine…. But getting over the initial hump is the part that takes discipline (double UGH).
But it is TIME. I’m in the back nine now— time to lean into the “midlife unraveling” (thanks BB), cuz it’s now or never, and I’ve been through too much SHITE to spend the rest of this life miserable, poor, living. for everyone else, AND not contributing what I have to the world. I have places to go, things to see, LIFE to live, dammit! And that won’t happen if I stay stuck in the trenches—I gotta grasp the opportunity now while it’s presenting itself, to do something big and hairy.
Some people might think that the doctorate was that (big and hairy), which it was a little bit, but school for me is not scary really. Jumping out here with no guardrails—THAT is scary. And doing it in a new place—where I don’t have a whole network yet… but I’m working on that. I do have my peeps who help keep me accountable and give me new perspectives on my work, for whom I am incredibly grateful (you know who you are).