"The practice is the output."
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What do you want to practice?
Because that is the work (or so I'm starting to realize).
I've always gotten caught up in what is it going to be?
And in the beginning, it's nothing.
Then for a long time, it's not much.
It's easy to get lost in that and forget what you're doing and why.
I always find it helpful to start at the beginning.
And then I work out from there.
And when it gets to be too big I can either start at the beginning and skip over the sections I've already colored in, or I can start where I left off yesterday and keep going.
Every once in a while it helps to step back and look at the whole thing.
But the reality is, as much as we'd like to dictate otherwise, it's impossible to know what this will ultimately be.
And where is ultimate anyway? When will we know we've arrived?
I started rereading the beginning of Seth Godin's book, The Practice.
A few highlights from the first chapter:
Work, because it's not a hobby. You might not get paid for it, not today, but you approach it as a professional ... the work is why you are here.
Creativity is a choice ...
There's a practice available to each of us—the practice of embracing the process of creation in service of better. The practice is not the means to the output, the practice is the output, because the practice is all we can control.
(Emphasis mine.)
So what do you want to practice?
I want to practice being a writer, running a creative space, a place where we make things.
I want to practice writing about spirituality, creativity, self-expression, community, and contribution.
I want to read and learn and follow my curiosity and then write about it.
I want to keep learning about and improving at making a living doing things that inspire me and others.
Most days I don't know how to do any of those things, even though I've done them all before.
There's a point in the Masterclass series by Hans Zimmer, the film score composer, where he says something to the effect that he never knows if he can do it again.
I visited his website.
He's had:
12 Oscar nominations,
10 BAFTA nominations,
15 Golden Globe nominations, and
20 Grammy nominations.
He's worked 30+ years at his craft and done over 500 projects, and he still wonders if he can do it again.
That's the work of the artist, the creative.
Can we do it again?
Will it work this time?
Which is exactly where we get stuck and start second-guessing ourselves.
Seth wraps up the first chapter with this:
"Make things better. Without regard for whether it's going to work this time."
How can I try to make things better?
In what ways do I want things to be better?
And what can I do today that might move that vision forward?
That's the practice.